Try explaining this one. After a fair beginning to the autumnal wahoo run and the passage of Hurricane Igor, everything has gone exceedingly quiet. Not just for wahoo but for all the species that normally please well into November and even December.

Oh, it is possible to pick up a few wahoo and; happily, there have been a few dolphin around, but, for the most part, it is hardly worth making the effort. That is unheard of with the late season often proving to be among the most productive times of the year.

In plenty of years gone past, October has seen boats racking up wahoo hauls in the double figures, even to the point of glutting the market and forcing a drop in price. Never much of a drop in this strange economy that does not obey the rules of supply and demand but some years have seen so many wahoo caught that freezer space was at a premium and it made more sense to lower the price a bit to avoid long term storage costs.

Not that anyone has that problem this year. Granted that at this time of the year most of the amateurs are looking to put their boats into mothballs or to have them hauled and secured in backyards, this year seems to be a bit ahead of itself. Igor had a lot of boaters deciding that it was time to have the boat hauled up and put on blocks. This done, it sort of made sense for most of them to stay up on blocks. Why go to the trouble, not to mention the expense, of putting it back over for just a few weeks before taking it up for the winter. That alone has accounted for a large portion of the reduction in fishing effort. Boats that aren't overboard don't ever go fishing.

The question which remains unanswered is why isn't the fishing better? Often the solution lies in an absence of bait but not this time. There are still juvenile mackerel out there and if those don't attract predators, there isn't too much else that will. It is not as if the water is suddenly so cold that the semi-tropical/tropical species have all departed for more equatorial climes. There has been no great pollution incident like the Gulf oil spill to account for the lack of fish. So what is left in the way of explanation?

Overfishing always comes to mind but that is not likely to suddenly manifest itself.

While we are all pretty much aware that the world's tunas and billfish are under great pressure, they are still being caught in huge numbers throughout their range.

Therefore they are not here because there aren't any left. That leaves two other plausible explanations: one that the migratory paths have altered just enough to take the fish far enough away from Bermuda so that the local fleet does not encounter them; or, less likely, the fish are here but are simply not biting.

The latter might hold true during the summer months when spawning could be a distraction from feeding but the shoulder season which usually involves migration generally calls for the consumption of food.

We can speculate all we want but the bottom line is that the pelagic species with which are so frequently endowed are not here in any sort of numbers, leaving little incentive to head offshore. So we must consider the alternatives.

The obvious one is bottom-bouncing. The best place for this is on the Banks and as conventional wisdom has it before Christmas stick to Challenger and after head to Argus.

This actually had little to do with the fish (and there were plenty back in those days!) but was a product of the weather pattern. In the autumn, up until December or January, the sudden onset of gales was unpredictable and when boats relied largely on sails for locomotion a sudden change in the weather could spell disaster.

At least Challenger Bank left you in sight of land and it was a reasonable distance to try and negotiate at the first sign of a shift in the weather.

There are those who would argue that Argus is now the better bet but, face it, both Banks have been worked over pretty well and it really is a bit of a miracle that there are any fish left on either of them.

Save the "floating fish" which have more pelagic periods in their life histories, it is amazing that there are any hinds, coneys or groupers of any description still living on the Banks.

Anyone who thinks differently may want to view some of the video shot from submersibles that have covered the tops of the Banks.

The amount of bottom that is conducive to fish is relatively small and the question has to arise as to just how many fish can that environment hold. Considering the numbers that have been hauled off just over the last half century or so, there must have been a lot but the signs are starting to show.

Red hinds, once frowned upon, are now way less common than they used to be and large ones are even less likely. A day's drifting will produce some hinds and coneys remain fairly numerous but most bottom fishermen are hoping to make the weight up with ambers, bonitas and gwelly.

There are a few tricks that commercial fishermen use that generally have them catching more than the average amateur but then again, the needs of the amateur are less. With decent drifting conditions, it should be possible to catch enough fish to justify the time and fuel expended. The real drawback is that if it is sport that is the real object of the exercise then bottom fishing is unlikely to provide this element.

A large amberjack could provide this but not if it is caught on the unsporting tackle that does so well when working the bottom. An alternative might be to concentrate on chumming over the bottom areas of the Banks, hoping to bring a trophy fish into the slick but this requires patience and a lot of bait with a very real chance of a minimal return. If the big amber doesn't show up you are likely to wind up with a bucket full of robins and little else.

That doesn't exactly make for a quality fish dinner the way a selection of coney fillets would, but it might pave the way for some sport fishing excitement if everything happens to go right.

Some things to think about. The days are growing markedly shorter and the weather is starting to show signs of slipping into the wintry pattern that allows for a few hours of fishing every three or four days.

Whether or not you are in a position to take advantage of such depends on a number of factors most of which cannot be moulded to suit. As a result, most of us will have to sit back and enjoy some vicarious Tight lines!!!