The summer wears on, continued hot and humid with seas calm enough to ensure the big-money tournaments roll on sweetly, grabbing most of the attention of those who follow game fishing worldwide.

The Bermuda Billfish Blast drew to a close with the expected changes in leadership, and any number of twists and turns to the plot. In the final analysis, it was Captain Colin Oxnard’s Fender Bender that came out on top with a total of 3,600 points gained from seven blue marlin releases and a white marlin release. This score would also earn them top place in all three release jackpots.

In second place with 3,200 points was Mama Seata, skippered by Captain Ronnie Fields. Third place went to Pescaria with 2,700 points.

After some staggeringly close competition, the Largest Blue Marlin Jackpot was won by Edward Russo with a 673-pound blue marlin caught on board Captain Brian Rabbitt’s Big Deal. This fish proved to be the largest of the six blue marlin brought to the scales over the three-day tournament.

The Non-Sonar Boat Jackpot went to Captain Jeremy Fowler’s Pescador, which amassed 1,600 points from three blue marlin releases and a white marlin release.

The Largest Gamefish Jackpot was won by angler Rich Griffin on Whirlwind with a 39.5-pound wahoo.

The overall catch statistics were nothing short of incredible. Despite some anglers thinking that the slightly cooler-than-normal seawater around the island might mean that it was a bit early for the main seasonal influx of blue marlin, this proved to be quite the opposite. There was, obviously, no shortage of billfish with the blue being the main component of the local population. Over the three days, 92 blue marlin were caught along with 29 white marlin and a lone spearfish for a total of 122 billfish!

One thing that was found to be interesting by veteran skippers, anglers and observers was the variety in size of the landed fish. Or, more accurately perhaps, the lack of variability.

With a minimum eligible weight of 500 pounds to land a fish, crews grow proficient at determining the weight of a fish before trying to take it. The penalty for an undersized fish would make for a massive handicap and it is better to release a fish of questionable size and collect the 500 points than to risk it being underweight and result in negative points.

Most local skippers have become pretty adept at eyeballing a fish and guesstimating its weight surprisingly accurately. The foreign boats, largely because many of the US regulations are based on length, have devised methods of measuring a fish while it is still in the water. Once boated, boats have to relay the fish’s measurements to tournament headquarters for verification purposes.

This is where it gets interesting. The formula used to estimate the weight of larger fish such as marlin and tuna is a mathematical formula that takes the girth of the fish, squares it and then multiplies it by the short length. The resulting number is then divided by 800 to give the weight. By and large, it is accepted that the resulting weight is within 10 per cent, plus or minus, of the actual weight.

All measurements are in inches although the metric system can be used as well. The short measurement is the length of the fish from the tip of the lower jaw to the fork of the tail — effectively the length of the fish negating the pointy extension at one end and the flare of the tailfin at the other.

During the recent Blast tournament, three boats caught fish with identical measurements: length 115 inches and girth 61 inches. With the same numbers in each case, an application of the formula would give the same weight for all three fish, in this case, 534.89 pounds. The fish, weighed individually, weighed 537 pounds, 551 pounds and 622 pounds, much to the delight of the anglers with the latter.

There are plenty sources of variation beyond the pure mathematics. For one, getting an accurate girth can be difficult, with most people opting to measure one side and then doubling that. The length is a bit more straightforward, although on some smaller boats the fish may be bent a bit, making measurement more difficult.

Natural variations also play a role in the weight of a fish. Maybe it just had a healthy meal or maybe it was starving. Some fish, like people, carry the weight better and distribute it better over the length. All these factors combine to make weight estimates a fishy business at best.

The weekend ahead brings the Bermuda Big Game Classic, the lynchpin of the Bermuda Triple Crown. The Classic was the first of the local billfish tournaments to garner international attention and the event is now in its 24th year.

This competition will see a fleet scour waters all around the island for a massive blue marlin that will outweigh all the rest. But, by the same token, there is also a strategy of trying to amass points from billfish releases. With each blue marlin release counting for 500 points, there is some advantage to a quick release even of a marginal fish and then continuing to try and score more points.

An abundance of blackfin tuna reported to be on Challenger Bank suggests that the billfishing will continue to be of high quality. Leaving the pursuit of the billfish to the specialists, local boats will find a few wahoo and plenty of tuna and bonita offshore willing to give them a shot at Tight Lines!!!