Not quite what is expected at this time of the year. With the official start of summer barely a week away and the focus on boats and their servicing nearing peak, prepared anglers should be enjoying a burst of spring activity out on the briny before they are confined to the inshore for next weekend’s picnicking and paddling pleasure. Instead many are scratching their heads, wondering whether to make the run or not.

Things have been incredibly spotty with some days being quite productive with the next close to a blank. Tens and twelves are followed by ones and twos. There have been some trophy wahoo, dolphin and even blue marlin; days when it was impossible to go wrong and then nothing will go right.

There really doesn’t seem to be any rhyme nor reason behind this pattern but it has certainly proven frustrating when a boat goes out the day after catching a dozen or so only to return with a pair and lucky to have that.

There is no question but that there are school-sized wahoo around. Doubles and multiple strikes are the norm and while the fish are not particularly large; fifteen pounds is a nice one, they do make a fish box look impressive.

What is weird is that the obvious presence of school fish should mean that numbers should be good and this, so far, has not been the case. Boats pick up a couple here, one there and so forth. It might all add up to a decent tally but it can involve a lot of work both in terms of time and distance.

As to the latter, a trip out to Argus and back with some reasonable coverage of Challenger Bank and a bit of time on the Edge means that close to 100 miles of water have been covered. Divide that into even ten fish and that is one every ten miles or a little more than one per hour. Definitely not a good way to look at things; in fact, it is not far short of depressing. Fortunately, what usually happens is that when the fish are located, the area can be worked and should produce in a relatively short frame of time.

Not that there are any guarantees. A trip on Captain Alan Card’s Challenger last weekend saw a lot of water covered with the high point of the day being neophyte angler Jamie Pooley finally latching on to a white marlin when the boat had reached Argus Bank. This result in him catching and ultimately releasing a very pretty 6ft-long specimen and recording the season’s first white. The rest of the party managed to collect a few wahoo which ranged up to about 25lbs.

Similar efforts that day resulted in similar outcomes with the notable absence of any tuna. Although recent catches have included both dolphin and blackfin tuna, the yellowfin have been conspicuous by their absence. With the light tackle season really kicking off this weekend with the Bermuda Fishing Clubs Annual Tournament, a classic light tackle tournament, taking place the emphasis will be on chumming and all the participants will be hoping to hit the mother lode of yellowfins.

If the situation can be blamed on anything it must be the lack of bait. Flying fish are very thin on the ground, there have been no signs of any squid and even the electronic sounders are showing very little as they probe the depths. Another sure indication of this dearth is the number and variety of birds that are traversing the deep blue in the hopes of finding a meal. Thrilling for an ornithologist, the various species of longtail, tern and skua are all to be seen with some of the bolder ones actually taking a crack at some trolled baits. On a positive note, so far, there has been no sign of the annual influx of shearwaters that usually gorge themselves on bait before heading on their northward migration. Although considered a nuisance by local fishermen and anglers, there is every possibility that those birds will have no reason to stop by this year and the ramification of that does not warrant thinking about.

The alternate argument, of course, is that if there is no bait then the fish should be more likely to take trolled lures and rigs. The downside to this is that pelagic species like wahoo and tuna are used to having to search for their food and often cover hundreds of miles doing so.

So, if they arrive in the local area and find nothing, they are apt to keep on going. Strange because the mere presence of structure in the form of the banks and coral reefs should give rise to schools of robins, anchovy, fry and other living things that make up the base of the predator’s food chain. No bait usually means no predators so, unfortunately, no Tight Lines!