THE absolutely gorgeous weekend lured out some of the seasonal anglers who decided that enough was enough and such good weather simply could not be ignored. Thus it was that there were plenty of boats working their way around the Banks with varying rates of success.One should not be misled, though. Winter is likely to make a couple of last-ditch attempts to persuade us that it won’t be fishing season for a while. Usually, there has been a tendency for winter to return with a vengeance. At the moment though, the weather in North America also helps to give us hope that winter is just about over. Sometimes an icy blast can appear out of nowhere as late as mid-April but one must suspect that this will not be the case this year. There are just too many signs of spring.

Offshore, there are seemingly countless humpback whales cavorting. There are plenty of longtails hunting their food over the deep blue sea with more arriving every day. The inshore water temperature is showing an upward trend and some of the sunny days can be quite warm — just try getting into a car that has been parked for a few hours.

The weekend saw a few boats catch good hauls and while some amateurs had to settle for a run up over the reefs for a bit of bottom fishing, there was enough evidence of success to justify planning a further excursion in the not so distant future. Certainly, there were a few wahoo caught and this could be the beginning of something big.

While many people are under the impression that the spring wahoo run starts with a bang, the fact of the matter is that they are making a mistake. At its height, it is pretty much the case that the fish are concentrated in one area with the entire fleet making inroads into the population. Actually, it could be argued that the run is underway at present. Several boats have posted double figures and while this is no means any guarantee of good results, there is definitely some justification for putting in some trolling time.

Many boats concentrate on heading straight over to the Banks and this often means that you are going past fish to look for fish. History shows that Bermuda’s Edge is one of the more productive areas for spring wahoo and its proximity means that you can either spend a good deal of time working a spot or spend that time covering a lot of ground.

The wahoo that are pleasing all seem to be of a respectable size with a few substantially larger fish being caught. The norm appears to be in the vicinity of 30 or so pounds and there are stories of some fish better than 70 pounds. As far as wahoo go, anything over 50 pounds is a big fish and the odd fish that clears the hundred-pound mark is nothing short of exceptional.

There are also quite a few Allisons around. Chumming has seen some nice fish put in an appearance and, once the tides settle down, things should improve markedly. What we really need is a few days of relative calm and a lack of fronts going through as these come from different directions and cause the seas to move every which way. This could happen any day now.

As many have deduced, it seems like an early spring with the fishy signs of summer not too far behind. Things certainly sprung ahead earlier this week when angler James Caison hooked into a blue marlin while fishing on Challenger Bank. Such a strike was not expected and the fish was eventually boated, having had a run-in with the boat’s propeller. Although it wasn’t weighed it looked to be in the 325-pound bracket and has assured the captors of a supply of some top class chum. One would like to think that this augurs well for a bumper billfish.

Once one billfish has shown up, anglers will start keeping an eye out for marlin and usually at least one of the trolled rigs will be something calculated to get a big fish’s attention. Although it is a little unusual for blue marlin action so early in the not yet started 2007 season, this is not unheard of. Blues have been caught in every month of the year and there has been at least one seasoned skipper who made a point of going looking for them in February and March. He met with quite a bit of success even though that was a time when Bermuda interest in billfish was pretty low.

Basically blue marlin can rove wherever they want throughout the ocean and there seems to be some correlation with water temperature, with blues preferring tropical conditions. They are also pretty serious when it comes to food and the presence of tuna is probably enough to keep them close by.

On that note, the recent flare of yellowfin activity around the Island will probably give any travelling marlin a reason to stop and hang around the area. As the season progresses, they will become more and more numerous until a month or so’s concerted effort starts to put them off. Once a fish has been hooked, they seem to head for greener pastures, as it were — at least, far away from wherever the hooking incident took place.

Now is a good time to take advantage of the areas that will soon be seasonally protected. For the next few weeks southwest Edge is accessible to fishermen and this piece of bottom is exceptionally productive. There are lots of bottom fish and it should be possible to get some live baits that might well entice large bonitas or ambers if they are fished down deep. The water is still cool enough to discourage sharks or barracuda from taking such baits. As mentioned previously, there are some nice wahoo around and never believe that they won’t come into 16 fathoms if they sense a bait in trouble. At the very least, you should be able to manage a few fillets for next week.

Looking ahead, the first full weekend in April is a bit of a mixed blessing. While it will be a long holiday weekend, it is also not likely to allow the sportsmen to do much fishing. Good Friday is never a fishing day and most anglers find familial duties keep them home on Easter. Once that is all out of the way, though, look for the weather to continue to moderate, more migratory fish to arrive and plenty of opportunities for Tight lines!!!