Where, oh, where have all the fishermen gone could be a lament of the time. The recent downturn in activity seems to have dissuaded amateurs from even attempting to try their luck offshore and the shift to lobstering by commercial operators has helped to exacerbate the decline in effort.

While the fishing is by no means at its best, there are some wahoo out there that will please. Numbers won't be great but there is a bit of quality and it is possible to make a sortie afloat worthwhile.

Yellowfin are sporadically being taken, particularly on the Banks where they usually tend to be most numerous, but do not discount a school of them from turning up at Sally Tucker's Point or down north behind North Rock. As the old sages used to say: "they have tails and can go anywhere they want". There have been some school to middleweight fish around.

Perhaps surprisingly, especially as they are considered a real tropical fish and our waters have cooled off, there are numbers of dolphin offshore. Often lured here by floating objects including seaweeds, finding an aggregation can prove to be a bonanza. The real trick when encountering a school, small or large, is to leave a hooked fish in the water while you catch the others because the rest of the school will not leave one of their own behind. In the right circumstances it is possible to catch the entire school!

Bottom fishing almost always results in something being caught but if white fillet is the intended target then it might be worth staying in the channel areas. Chumming in the silty-looking water often brings up turbots (triggerfish) and while they are not game fish and they are a nuisance to clean, there aren't many better fillets available anywhere.

Another option is to work the porgy holes in search of just that - porgies! They are a bit of a speciality if you really want to hit the jackpot but just fishing a regular bottom rig into the sandy areas will result in porgies which will supply the nice white fillet as well as some serious chowder potential.

The IGFA this week announced a number of newly approved world records of interest to Bermuda. The first of these were two fly rod records caught here this past summer aboard Capt. Alan Card's Challenger. The first was a 10 kg (20-lb) tippet record for Almaco jack (bonita). This catch was made by Frank Carter and the fish weighed in at 50.5 pounds.

The second record, also on the same fly category, was a 58 lb. 11 oz. yellowfin tuna caught by Toqaiah Carter. Both catches were made on the June 19, 2010.

In the Bahamas, five horse-eye jack records were set on fly tackle. The fish were not particularly large, ranging from 9.5 pounds through to 15 pounds. Given that the same species is common enough here and often considerably larger, it is a bit amazing that not one of the fly records is held here and only four of the 18 line class records have been set here. Surely, this has to offer opportunities. Maybe the problem stems from the fact that the species goes by other names such as "black" jack, white jack (when juvenile) or even just plain "jack" but it is really not sought after here as it is not too highly regarded as a table fish. On the other hand, the schools of jacks that net fishermen catch and have so much success selling on the roadside are, in fact, the same species. Go figure!

In any event, they are common enough over the reefs and are so numerous as to colour the water when they are attracted to the surface in the vicinity of the remains of Argus Tower. They take trolled or cast baits readily and put up a game fight that belies their relatively small size. For reference, the all-tackle record is less than 30 pounds!

Another record of interest is a new women's record for grey snapper. This was a 7 lb. 12 oz. fish that was caught on 30-lb test line. We all know that the snappers get bigger than that here, so how come we don't have any snapper records? Maybe someone will get around to doing something about it in the spring when they move inshore again.

There was a catch made this past week that should have broken a record but which failed to do so. It was definitely an oddity catch for Bermuda but there is an element of curiousness about this species here.

The species in question is the African pompano which sports a rather useless name since the fish is pretty much found all around the world. It is a member of the jack family and grows to about 50 pounds.

Over the years, large African pompano have been caught here and as was the case this week, although large enough to set records, they have always been caught on the wrong line test. By this it is meant that had the fish been caught on any other line class it would have qualified for the record. Thus, there have been African pompano in the forty pound bracket caught on 20-lb test where the record is nearer 50 pounds. Instead if it had been caught on 50-lb test it could well be the record and so forth. All a bit frustrating especially considering that so few are caught here but they are all at the top end of their size range.

The African pompano caught here have tended to be in the November through March period, and have been caught in pairs on more than one occasion. There probably haven't been more than about twenty caught here in the last 30 years. They are easily recognised as adults and it is fairly certain that no juveniles have ever been caught here. The young ones, say up to about a foot long, are very distinctive with long trailing filaments from the fins and looking a bit like they come from some other planet. Anyone catching one would definitely have brought it to the attention of others so it is probably safe to say that they have not been caught here ever.

So, quiet but not hopelessly so. The only problem is that a relatively calm week has slid by and the forecast for this weekend leaves something to be desired. It is probably the weather that is the single most effective deterrent to weekend angling. Once into November, the weather pattern is enough to convince most amateurs that it isn't even worth planning a weekend fishing trip. A bit of a pessimistic outlook and certainly not something that is compatible with Tight lines!!!