It is ever so subtle but the passage of fronts and any shift away from the dominant mid-Atlantic high pressure is a sure sign that summer is coming to an end and the natural world feels the onset of autumn which is closely followed by winter in the northern climes.

Departures away from the hot, flat calm days are indications that things are about to undergo a major seasonal change.

These, often slight, changes in the weather combined with the shortening day lengths tell all animals, including the fish, that it is time to start the southward migration back to climes where the water will remain warm and the bait will at least be consistent if not as plentiful as that found in the seasonally enriched coastal waters.

The plus side of this for a mid-Atlantic island like Bermuda means that the migratory species will be on the move and moving fish tend to be hungry fish.

Moving takes energy and energy needs food. For this reason many anglers have espoused the belief that the best fishing in Bermuda occurs during the month of September.

In recent years, the warming trend seems to have been extended but, certainly, the fishing during September and October has been excellent.

In a perfect year, there will be a massive run of wahoo highlighted by an abundance of juvenile false albacore; the combination of which makes for some of the finest fishing to be had anywhere. But that is all something to look forward to.

After all the fuss of the last few weeks over angling feats, this past weekend, Bermuda’s Juniors finally got their moment in the limelight. The Bermuda Anglers Club Junior Tournament drew 125 entrants with a remarkable 80 actually coming to the weigh-in.

The inshore boat category was the most popular this year and provided the usual selection of fish that can be had from such locations.

Very encouragingly, many entrants said that they ended up releasing their fish because they were undersized.

As always there were tales of the one that got away and various hard luck stories including one that involved a trip to the hospital to remove a fish hook.

All in all, there was plenty of action for a group that is largely overlooked by the angling community.

As with all tournaments, there have to be some winners and this year’s winning circle recognised Davis Barnes with his 20 pound wahoo as the Top Offshore Boat Angler and winner of the H & H Plumbing Award. The Top Inshore Boat Angler was Ismail Ali with a five pound four ounces porgy. The Top Shore Angler was Zakee Doars with a six pound four ounce hogfish.

The Top Female Angler was Jocelyn Kriendler who had a nice five pound five ounce red hind and the Top Conservation Award for releasing undersized fish went to Verity Williams.

The overall success of this year’s event on top of that of previous years means that a certain portion of the population are already looking forward to next year’s tournament. This is a wonderful prospect for all concerned.

Just as a matter of interest, there are some locals who raise eyebrows when they see that the local billfish tournaments hand out cheques with amounts like $100,000 written on them.

While this may seem pretty impressive, believe us, this is pretty amateur compared to some of the tournaments on the big time circuit.

Most recently the Ocean City White Marlin Tournament concluded, in Ocean City, Maryland as it has for the last almost 50 years.

While maybe this isn’t the largest tournament on earth it sure gets a lot of people’s attention. Consider the chap who caught a 71.5 pound white marlin fairly early on in the event.

That is a pretty respectable white even though the archives show that it was usually a fish in the 85 pound plus range that collected the goods. Still, each year varies and the tournament has been won by smaller fish.

It held up until the final day when another boat brought in a 77.5 pound white. That larger fish scooped up the white marlin first prize, a cool $4,536,926.00. Yes, that’s as millions.

The angler with the 71.5 pound fish had to make due with second place, an award of $197,202.00 – not all scabby but one gets the feeling that he probably felt a mite hard done by.

And the organisers are not kidding when they say that this is a white marlin tournament. Other species get cash prizes as well but the emphasis is definitely on a trophy white.

The largest blue marlin this year was a 511 pound blue that earned $1.2 million and the largest tuna, a bigeye this year, that weighed 247.5 pounds pulled in slightly more at $1.28 million.

If this grabs your attention, now is not too early to find your accommodations in the area and to arrange for a boat which might end up travelling a fair distance from its home charter port.

This is a happening on a scale most locals cannot even imagine. Mostly this is a bit of a pipe dream for the long dark winter months.

Returning to reality, experienced anglers will be keeping an eye on developments. While summer is still very much here, it will soon give way to more autumnal signs.

Green water intruding on the offshore deep blue as enriched inshore waters spill off the platform; increased bait activity, and, very hopefully, a surge of action from game fish that will translate to lots of Tight Lines!!!