Well, you were told. Every year the procrastinators leave everything to the last minute, with the worst of these waiting for the family to get on their case just before May 24.

The upshot of this is that most of the amateurs miss out on the spring wahoo run. One would think that, after languishing through the winter turmoil and rainy, blustery days, the faithful would be ready and raring to go at the first sign that the fish had come out to play.

Not so, as this run of wahoo usually is missed by a long chalk by most of those who actually call themselves sport fishermen.

That the spring run is, or has, as is so often the case, occurred is in no doubt. One boat picked up a haul of twenty-something off South Shore last week and has since, along with the rest of the commercial fleet, taken full advantage of what is on offer.

What is the main undoing of the amateur is the brevity of the spring run. Quite unlike the arrival of the schools of yellowfin that set up shop on the Banks in the early summer or the billfish that invade the area by mid-May, the wahoo appear all of a sudden and then move incredibly quickly around the Banks and Bermuda’s Edge before scattering throughout the local fishing area.

This is certainly the situation at the moment. The likelihood of locating a concentration of fish in a small area, allowing a boat to work the area over with multiple strikes is probably in the slim to none range.

What seems to be the norm for the spring run is that the fish arrive in the local area and then, whether the point of arrival is on the Banks or Bermuda’s Edge, move very quickly around the drop-off, usually clockwise if the venue happens to be Bermuda’s Edge.

The pace is frenetic, with the main concentration moving several miles in a 24-hour period, making it difficult to follow the fish. This is especially true if, as is the case this year, there are sporadic periods of foul weather which keep the fleet home while the fish continue their movements.

This can mean the fish that were on the southwest edge one day might be down off the East End when the boats are next able to venture offshore. It is probably that this has led to situations when, some years, there doesn’t seem to be a spring run.

A single boat gets a nice pick, but then the weather changes and several days are lost. Then, another boat gets a nice haul somewhere else and, maybe, a few boats start catching wahoo hither and yon.

What has probably happened is that the run occurred but the main schools were never fully exploited because the fleet never really had the opportunity to get at the fish before they spread out.

This might be the case now, because the bulk of the recent action seems to have shifted from Bermuda’s Edge down to Argus Bank. In all likelihood there are probably some good pickings to be had on Challenger as well, but there is something about the lure of Argus that has so many old sages running down there with great expectations.

For many amateurs it is a long way to go and, to be fair, back in the days without the GPS it really took a bit of navigational knowledge to make the run safely.

Balancing things off is the other adage about going past fish to find fish. No one can even begin to fathom the amount of fish that has come off Challenger Bank in the last 100 or so years and there is no denying its productivity.

Something about the Banks is why they seem to hold tuna better than the other areas around the Island. While there will be bursts of yellowfin activity down north or off the East End, there is no beating the Banks, either one, for consistently producing tuna during the summer months.

Chumming there just pays off better than anywhere else. And, perhaps related to whatever it is that holds the tuna’s attention, may also be part of the reason that the billfish hang in the deep water surrounding both banks and the area between them.

The seamounts, because that is really what they are, albeit little ones, provide the structure that attracts the predators.

With the wahoo now present in good numbers on the Banks with some rather nice fish in the 40lbs to 60lbs range to be had, these areas will be the preferred venue.

Somewhere along the line the presence of yellowfin tuna will become obvious to the boats working the area. Initially, some will take trolled lures meant for wahoo, but it should not be too long before chumming for them will become a viable option.

The commercial operators will be the first to take advantage of this once the wahoo market becomes glutted. The upside of this for the weekender, is that there will still be enough wahoo to make trolling fun with action that should be fairly regular.

Although early in the season, white marlin often run with wahoo and it won’t come as too much of a surprise if one of these provides the Tight Lines!