FINALLY winter is starting to express itself. This week saw the first passage of a major cold front that dumped snow in the mid-west, caused ice storms and power outages in North America and brought us blustery winds and rainy, cooler conditions.

About time!

The big complaint from fishermen has not been so much the lack of fish but of the masses of seaweed that make fishing difficult. Forget the outriggers; anything trolled from them isn't going to go more than a minute or so before snagging a bunch of weed. While there is almost always a bit around, the last few weeks have seen a steady influx and some of the patches have been huge. The winds and tides often combine to bring the stuff inshore and just now there is no shortage of it. Years ago this was a welcome sight because farmers collected carts full of it to use as fertiliser for their crops. Not so any more, for most it is proving to be an annoyance.

Perhaps surprisingly, this past week saw the local seaweed featuring in the media. The brown Sargasso has always been around the Island and there have been everything from isolated little plants to small mats on to some huge thick aggregations, sometimes the size of a football field.

The story this week was comparable to some of the pictures in the Middle Ages when boats were depicted as being trapped in masses of weed with various monsters threatening the sailors. Obviously, there aren't any monsters living in the brown plants but it really can form large, dense mats that can impede small craft and can occasionally block up water intakes causing problems.

It also seems to end up being blown into bays and inlets from which it often doesn't escape, ultimately ending up on the shore where it proceeds to rot and permeate the air with an unpleasant odour.

Actually, this stuff can be pretty neat and it is well worth giving it a closer look. In the browny weedy world there is an entire miniature ecosystem.

If you collect some fresh weed with a dip net and then shake it out into a bucket of sea water there is almost certain to be something of interest. You do have to look really closely because the creatures that inhabit the weed are masters of camouflage. They are almost always brown in colour, a brown that blends in perfectly with the weed. Some have protuberances that look like the grape-like sacs on the weed and many have various entangling devices that allow them to hang on to the weed as it drifts for miles over the Atlantic.

There are shrimp that inhabit the weed, a couple of types of crabs and all sorts of juvenile fish. Tiny little jacks no much more than a couple of millimetres long are commonplace. Larger inhabitants include the Sargassum fish which is a about two to four inches long, coloured to resemble the weed and boasting a large mouth suitable for inhaling any unsuspecting creatures that pass by. Most of the fins show claw-like adaptations that allow the fish to cling to the weed.

Although more difficult to catch even with a dip net but nonetheless often travelling with the weed are juvenile dolphin fish. These look really different to the adult and have none of the brilliant blues, greens and yellows that are so familiar. They are a drab brown and occasionally exhibit some bars or stripes on their sides. Baby flying fish are also associated with seaweed but again, these can be hard to find on weed that has found its way inshore.

Offshore the weed provides a haven for small creatures especially juvenile fishes in an otherwise trackless ocean full of predators.

One other interesting quirk is that fishing boats elsewhere actually look forward to finding rows of seaweed. Large numbers of dolphin, wahoo and other species seem to travel along with the weed. Here in Bermuda, we encounter lots of weed and, for the most part, there seems to be no correlation between the presence of the weed and the number of game fish. In fact, most trollers consider the seaweed to be an out and out nuisance with no redeeming features. Deep trolls catch their share of weed and while this seems to be a mite curious because the weed really is a floating plant, the truth of the matter is that it is the deep troll wires that catch the weed and then it travels down the wire and usually comes to rest around the lead ball. Unfortunately, the wire is pretty efficient at collecting weed and it takes hardly any time before cranking up the ball covered in weed becomes a rather onerous task. This news probably doesn't do much to encourage the weekender to take a trip offshore. On the other hand, it could be more productive than a lot of winters have been.

The offshore fleet has had a pretty regular week of bottom fishing on the Banks with the usual crop of hinds, coneys and barbers being complemented with ambers, bonitas and the odd gwelly. Trolling has taken a back seat, largely due to the weed, but there have been enough wahoo around to justify a bit of effort.

The main news this week comes from Peter Rans and Capt. Cragin Curtis who took a leaf out of the Florida fishermen's book and gave the night time swordfishing a full dose of effort. This was rewarded with great success. The first outing produced a 61-pound swordfish that took a rigged squid bait. The next night a live robin paid off with another sword, about the same size.

Conditions must have been close to ideal with a slim moon and calm seas. It really takes a bit of commitment to start drifting off over the deep with the swordfish rigs set out. A bit of luck helps as well because swords are not the only nocturnal species when it comes to feeding. Expect plenty of shark activity too. Even large squid have been known to get in on the act, so be prepared for just about anything if you decide to give the deep, dark night fishing a shot.

This is not the first time swords have been caught in local waters but success using rod and reel has been limited. The experimental longlining that has been conducted around the Island caught swords fairly consistently with a few specimens bettering the 100-pound mark.

Once upon a time, swordfish were among the largest of billfish but fishing pressure in the last 30 years or so has greatly reduced their abundance and the average size has plummeted. Given their exceedingly tasty meat, there is little doubt as to why sportsmen go in search of these particular Tight lines!!!