Everything is warming up nicely now, both on land and at sea. The winter gear is being consigned to the closet and brighter colours are appearing on the streets. Birds are nesting, flowers are blooming and the inshore waters have come to life with jacks approaching the “plentiful” description as they cruise between the islands in the sound, tormenting beds and knots of bait.

The offshore is seeing the last of the whales cavort their way northward through this plankton-poor section of the Atlantic toward the incredibly rich waters off New England and Atlantic Canada where they spend the summer feeding.

With lobster pretty much out of the picture, commercial operators now start to concentrate on the more marketable wahoo and tuna with lesser species such as amberjack and species suitable for filleting taking up the slack.

While it is not all happening out there yet, things are considerably better than they have been. Several boats have had respectable hauls of wahoo off the troll. Half a dozen or more is enough to provide sufficient encouragement for most weekenders; who won’t be deterred by the fact that the next day resulted in a blank or just a single.

Another positive is that the fish are running with a degree of quality. Thirty and forty pounders have been commonplace and there have been some fish up to the 80lb mark.

Such fish bring to mind a technique that was commonly used some years ago. A variation on live-baiting with frigate mackerel, this entails catching normal-sized (2-3lb) mackerel and using them as live bait. Rather than rigging them up to swim as is the case with frigate-sized mackerel, these larger baits are double-hooked and splashed right in the boat’s wake. Here, the attack can be nothing short of spectacular with a large wahoo hurtling skyward on the strike. For this reason, even in the glory days of light tackle, these baits were always carried on 50-lb tackle or even heavier gear. While keeping the bait alive is good this is not necessary, because even a dead or nearly dead mackerel makes a great teaser and, although less likely to be a problem early on in the season, don’t think that a hefty blue marlin won’t avail itself of such a tempting morsel!

With most boats devoting a fair amount of time to trolling, a pretty good picture of the offshore scene is painted. Along with wahoo, there have been some yellowfin tuna taking trolls as well as the odd dolphin. Carrying a variety of baits and lures in the spread is a good tactic.

Bright colours; hot pinks, yellows and fluorescent greens, get the attention of dolphin and white marlin. They need not be large because these species often forage on small bait species. Darker colours and rigged garfish or flyers are the usual baits for deep trolls with wahoo the expected quarry. Yellowfin tuna will take any of the above-mentioned but a naturally rigged flying fish pulled off an outrigger often attracts larger tuna. A natural garfish with a heavy chin weight pulled long on a flat works for large wahoo, too. Variety is the spice of life and now is the time for it.

This may seem a little outrageous but the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) keeps records for just about all species of fish. This includes invasive species that have extended their ranges either naturally or due to introductions, intentional or otherwise.

Before you start thinking that this is a bad idea, you need to know that many species including some valued trouts have been introduced into different water systems, some with great success.

Sometimes the success has resulted in the species doing even better than it did in its home range often achieving even larger sizes. So, it actually makes sense to keep track of the biggest wherever they might occur.

As clarification, these records for fish that are not recognised as game fish are restricted to the all-tackle record or the largest specimen regardless of tackle used. The angling rules all apply as does the application procedure but there are a lot less restrictions.

The latest potential new record being reviewed by the IGFA is for lionfish. The new candidate is 1lb 11oz specimen caught off Mississippi (they do get around, don’t they?). This will displace the previous record of 1lb 10oz.

Given that many species attain larger than usual sizes here in Bermuda and, if the reports from some commercial fishermen even approach the truth, there is every likelihood that the next record is already swimming around a local reef. Remember to be careful of those toxic spines if you try and get into the record book!

It might just be that you need to spend the next weekend or so getting ready for the season. Don’t leave it too long. The fishing will improve and the early season trolling never lasts long. Soon, the 24th will beckon and that will put paid to any thoughts of Tight Lines!