It is becoming apparent that the angling season is coming to a close. Not the fishing season — that still has some weeks to run before it too becomes stymied as the winter gales take their toll on fishable days and the falling temperatures convince the migratory species to head south — but the competitive angling season.

Most of the tournaments are done for the year, although there are a few intra-club events on the calendar. Many anglers are looking to put their boats up and to start the process of winterising them until the onset of spring again awakens the pursuit of fish.

Not that there are not still some fish to be caught. Anyone stopping by a commercial fisherman’s stall will see a variety of fish on sale: wahoo, dolphin, some tuna and a variety of bottom species all attest that these fish are still there to be caught.

Thus far, there have been no huge hauls of wahoo and the frigate mackerel have not shown up in any great numbers, either. The likelihood of a bumper month is fast receding, but some trolling effort should result in a few wahoo making their way into the fishbox. There are still some dolphinfish out there and the odd tuna. Slipping into the shallows will probably elicit strikes from barracuda, which may not be the greatest of game fish but offer some action.

Working a live bait down deep may be a good bet because there are still some trophy amberjack and bonito around. Some commercial boats, putting in the effort, are scoring half a dozen or more bonitos, which, at 20lbs or so apiece, quickly add up.

All told, if the weather allows, it is possible to spend a day afloat and return with enough fish to justify the expense involved. Not always the case, but certainly the situation at the moment.

Now for a bit of an oddity. Cindy Mitchell has recently filed an application for an all-tackle world record caught in Bermuda. The fish in question is not huge, weighing in, as it does, at 5lbs. It is actually common enough around here, but most anglers are unfamiliar with the species.

One of the reasons for this is that it is largely nocturnal. Back in the days of fish pots, it was occasionally encountered, but its living habits made it more susceptible to hook and line fishermen working the drop-off and deeper reef areas at night.

The species in question rejoices in the rather vulgar-sounding, scientific name of Uraspis secunda. It is quite obviously a member of the jack family with the usual scutes along the lateral line toward the tail. It is readily distinguished from a whole host of lookalike relatives by its bright white mouth and tongue.

That particular characteristic gives the fish the common name of cottonmouth jack in this part of the world, but has an interesting selection of names throughout its rather extensive range. It is found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and even off Australia, where it sports the moniker cottonmouth trevally.

Like all the jacks, the cottonmouth has many of the qualities expected from a game fish. As a result, it is considered as such in many locations and also has some merit as a food fish.

This present specimen does, in fact, exceed the IGFA all-tackle record of 4lbs 8oz (2.04kg) caught off Cat Island in the Bahamas in 1991. It is reasonably likely that there are larger specimens here because, for a variety of reasons, members of the jack clan seem to reach larger than expected sizes in local waters. Although this may augur well for the all-tackle record hunter, there is no indication that the IGFA is going to recognise the species for line-class records any time soon.

Another development that has been a long time in the making is the recent agreement reached by the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species to regulate the trade in certain shark and ray species. This is one international means of promoting conservation measures, as it makes it more difficult to extract the profits from what has been a lucrative trade. Much the same logic is used in banning trade in ivory to protect elephants. It is not perfect but does have some positive effects.

The species involved include the whitetip and hammerhead sharks. There are several hammerhead species, but, for simplicity, the general term conveys most of the information.

Actually, both hammerheads and whitetip sharks were quite common here. The former species was frequently encountered on the Banks and over the deeper reefs and, in fact, the original Bacardi tournament was won by one caught on light tackle (that was a long time ago!). In recent years, sightings of hammerheads in local waters have been few and far between; quite possibly an indication of overfishing the species.

The whitetip is a truly pelagic shark and is usually found well offshore. Research vessels and boats operating longlines and other deep-water fishing gear around Bermuda would often come across whitetips in the open sea. This was one of the more common species that made up the “laundry lines” of tails drying in the sun on the Oriental longliners that used to come into Bermuda ports. As with the hammerhead, there seem to have been less of them around here than there used to be.

Although these actions will have little or no effect on Bermuda because shark fishing and exportation is not really an industry here, the measures will have some effect on the availability of these shark and ray products for the culinary and oriental medicine markets. Happily, for locals who have little interest in sharks anyway, this action will have no impact on their Tight Lines!!!