Well, the weather certainly isn't helping the weekender and the year's sport fishing is rapidly drawing to a close. Part of the problem is that the sportsman is limited to which days he or she is free to fish. Add in the increasing pressures arising from the season which is nearly upon us and angling pretty much takes a back seat to most things.

Those fortunate enough to be able to pick their days and to actually go fishing will find that there are some wahoo out there that are willing to please. Numbers aren't great but it is possible to catch enough to justify the effort. There are still some tuna around even though they have never really been plentiful this year. It is funny how that happens sometimes. And there are always the bottom species and some "floating fish" to provide a distraction. This is also the time of year when unexpected catches can be made, not that many of these are noticed.

These oddities are something that turn up more frequently than most anglers think. The problem seems to be that most of them go unnoticed and/or unreported. Occasionally they surface years later in tall tales of the weird things that have happened or in stories of the "I never told anyone because I knew that they would not believe me" ilk.

For a start, sailfish are actually reasonably common here. Not like they are caught every day but there are a few each year. Some get away and turn into wahoo that jumped or white marlin that spat the hook. Most of the blue water pros have had at least one run in with this normally coastal waters fish. What they are doing out here in the middle of nowhere is anyone's guess but they do enjoy a wide geographic range and can turn up pretty much anywhere. This is best exemplified by the numbers that turn up in the Caribbean where marlin fishermen often encounter them.

Just about every angler is familiar with the yellowfin and blackfin tunas that are the regularly encountered tuna species aside from the oceanic bonito (skipjack tuna) and the ubiquitous mackerel (actually Atlantic black skipjack or little tunny – fish names can be so much fun!). Giant bluefin tuna also have their place in the annals of Bermuda fishing. Old guide books regularly report them as an available game species and whole cases of mistaken identiy doubtless contributed to the belief, there is plenty of hard evidence to support those claims. The problem is that since the 1950s that species has been under such intense fishing pressure that their numbers have dwindled significantly throughout their range, so that they are only occasionally seen here. What most anglers don't realise is that, in addition to the bluefin, bigeye tuna also occur here and when caught they are usually misidentified as Allisons or yellowfin. On odd occasions an observant angler will see something vaguely different about the fish but once it has been filleted or steaked, the thought is quickly consigned to vague memory.

Then there are the tales of wahoo with funny looking mouths. These are generally attributed to them having chewed on a deep troll ball on several occasions. For those who harbour doubts, just take a close look at a deep troll ball used by a successful fisherman. The tell-tale serrations made by wahoo chompers will be evident. But do they rework the wahoo's jaws for its efforts? No, what people don't notice is the subtley different dorsal fin (who ever sees a wahoo's dorsal anyway, since it slides nicely into a slot on the fish's back) that is characteristic of the species in question. What we are actually dealing with is a king fish or king mackerel. Now, to really confuse things: in Barbados and elsewhere in the Caribbean where they actually do catch king fish, they use the term to refer to wahoo. If that isn't nasty enough, one of the names in the old days for the wahoo was "queen fish". Small wonder half of fish scientists suffer from a touch of dementia.

Last week the African pompano was the topic, this week we can focus on another inshore jack type fish. Much coveted by fly fishermen, the permit is arguably the king of the flats from Florida through the Bahamas down to Venezuela. As juveniles they do resemble a pompano (which is actually a palometa) but lack the black colourations. They grow substantially larger and, yes, they do live here as well. In fact, natural historians are well aware of a very large permit (in the 50-lb bracket) being netted along with other fish down near Shelly Bay. The Aquarium at Flatts had a permit as an inmate in the pompano tank for many years with most casual observers never noticing the differences that set it apart from the rest of the school. So, with both adults and juveniles having been recognised and recorded there is every reason to suspect that there are a few others around.

Although most anglers are quite happy with fishing magazine accounts of tactics, techniques and general fishy knowledge, most would run a mile to avoid a scientific paper on a fishy subject. While this holds true for most of us, there is another organisation that is worth looking at. As with everything these days it is accessible via the internet. In this instance it is www.gcfi.org. Its proper name is the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute.

Although it is a scientific organisation, it welcomes input from all sorts of people from established gurus in the field to students, boat builders and even fishermen. Not surprisingly, quite a few Bermudian scientists and naturalists have had their input into the rather wide-ranging interests of the organisation. On the website, many of the "proceedings", which are the papers (articles) presented at their meetings are available for reading free of charge. Obviously, some of these are written in something approaching ancient Greek to most people but there are quite a few that would not be out of place in one of the sport fishing magazines.

These do not necessarily concentrate on the marlin and tuna that are the preserve of the big-time game fisherman; jacks, reef fish like snappers and grouper species and the coral reef itself are all topics that are covered and some really make quite interesting reading even for the layman. Inasmuch as most of us are unlikely to be doing much fishing over the next few months and boasting internet access, this offers a worthwhile alternative to wishing and dreaming about Tight lines!!!