Ahh, but the fishing seems to have slowed up. Perhaps they have all departed for greener pastures or warmer waters. Do not fear, the fish are still here. The problem is they are not particularly interested in your tainted offerings when there is a surfeit of fresh food to be had.

There is a phenomenon that was fairly common years ago but lesser remarked upon in recent years that seems to have once again come to the fore.

We are all familiar with the spring passage of whales through the local area. We know that they are moving from their wintering grounds in the Caribbean where they have their babies up to the northern areas of the American continental shelf where the spring and summer bring about a huge bloom or plankton population explosion. Despite their huge proportions, whales dine on some of the smallest organisms in the ocean.

Now for a quick biology lesson. Sea water contains nutrients (mainly nitrogen compounds and phosphorus compounds but let's leave the chemistry out). There are also plant organisms that we call phytoplankton (lots of different kinds but this is not really material to the discussion).

As plants they need light; during the winter (our winter in the northern hemisphere) light is in short supply so when the spring comes along and days get longer there is more light. Also the water temperature rises and most biological processes benefit from warmer conditions (within reason, of course).

The phytoplankton uses the nutrients along with the light to grow and multiply. Other oceanographic conditions and the added nutrient input from rivers and off the land make for an abundant supply of nutrients which the phytoplankton make full use of and multiply to the point where they actually colour the water. A nice start to the food chain which goes all the way up to the great whales and gives them a reason for being there..

Just about everything has some natural enemies or predators and the phytoplankton are pretty much at the bottom of the pyramid. Other plankton (which basically means drifting) are animals; we call them zooplankton. They eat phytoplankton. Plenty of phytoplankton means plenty of food which supports zooplankton growth and multiplication.

Now to put things into perspective: we don't have great nutrients inputs here but we do get seasonal changes in light and temperature and the marine environment does respond in the same general fashion. What we do get here are species of Euphasid shrimp which make up some of our local zooplankton.

These are not the sort of shrimp that you associate with shrimp cocktail or tempura; they are tiny by any stretch of the imagination but they can occur in vast clouds usually at depth rather than near the ocean's surface. As a result we don't often see any evidence of their presence.

Their cryptic behaviour, however, does not go unnoticed by fish which take advantage of this bonanza of fresh crustacean delights. Initially it is the smaller fish that take advantage of the smorgasbord, but this quickly translates into larger predators dining on the smaller bait species.

And that pretty much summarises the present situation. There is way too much food too easily available to fish for them to have to wait for you to troll your baits by. Even chumming is supplying more food to fish that have already been satiated by naturally-occurring prey.

An illustration of this point is easily found in just about any mackerel or small tuna that you do catch. A quick inspection of the gut contents will reveal quantities of the orange-red shrimp-like organisms that they have been feeding on.

Now the good news is that while there is plenty of such bait around, more mackerel and so on will stay in the area and they, in turn, will attract the larger predators like wahoo and tuna and ultimately marlin.

The bad news is that it will take a while for the fish to start focusing on what we need them to focus on in order to catch them. That will take a little while but we will benefit from the situation attracting more and more predators into the area.

So, what to do? Traditional trolling will continue to snag a few wahoo and maybe the odd tuna but you can shift the odds a bit in your favour by carrying red and red and white combinations in your spread. Shrimp are reddish and fish aren't too discriminating beyond colour. In the old days red and white Japanese feathers (that's a term that hasn't been heard in a while!) were pretty much de rigueur and they got results.

The bottom line is that there are plenty of fish out there and sooner or later the quantity of bait will reduce to the point that they start hunting other species, bringing out the real predator in them. Add to that the ever-warming water and the patterns of migration of many species and it will soon be the normal offshore fishing season that we have come to expect.

Although less numerous than they have been, wahoo continue to please with the most noticeable thing being the variety in size. Two or three weeks ago, fish in the 30-40 pound bracket were pretty much the norm; now there are still some nice fish around but an increasing proportion of fish in the 10 -15 pound range. When things like this happen sometimes it pays of experiment a bit. Try using smaller ballyhoo (the dozen in a pack size) along with rigging them with smaller hooks. Even a 6 or 7/0 hook is strong enough to catch a big fish but it is small enough to conceal in a smaller bait that may be more suited to smaller fish. While a large bait might deter smaller predators, remember that elephants eat peanuts and a large wahoo or tuna would not think twice about chomping down on a six inch garfish.

All other complaining aside, there are other fish to be caught. Even if the trolling won't pay off chumming on top of the banks is reasonably productive with numbers of Almaco jacks (bonitas or horse-eye bonitas to us) rewarding anglers. Their size is not particular large but there have been reports of boats getting as many as 40 bonitas in the three to five pound category. A good sport fish on suitable tackle and, once caught, eminently suitable for the galley.

Looking ahead: this weekend sees the Bermuda Anglers Club holding one of their fun tournaments and the Blue Waters Anglers Club will fish their Chairman v. Bar Chairman tournament (first round).

While those events provide nice distractions for some, there is the more pressing matter of getting the boat into ship-shape fashion.

Next weekend is the May 24 holiday weekend and there will be severe emphasis on being able to partake of summer traditions including rafting up and partying and picnicking. The boat has to be ready for this, if for no other reason. With domestic bliss at risk for some, this is probably a good weekend to get some work done and to forgo any Tight lines!!!