Autumn progresses and although tropical systems are at near peak activity farther south and, surprisingly, north of us, these latitudes are also starting to feel the first effects of winter as the cooler fronts start to come down from the northern mainland.

This makes for some very mixed weather insofar as heading offshore can be calm one day and rough the next. This makes it difficult to plan an expedition and is a deterrent to many weekenders.

Commercial boats have consistently reported reasonably good fishing. Wahoo and tuna are still the mainstays, with the former starting to generally be larger than they have been recently. This fits the expectation that the late-season fish tend to be larger, often averaging 40lb or more. Recent catches have been mixed although the tuna have eased off as the wahoo start to dominate the action. Many boats have had hauls consisting of five or six fish pretty steadily and this can add up to a respectable total in pretty short order.

Most reports still have good numbers of frigate mackerel on Bermuda’s Edge and the hope is that they will shortly appear on Challenger Bank, where the roving wahoo are more likely to encounter them and to create havoc as their feeding takes full advantage of the presence of such a bait. This coincidence of abundances leads to some of the finest fishing that can be had with many commercial fishing relying on the chance to pack away a winter’s supply of wahoo in just a couple of weeks.

This “perfect storm” situation is never guaranteed but happens often enough that some have come to expect it. Another consideration is that it may occur, but weather precludes anyone from taking advantage of it. Like most things in nature, such phenomenon is short-lived and easily missed. Just another reason to make the most of the present fair-to-good action.

The “fly in the ointment” are the barracuda. These are still numerous and more than willing to tear any live bait into shreds. They usually hang a bit shallower than the preferred quarry but sometimes keeping a live frigate away from the barries is nigh on impossible. But that is fishing.

An uncommon catch was made here this week on board the well-known charter craft, Challenger. The fish in question was a spearfish, a member of the billfish family that is not seen very often in local waters. In fact, there are only a few places in the world where there can be a directed fishery for them.

The Canary Islands is one such place where record seekers try their luck at specific times of the year in the hope of catching this somewhat elusive species. Hawaii, in the Pacific, also seems to have something of a season for them.

And elusive in more ways than one. The IGFA recognises five species of spearfish: the Atlantic spearfish, round scale spearfish, Mediterranean spearfish, longbill spearfish, and, naturally enough, the shortbill spearfish.

Line class records are only held for the Atlantic spearfish and the shortbill spearfish, which seem to mostly come from the Pacific. The other species are listed by All-Tackle record only. For once, the scientists don’t help out a lot either as there is plenty of confusion over the different species, where and when they occur and little resolution to any of these. In older publications here in Bermuda, it was asked that any catches of spearfish then thought to be Mediterranean should be reported to the Curator of the Aquarium who was noted for his studies of fish.

There are probably not more than three or four spearfish caught here during any year and there may be a few cases of confusion arising from cursory looks at white marlin. The spearfish is somewhat similar to a white although the elongated dorsal should be a giveaway. This can sometimes be difficult to see if the fin is not in raised position and, given the hectic activity for many amateurs when releasing a billfish, may go unnoticed. To add to the confusion, the Atlantic sailfish also occasionally shows up here and while larger specimens are fairly obviously sailfish, small specimens that are released quickly alongside the boat may lead to misidentifications.

This time of the year is when many of these “occasional” occurrences take place. As pointed out fish are on the move and it is not unheard of for lone fish to start moving with a school of other pelagic fish as it presumably makes hunting easier and provides a measure of safety in numbers. So, a spearfish joining a school of wahoo or tuna would not necessarily be out of character. The ocean is a large place, and some fish schools can be spread over relatively large areas.

Finally, just to show that fish sometimes go feeding mad, is the case of an angler who was fishing off of Hungry Bay. He caught a nice-sized red hind and was amazed to see a nearly intact lobster inside the fish. The hind had obviously been feeding rather well but still felt compelled to take a baited hook even after ingesting the crustacean. Such behaviour is probably the reason for many Tight Lines.