The merry month of May marches on and with it the fishing season. Seemingly out of nowhere flotillas of boats have started appearing on the Banks and along the other preferred drop-offs as the fishing picks up and, slowly but surely, the weekend warriors go to battle.

Perhaps not so surprisingly, given that procrastination can have a serious knock-on effect, the Bermuda Fishing Clubs Annual Tournament never actually got off the ground at the weekend. Although one of the clubs was ready willing and able, another one had reportedly had trouble obtaining boats and so asked for a postponement. This was acceded to and the event will now be fished on the 30th May.

Sometimes later can be better and although the fishing is pretty good at the moment, the real target species for light tackle tournaments is the yellowfin tuna. While there are some tuna present on the Banks and elsewhere, so far the focus has been on wahoo and trolling has been the modus operandi of choice. Yellowfin tuna will, on occasion, take trolled offerings but it is chumming that usually scores big with tuna and, so far, there had been very little of that sort of effort.

No large schools have been sighted but there has been enough tuna activity observed to suggest that a bit of concerted effort might well pay off with the Allisons putting in an appearance and providing the angler with entertainment. As the month progresses, the water will continue to warm up and the average size of the tuna tends to increase so that by month's end, the fish that really score big in the tournaments should be commonplace. Similarly, the blackfin tuna, always a worthy opponent, tends to be more numerous and they help anglers rack up points.

The wahoo fishing has been consistent with rather a lot of variety in the size of the fish being caught. The good news has been that there have been sufficient numbers to pretty much ensure that a day's effort results in enough fish to cover costs and provide a profit for commercial fishermen. The fish range from "lizards" in the 'teens to trophy versions weighing in at as much as seventy pounds. Hook one of the latter on light tackle and you will have your hands full!

It is fishing in the time-honoured regular fashion with rigged baits and artificials and combinations thereof paying off. The greatest likelihood of a strike is to be that of a wahoo but there have been a few tuna as well as other surprises.

One of the surprises is white marlin. This species is never really numerous in local waters; at least not when compared to hotspots like La Guaira, Venezuela or the United States East Coast during August and September.

In recent years they have figured somewhat more prominently that they have historically in the July billfish tournaments and the reason for that remains open to conjecture.

What is known, however, is that they do often run in and among the schools of wahoo that show up in the spring and that is pretty much now. And they are here now. Capt. Donny Boys released a white earlier in the week that took a deep troll as part of a multiple strike that saw a large wahoo take a surface bait. During the summer months when all the marlin lures are splashing along the surface, whites behave just like blues, coming up and crashing such rigs. When the fishing concentrates on using baits and fishing them deeper, marlin just aren't part of the overall mindset so when a rod keels over and wahoo are expected, it can come as a major surprise to see the fish hurtle skyward.

White marlin are a great light tackle species but simply don't attain the weight to warrant the use of heavy tackle. An absolutely huge white would be in the neighbourhood of 180 pounds but such are extremely uncommon. Most of the whites encountered by sportsmen in this part of the world weigh between 40 and 60 pounds, making the likes of 50-lb test a bit on the heavy side.

White marlin is a species that is confined to the Atlantic, both north and south with the latter receiving a lot less attention from sportsmen. The current all-tackle world record was set off Brazil and there are probably a fair number of big whites down there but the overall amount of fishing effort is miniscule compared with the American east coast even though that is largely seasonal. They also occur in the eastern Atlantic around places like the Azores, Canaries and the coast of Morocco. There have also been isolated incidents of the species turning up in the Mediterranean although these are probably fish that have lost their way.

In any event, enough turn up here to make life interesting and now is a great time to tempt fate while wahoo trolling by carrying at least one really brightly coloured rig. Whites like bright with hot pink being choice. Day glow green-yellow also gets their attention and while the wahoo may shy away from such gaudy ostentation just a single one will increase the chances of attracting a white to your spread.

In terms of international events, Bobby Rego and Danny Fox are travelling to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico where they will take part in the IGFA Offshore World Championship. They will be joined by Buddy Sowers and John Dominic for this team event. This event is considered international fishing's most prestigious billfish tournament and it hosts winning teams from countries on six continents who have been invited after winning one of over 120 qualifying events held during 2009. It is also the largest contingent of international teams to compete in a single catch-and-release fishing tournament worldwide.

This particular event concentrates on striped marlin, an Indo-Pacific species that is closely related to the white marlin. It does grow considerably larger than its Atlantic counterpart and is a great game fish in its own right. At this time of the year in Cabo, live baiting is pretty much the norm and it is around this fishing that the tournament is based. There are categories for other species as well but billfish are the name of the game. Present conditions at Cabo are not too encouraging with high winds dominating and a reported relative shortage of stripers, but that can all change so best of luck to Bobby and company.

While they are away, the rest of us should have some golden opportunities to indulge in early season trolling which sees a combination of good conditions with fast action that is just about any angler could ever want. Tight lines!!!