THE passage of cold fronts and north Atlantic depressions through the local area has kept angling to a minimum. Weekenders have pretty much given up on planning any expeditions afloat the briny, content to wait for the halcyon days of spring or early summer. A few die-hards make a point of looking at the weekend forecasts but, in most cases, they too have been disappointed. In fact, even the commercial fleet has been doing little in the way of fishing and, so, there simply has not been too much of note to report.

There has been very little trolling although there is every reason to believe that there are a few wahoo out there that might be willing to please.

Drifting over the Banks and working the bottom has been the technique of choice. It is economical in terms of fuel consumption and is a method likely to catch those species most easily marketed at the best possible process.

Recent forays to Argus Bank in particular have included catches that consisted of coneys, hinds, the occasional bonita or amberjack. There are a few gwelly around but the real news is the presence of numbers of rudderfish.

Rudderfish, you might well ask. That makes them sound pretty interesting and maybe even desirable. Sad to say that this is merely another name for the Bermuda chub.

Some years ago, there was a population explosion of chub with the result that chumming on the Edge or inner bottom was nothing short of a nightmare as the chub would eat all the chum and keep it from getting to the more preferred species. There is some indication that this might be happening again.

Although chubs are edible there is little to recommend them and the larger specimens produce fillets that most people frown upon. Fillets off smaller specimens are near enough acceptable but the problem is that most of the chubs around are of the large variety and there is something disappointing about having a suspected bonita reveal itself to be a 12-pound chub instead. Plenty of pull but not much else.

Chumming for tuna or other species may work but the problem is the changeable weather makes it hard to get a good tide. Although blackfin tuna really prefer the warmer water of the high summer, there will be a few of these around and, in recent years, the yellowfin or Allison has stayed offshore throughout the winter months.

It may come as a surprise to many that there is at least one species of tuna that occurs in great numbers in Bermuda waters but which is seldom encountered, at least not in their natural form. Each year a very few are taken. This can partly be attributed to misidentification but the real reasons are the types of gear in use and the seasonality of most fishing around the Island.

Although hardly anyone locally sees them in their natural form just about everybody has first-hand experience of them and even commercial fishermen have been known to buy rather than catch these fish.

The species in question is the albacore, better known to some as "chicken of the sea", the long-finned tuna and it sports a number of other monikers. When you buy that tin of "white meat" tuna in the supermarket, you are buying albacore.

One of the smaller tunas, the albacore tops out at something less than a hundred pounds with most of the line class records in the 50 to 80-pound range.

While it should be readily identified by the sheer length of its pectoral fins (the ones that start at the gills and run down the flanks of the fish), it also boasts that regular chunky tuna shape and carries a bit of colour on its second dorsal and anal fins, so that a casual look could have it mistaken for a blackfin or yellowfin. Actually, more mistakes are made with big-eye tuna but they do not seem to occur here in any sort of quantity. The albacore sure do though! They travel over a wide range of the world, wending their way through both tropical and temperate waters. They are caught in good numbers in most of the world's oceans including the Mediterranean Sea. Hot spots that spring to mind include the Bay of Biscay, the waters off California and in various places in the Pacific. As a result, world records come from just about everywhere as well.

Incredibly valuable for the international tuna canning industry, entire fleets of boats go in search of this species. Methods of capture include purse seining. This involves the use of a specially designed vessel and uses really huge nets that capture tons (literally) of fish at a time. In fact, whole schools can be scooped up at one time.

Other commercial fishing methods include pole and line fishing and longlining. It is the latter that the fish in local waters attracted international attention. Back about 20 years or so when the government first started to license foreign fishing vessels to fish in the then Exclusive Fishing Zone around the Island, it was the Taiwanese-flagged longliners that took advantage of the fact.

The target of these vessels was almost wholly albacore, even though, like most longliners, they would keep just about anything that they caught. And find it they did. The best months were from November through February and these boats would be stacking albacore like cordwood in their freezer holds. The average fish taken in local waters was of good size with many fish weighing over 40 pounds.

It was learned that the longliners followed temperature contours to locate the fish. The prime areas consisted of water at 61?F (16?C), which, in winter, is actually just below the surface around the Bermuda Islands. This made longlining exceedingly suitable for harvesting this bounty.

Experimental fishing around the Island produced albacore on pretty regular basis and it is probably safe to assume that they are here year round with the best numbers occurring during the winter months. With locals tending to stay home at such times, and with little alternative effort, the chances of encountering an albacore are greatly reduced.

As the winter tightens its grip, the nearest most local anglers will come to fishing is by watching the outdoors programmes on television or planning a trip south to the Miami Boat Show. At least at the latter, in addition to a selection of boats to die for, there is a section given over to sport fishing community. One can rest assured that the average conversation will be heavily slanted toward some Tight lines!!!