SEA conditions and the weather generally have combined to make fishing pretty minimal this past week or so. This is unfortunate as it followed on a period of promise when there were indications that some great things might be in the offing.

As it transpired, very little fishing was done by anyone and just about everyone stayed close to home. The general view was that unless there was a weather window of two or more days it just isn't worth making the run.

There is some sense to this, after all, it does take a day or two for the currents to settle down and for some sort of pattern to be established. Even after the winds and seas themselves drop, there continues to be a mass movement of water off the platform and Banks. Although not necessarily discernible to the human eye, these currents do affect the fish. And anything that affects the fish affects the fishing.

Expect the wahoo action to continue to be spotty even though there may well be pockets where good action will be had for a brief period. It will remain to be seen whether or not the tuna will remain on the Banks. The addition of some bait would increase this likelihood and the easterlies that bring in the seaweed might actually be of assistance in this respect. And who knows, maybe a few dolphin will come along with the weed. They'll be a bit chilly but nonetheless a desirable addition to the species on the offshore grounds.

Fishing in the channels and in between the "stones" is actually proving to be rather productive. No great sport but certainly enough to make for a few pleasant hours. The turbots are particularly agreeable and some of these are running to a reasonable size. The bream (call them what you will, but they do make a nice white fillet) are also about in good numbers and these can often be caught off docks and jetties. The occasional sailor's choice will also bite and, again, once filleted, has something to recommend it.

Accepting the fact that Old Man Winter (no insult intended, Keith) has pretty much put the kibosh on the wanderings of the weekend warriors and that diversions such as the Miami Boat Show have drawn the attentions of those who might otherwise indulge themselves in piscatorial pursuits, let us turn to the vagaries of language with respect to this sport.

First off, when is a fisherman an angler? Now, herein lies a personal bugbear that gets the ire up when the press and electronic media refer to fishermen who have gone amongst the missing. Nine times out of ten, it is not a fisherman who is lost but someone who went fishing. In the strictest sense, one who fishes for sport is an angler. One who fishes for a living is a fisherman or, better stated, a commercial fisherman. Thus the recreational fisherman who goes fishing is precisely that, a recreational fisherman or, in other words, an angler. And to be really politically correct, the proper term is not fisherman but the neuter variant, "fisher".

What do you call that little fish that you put on hook when fishing for robins? A fry, you say. Hmm. Fry can also refer to hatchling fish or juveniles. Hence the expression "small fry". But is it just one fry? What do you call a whole bag of such bait? A bag of fry is what most of us would say. Certainly, none of us would say a bag of fries, unless we were referring to fried potatoes. And, what about a whole bed of fry? It is a mite confusing, you know.

As for fish; well, when is it fishes? That all depends on what we are talking about. If I have a tuna and two anchovies I have three fishes. If I just have the two anchovies, then I have two fish. When talking about the three blue marlin that I caught yesterday (I wish), I say that I caught three fish. If, on the other hand, one of the marlin that I caught turned out to be a white, well then, I caught three fishes. See the pattern?

When only one species is involved, then the singular is fish and the plural is fish. When more than one species is involved, the plural becomes "fishes". Thus, ten tuna are ten fish unless there is a blackfin amongst the Allisons, in which case, there are ten fishes.

Of course, usage has a lot to do with things. When asked how he made out today, many a skipper will say that he got half a dozen tunas, even if they were all yellowfin tuna. To be correct, he should say "half a dozen tuna", but old habits die hard. Note the little slip a couple of lines back where it mentions Allisons - non-existent plural because we are talking about the Allison or yellowfin tuna as a single species. How about the quaint Bermudian habit of boasting about the 14 wahoos I got yesterday. A wahoo is a wahoo is a wahoo.

This quirky nature of English language conventions on such terminology drives the spell/grammar checks on your computer absolutely nuts. "Number agreement?" is an almost constant message when checking something like this column.

Tuna summon up a whole other quirk of their own. How often do people, including those of us who should know better, refer to "tunafish", as in a tunafish sandwich? If we opened a tin of salmon and made sandwiches, would we offer you a salmonfish sandwich or salmonfish salad? There are lots of other strange anomalies in "fishspeak" but that's all for now.

Tight lines!!!