It is true, you know — any good news is always tempered by something not so pleasant. Bermuda is at that juncture when there are deterrents to a tropical-storm system coming this way, but not without cost. The reason for this is the passage of a seemingly endless procession of cold fronts from the northwest that will ensure blustery winds and the deepening depressions that become what we not so fondly term “winter gales”.

It is just such a system that pretty much ensures that the weekender will again remain shorebound and the fish can continue to swim merrily by without risk. Professional effort is reduced at this stage and that of the amateur is almost negligible, as so many are only free at weekends.

With the reduction in fishing pressure, it is hard to get a handle on the actual state of the offshore scene. There is plenty of evidence that wahoo are available consistently and these may be taken by traditional means or by live baiting. Trolling offers one advantage in that it allows more water to be covered and there are species other than wahoo which can please on occasion. Just recently, there have been a few yellowfin tuna and the odd dolphinfish — now so often referred to as mahi-mahi — rounding out catches. Nothing so numerous as to be earth-shattering but lively enough to justify an excursion if the local weather ever co-operates. The positive is that there are enough fish left in the ocean to support both Bermuda’s commercial and sport fishers despite what the naysayers may say.

It is not surprising that many are questioning the tendency of conservation-based organisations to suggest that the blue marlin is a species under threat or one that is overfished. As the July tournaments show, there are enough large fish here at that time of the year to entice numerous foreign boats to come to try their luck.

While the seasonal trends have all but eliminated local billfish effort, it seems that the numbers farther to our south are nothing short of fabulous. Recent reports from a single resort in the Dominican Republic indicate that boats fishing there continuously rack up numbers like eight boats releasing 21 out of 30 strikes; then ten boats releasing 23 out of 40 strikes, and on another day, 13 boats releasing 43 out of 62 billfish bites.

On that day, Reel Lax, a frequent visitor to Bermuda, went an incredible 14 out of 20 strikes — all from blue marlin. To say the action was hectic would be an understatement, especially as there were two separate quadruple hook-ups; in other words, four blue marlin all hooked up on the same boat at the same time. If that was not confusion, consternation and madness all rolled into one, it would be hard to imagine any more scatter action.

Anyway, the point is the billfish are nothing short of abundant there and while some may argue that they are mostly small fish, that cannot really mean that they are all males. All large marlin are females, true enough, but even females have to be small at some point, so they must be mixed.

There are other locations in the Caribbean noted for small fish; for years, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands made names for themselves as blue marlin hotspots, but the fish all tended to be small. Farther down the island chain, most billfish are smaller with the very occasional really large fish. Contrast this with the renowned locations in the Eastern Atlantic where almost all the fish are definitely females often approaching a thousand pounds with 500 to 600-pounders common. Of course, the numbers there are more like those experienced here in Bermuda, with three fish in a day being considered fast fishing.

Putting this evidence together to conclude that the marlin stocks are in better shape than previously thought could be misleading. After all, this information stems from only a relatively few locations in the oceanwide range of the species. The same blue marlin that swim in the North Atlantic Ocean do not limit themselves to areas above the Equator. It is well known that they commonly enter the South Atlantic travelling at least as far south as Brazil and elsewhere — including all the tropical and subtropical Atlantic within their range. So, a localised abundance may not be reflective of the entire state of the stock, but at least for now, this must be encouraging for those who devote massive amounts of money and time to the pursuit of this species.

With the forecast putting paid to this weekend, maybe it is now time to adjust the agenda for the next few weeks. With a long winter ahead, maybe the emphasis needs to be less on the sport and more on the fishing for fish that can stock the freezer. The reef areas are more accessible even in questionable weather and there are some desirable species there all capable of giving the angler some Tight Lines!!!