All hail the start of the 2010 sports fishing season!

May 1 conjures up lots of thoughts depending on culture and experience: a maypole, a parade of military might, Labour Day and, for many of us, the recognised start to the summer angling season.

Why May 1?

By design and with plenty of support from the forerunner of the Department of Tourism, the late S.L. (Pete) Perinchief pretty much cast the angling season in stone as May 1 to November 30. The start was punctuated by a major tournament on the first Sunday in May that involved a parade of vessels out of Hamilton Harbour through Two Rock Passage from which point the boats departed at speed (such as that was back in those days) to their preferred fishing grounds.

As boats became more powerful and the charter industry started to lose interest in an event that extended their day and costs with little reward, the parade gradually died out although the tournament did not. For a while, this was known as the Louis Mowbray Memorial Tournament and then even that fell by the wayside. The modern version of the start to the season has involved various tournaments over the years and this year it is the Bermuda Fishing Clubs Annual Tournament (BFCAT) and the Sandys Boat Club Tournament that claim pole position tomorrow.

The BFCAT is organised by the locally IGFA-affiliated angling clubs and is a team tournament with participation limited to club membership. Actually it is unlike most other tournaments in that the teams of anglers (each club is limited to a maximum of three teams) accrue points in an aggregate manner. All the fish caught by team members on the various line classes are combined so that the club with the most points in that category wins it. Because of this, it is sometimes a collection of more smaller fish that wins over a numerically less catch of larger fish. There are countless variations on the theme. Some clubs concentrate on just one or two line classes; others come in with a nice array of fish but are unable to collect enough points in any single line class to win any category. The overall high point fish is recognised but beyond this, the completion is the only one of its kind locally.

The Sandys Boat Club Tournament is a more traditional type event with individuals looking to catch the largest fish on each of the recognised line tests. People looking to make late entries might have some success by contacting the club directly.

Although not necessarily a given, the present weather forecast would suggest that both tournaments will go ahead, at least in terms of sea conditions. Each organising body has made arrangements for a "go, no go" decision and both tournaments have the May 30 as their alternates.

Now to the most important part of any tournament and the key to sports fishing: the fish.

After a relative dearth of activity, things sparked to life around the middle of last week. Not surprisingly, this breathed new life into the scene and boats that had hitherto stayed on the inner bottom or on the moorings were suddenly spotted heading offshore.

The initial burst of action was on Challenger Bank and one of the first boats to take advantage of what must be the spring wahoo run was Capt. Brooks Rans' Mattanza which bagged 11 wahoo and a halfway respectable yellowfin tuna. This was also the situation with a number of commercial boats that got into double figures with wahoo and also had some tuna action.

What is really significant is that the numbers of wahoo are very encouraging and their average size is probably close to 40 pounds which is really nice and the mere presence of yellowfins in trolling hauls means that there are probably plenty more to be had by chumming.

The tournaments will test out the theory that the yellowfin are present and willing to please because they tend to favour the use of light tackle to try and maximise point scoring. Commercial trollers are, of course, more interested in fish in the boat than they are in how they get them in. A subtle difference between angling and fishing that is becoming all too indistinct in this age of rising prices and the desire to get something for the galley.

Inshore there are signs that there are mackerel (little tunny) around and this suggests that they are present in good numbers offshore as well. While may be not the juveniles that we call "frigate" mackerel, there may well be some that are of a size where live baiting may be a possibility.

A technique from the old days has a live mackerel trolled in the centre of the wake, up close to the transom; with a rubber band tying the line to the butt of the rod just below the reel. This was to keep the live mackerel, which may not have been small, in the water and close to the boat. Perhaps, surprisingly, the bait often elicited wild strikes from large wahoo that would skyrocket into the air on the strike, exploding back into the water and stripping off lien at a great rate of knots. The modern take on this time-honoured trick is to use a curved butt rod to lower the trolling angle. Back in the day, butts were all straight and just about all were made of wood which led to all sorts of interesting situations. In any case, there is no reason why the method should not pay off, at least some of the time.

Of course, with the water warming up and the season relentlessly progressing, a live mackerel up close could get the attention of something else. Something rather larger and more formidable that the wahoo that the angler has in mind. There are probably some blue marlin around and while they are not numerous just yet, they could put a serious bend into a rod meant for something more routine.

Another thing to watch out for is having a wahoo strike, run out a lot of line and then for everything to slacken up suddenly. There will often be weight on the line and, upon retrieval, a stripped head or head and shoulders comes back. This means that there is a mako in the vicinity. They often show up with the early wahoo run and can make a nuisance of themselves. Any incident of this nature should be dealt with carefully because makos will follow the wrecked fish back to the boat and they have been known to come right out of the water in pursuit of the remains. Given the possible large size of the culprit this could make for a dangerous situation. So be warned, while it is not a frequent occurrence, it has been known to happen, even here.

The amateur looking for a good day out should focus on trolling and covering as much water as possible until a concentration of fish is found. When the wahoo run is on the fish tend to be in schools and, very often, what one does the others will do almost simultaneously. Hence, it is a good idea to keep the boat moving forward at speed for a few seconds after a strike. Very often such an action will result in multiple strikes as the fish compete with each other for the offerings in your spread. That can lead to all sorts of highly desirable Tight lines!!!