It’s all but official! Summer is here! The traditional start (forget the summer solstice) is on Tuesday and there will be many taking advantage of its positioning to take a four day holiday weekend. Some of these will be preoccupied with readying for the holiday afloat and making sure that the boat measures up to Her Ladyship’s requirements for what is customarily her annual excursion out on the briny. Generally, the fishing effort is less than pronounced with most of the hard-core sacrificing this holiday to concentrate on the rest of the summer. Perhaps this is providential as the fishing is, with usual British understatement, a mite on the slow side.Now that the weather has moderated somewhat, there has been an increase in fishing effort. Now, more effort does not always equate to increased catches and, in this instance, that would appear to be the situation.To give some idea of the offshore scene at the moment, try contemplating hours of non-activity, possibly to be interrupted by a solitary plaintive whirr from a reel. Rather than cast aspersions on some of our finest fishermen, suffice it to say that even the best in the business have had to put up with days that were singularly forgettable.Balanced against this are a few better than average results. Really good at the moment consists of something like, maybe, half a dozen wahoo and a solitary tuna.Do not be misled into thinking that the Banks is the preferred location for what limited action there is. South Shore has been pretty dead but there was at least one boat that worked the edge off St. David’s. This actually turned out to be reasonably productive with a haul that consisted of five wahoo which were topped off by a nice brace of dolphin. These were in fact quite sizeable and it is probably quite a stroke of luck that large dolphin very often travel in pairs.The weather has settled down enough, as have the tides (what a name for what are really currents!), so that some serious chumming can be attempted. The word “attempted” is used because the reports on the results of such have been dismal. To make things worse, the story seems to be pretty well spread throughout the usual fishing grounds. Bearing in mind that the seasonal protected areas are all in effect, there isn’t all that much accessible bottom, but no one seems to have hit anything even approaching the jackpot anywhere.In fact, the reported outlook has been nothing short of bleak. Hours of ladling chum over have resulted in nice, clear, blue water. Not a robin, mackerel, rainbow runner or anything else. Those who have thought it a good idea to try the bottom have also had disappointing results and the few who tried their hand at deep jigging only succeeded in giving their arm muscles a good work out. None of this is what the weekender has in mind .But, as they say, surely better days are ahead.After all that doom and gloom, what is there that might cast a slightly more optimistic light on the future. Well, for one thing, there are numbers of schools of blackfin tuna on the bank. Now, while this is good news of itself, even for the simple reason that, for the really large predators, blackfin are bait; there is the added observation that the few tuna that have been caught have been feeding on small squid.Squid are bait, blackfin are bait, some of the small yellowfin that have occasionally shown up recently also qualify as bait when the target is a blue marlin. So, bait should be good.There is an old adage that where there is bait, the predators will show up. That is probably a fair bet even though it might take a while to come good. And it might not be the wahoo and Allisons that both the commercial fisherman and light tackle angler want to see.One question that has also been raised is that if the tuna are feeding on squid, why aren’t there obvious signs of them. The answer to this is a bit convoluted but, as may come as a surprise to many, the squid that we know as flying squid are actually normally a deep dweller. Not to mention that they obtain fairly hefty proportions (like three feet long), living out of our sight most of the time. Anyway, putting two and two together and hopefully approximating four: if there is any amount of bite-sized squid traversing our waters at depth, then it should not be a surprise that the tuna and whatever else there may be are forsaking the surface waters for the banquet down below.The wahoo will probably remain on tap as they do through the summer but the real numbers probably won’t be seen until the late summer or early autumn. Most pros are now convinced that the spring run, such that it was, was the little flurry back toward the end of March and early April. Perhaps the best bet for a decent wahoo is to work some live baits, once the robins start pleasing. They cannot be too far away; after all, they actually live here and cannot have gone too far. So it will merely be a matter of time and place before they put in what must be a welcome experience.Some trollers have picked up some mackerel, mostly in ones and twos; and while these are not the sort of size usually associated with live baiting (remember there is a difference between a small mackerel and a “frigate”-sized one), it can be worth a try. Apparently a recent attempt was rewarded with a wahoo that weighed in at over 50 pounds! Figure: if nothing much else is happening, at least a live bait in the water should attract some attention whether it is to itself or perhaps one of the other trolled offerings.Offshore, the water is continuing to warm quite rapidly and, very shortly, the migratory gamesters should start to make their presence felt. While the wahoo will probably stick to their established pattern, high summer sees yellowfin tuna and skipjack (oceanic bonito) arrive and, never far behind them the billfish. It is for that reason that the yacht club and other venues will suddenly start sprouting forests of outriggers in the next two or three weeks.So, for this weekend, most of us will be working on the boat and hoping that the weather remains calm and sunny. After all, the 24th is a great Bermudian institution. When else can you enjoy barbecuing, picnicking, parade and dinghy racing all together? With the fish taking a bit of a sojourn as well, it sure seems like later will be more compatible with the notion of Tight lines!!!