The end is nigh!

Although there are still wahoo, tuna and even the odd dolphin offshore, the amount of offshore effort is reduced to that portion of their week that the commercial operators devote to finfish rather than lobsters.

There are precious few amateurs even contemplating an excursion offshore. Most of their effort is concentrated on making sure that the boat is safely put away for the winter.

The few weekenders or part-time commercial fishermen that fish through the off season often fish in unlikely places owing to the weather and often catch fish that go unseen by the main body of anglers.

By the time they have been filleted, there is usually only a partial description or a eyebrow-raising name of the intact fish. This can lead to all kinds of speculation.

Not to mention that some of the more commonly used local names of fish are as inaccurate as could ever be imagined.

The eagle rays or spotted eagle rays that are so often seen in Harrington Sound are often referred to as “whip morays”.

Maybe the only thing that makes any sense is that their long tail-like appendage is whip-like; but there is certainly nothing to do with morays.

The rays are cartilaginous fish, related to the other rays such as sting rays and manta rays or to the sharks which, for all their bulk and strength, are also cartilaginous fish.

Moray eels, on the other hand, are distinctive bony fish, related to most of the other species that, basically, look like fish. In any case, rays of any sort are pretty distinctive and how anyone ever though they had some connection to any eel species is beyond understanding.

Don’t even get started on the jacks! Even their relatives get caught up in the name game.

A Bermuda horse-eye bonita is actually an Almaco jack which is very closely related to the greater amberjack, better known as an amberfish in general parlance.

To be fair, it can be hard to separate a bonita of a certain size from an amberjack but then there is the lesser amberjack that also occurs here.

Usually referred to as a “bastard amberjack” or amberfish, these are a separate species and are usually smaller versions of the amber and have a somewhat larger eye to distinguish them.

As for the jacks themselves, there are white jacks, or just plain jacks, which are actually mostly blue runner jacks or might occasionally be confused with horse-eye jacks. Of the latter, larger versions suddenly become steelhead jacks and are often confused with the jack crevalle, a species which is not normally found here.

Green jacks or “never bites” are really bar jacks and are also commonly found in large schools here. True to their local moniker, they very rarely will take a hook but are a mainstay of the commercial net fishery.

There are also yellow jacks, another species, which are regularly found locally.

More observant anglers or fishermen might be able to distinguish between the species but each one has colour variations which can make complicate identification.

A further obstacle arises because there are numerous other jack species that can occur here from time to time. When one of these lesser-known species is encountered, the fish is usually just called a “jack”.

Variously, they might get a bit more description such as golden jack, cottonmouth jack or whatever catches the captor’s fancy on the day.

There are a number of good publications that allow for the proper identification of the various species, most of which enjoy wide ranges throughout the oceanic world. And don’t think that a simple identification will make things any easier because most locations in the world also have a selection of names for each species of jack.

With a situation like this, imagine what happens when something uncommon shows up.

Just such a case has occurred a few times when a rare visitor to these waters shows up and starts to make its presence known along the shoreline. Quickly dubbed a “sharksucker” even though it was sans shark, the actual fish turned out to be a cobia.

While a relative of the remora, which could be a sucker fish on a shark although a marlin might be more likely, an examination will reveal serious differences including the lack of any sucking mechanism.

Uncommon at best here, they have been caught inshore and out on the banks where they can be quite large.

The list of odd occurrences here is actually pretty long and include species like bluefish, kingfish and even the strange hybrids that occur between some of the grouper species.

A few species, which were once commonplace here, have also become rarities and are usually only properly identified by older fishermen who were once used to seeing them on a regular basis.

These include the schoolmaster snapper and goggle-eye jack. Individuals of both species have recently been produced by local fishermen.

Doubtless, a few more of these names and maybe the actual fish will surface over the next few weeks. Already, in the last couple of weeks, a potential Bermuda record African pompano has been caught — another species while present here usually manifests itself during the cooler months.

To find out what departures from the norm might be out there will require defying the weather and going out in search of Tight Lines!!!