Bright sunshine beaming down on calm, hot, clear blue water marked only by the wash of the boat with a selection of lures leaving bubble trails in the boat’s wake.

Doesn’t that conjure up the essence of working the deep blue briny for a trophy billfish?

Heady stuff for most anglers and the prerogative of a select few who devote literally millions of dollars to the pursuit of the ultimate game fish.

Happily, this little Island is home to some of the finest blue marlin fishing on the planet and now is the time when it is at peak, with a series of tournaments attracting a large flotilla of local and foreign boats.

The Bermuda Billfish Blast, the first of the three tournament series called the Bermuda Triple Crown, commenced on Thursday night with yesterday the first day of actual fishing.

This three-day competition only allows marlin over 500?lbs to be killed on the first day because many of the boats involved are also entered in the Blue Marlin World Cup and that particular event requires that the fish are weighed in order to determine the winner.

While it is the World Cup that boasts the really big bucks, the amounts on offer for the various categories in the Bermuda Blast are not to be sneezed at either.

This year’s Blast has 49 boats entered and the early bite appeared to be promising with the first four hours of fishing producing three blue marlin and seven white marlin, all releases.

Last year’s tournament saw a total of 68 billfish caught — with only three being boated and brought to the weigh station.

All of the rest of the fish, 47 blue marlin and 18 white marlin, were released. One of the fish weighed in proved to be the winner of the Blue Marlin World Cup. That was Bermuda’s eighth World Cup win and accounts for the number of boats that make this their headquarters at this point in time.

And, for many of those, coming here has proven to be a good move as the first hurricane of this tropical weather season, Arthur, has happily churned up the waters off the Carolinas, another area noted for big blue marlin.

Hawaii’s fabled Kona Coast, noted for flat calm seas, is another hotspot with a good record in this particular event.

Large fish have been found on some of the more obscure islands that have boats trying their luck at everywhere from Guam, “where America’s day begins” to Hawaii that fishes last some seven hours beyond the close of play here in Bermuda. As a result, it can be a waiting game for anyone who is lucky enough to catch a fish that makes the qualifying weight.

Although much of the recent focus here has been on marlin and working the various areas around the Island in the hope of finding where the real lunkers lurk, there has been continued effort directed at the more commonly sought-after wahoo and tuna. This has resulted in mixed findings.

The yellowfin tuna are not pleasing in the manner that they usually do at this time of the year. But then again, if there are large numbers of apex predators in the form of blue marlin around, it might pay to keep a low profile.

More prevalent and of a really nice size class are the blackfin tuna. Normally most active in the really warm water characteristic of August, this species is giving a very good account of itself and the quality is nothing short of excellent. The average is probably better than 20?lbs and this is for a species that tops out at about 40?lbs!

The wahoo can still be caught by trolling although it is not worth investing too much time and fuel into this.

They will come and hang around chum lines where they can be caught if patience is applied or a live bait is set out on the surface. The occasional larger fish will be found out in the deep water and these will sometimes attack lures intended for billfish but, all too often, the wahoo’s razor teeth make a mockery of even the most carefully rigged monofilament leader.

Anglers more interested in fish that can be eaten have had some considerably success down on the Banks and on Bermuda’s’ Edge with amberjack and bonita. While many of the more numerous such fish are just a few pounds, there are enough larger specimens to make for some real sport and a challenge on the lighter classes of line.

Live baits are preferred if the big fish are the target but even some larger ambers and bonitas will quickly take a fresh piece of cut bait or squid. Although not a game species, here are also large numbers of large ocean triggerfish that provide some good, firm white flesh. Although a nuisance to clean, these will provide fillets.

If all else fails, there are plenty of rainbow runners, mackerel and other jacks that will provide some action while bottom bouncing should yield up some hinds, coneys and barbers.

The next leg of the Triple Crown is the Bermuda Big Game Classic and that starts on Wednesday, July 9 and this is virtually a continuation of the Blast with the sports fishing fleet again working the deep blue water for billfish.

Given the concerted effort and the relatively small area involved, it is enough to make one wonder just how many fish there must be out there to account for all those Tight lines!!!