There can be no denying it. No matter how you view the fishing season there is no doubt that it is happening now. It is the starting time to go fishing unless you want to risk missing out on the year.

Time flies and fish move on, so you have to, too.

The only discrepancy that might arise is when visitors sometimes enquire as to whether “fishing season” is a legally defined term relating to a specific time period when fishing is permitted, as in lobster season, or does it merely mean that it is a good time to go fishing.

Certainly it is the latter. And to hear it from any of the veteran skippers it is classic spring time fishing. The emphasis is on trolling and while the prime candidates are wahoo, there is every possibility of just about any species crashing a properly presented bait.

As is characteristic of the spring run the fish move around unpredictably, and sometimes seem to disappear for days at a time only to turn up in numbers elsewhere.

Most serious participants in this spring fishery have managed 20 or more wahoo in a day. Whether or not they have been able to reproduce those hauls on consecutive days is anyone’s guess. Some have, others haven’t, and then there are always the odd days where the inclement weather leaves everyone guessing.

Captain Alan Card’s Challenger had several good days working down on the Banks with both Challenger and Argus producing fish. This showed some signs of consistency until his Wednesday effort drew all but a blank. That day the fish decided to provide the action off the South Shore and this is where Captain James Robinson’s Wound Up capitalised on their co-operation, boating 25 nice-sized wahoo.

To add to the confusion, while there were positive reports from the Banks and South Shore, there were similar reports from the northwest and down north.

In brief, catches of anything up to 20 or more wahoo have been had just about all around the island, although the East End has seemed quiet. However, that might even be a ploy on the part of those who fish down there and want to discourage competition.

In any event, there is some real quality about the fish. Although there have been some fish in the under 20lbs bracket, many are in the 30lbs and better range. Some have been even considerably bigger than that, including a couple of rumoured hundred pounders.

The jury remains out on the specific details of those fish, but there certainly have been a few confirmed in the 75lbs and up size class.

Mixed in with the myriad of wahoo has been a bit of variety. A few yellowfin have been caught and there are indications that there are some tuna schools in the area. Conditions haven’t really settled down enough to make for first-class chumming, but that won’t be too long coming. There is enough small game around to justify a bit of effort and that always means the possibility of obtaining some fish with potential as live baits.

Dolphin have also figured in some hauls, and it is fair to think that there are some billfish around. Although perhaps early by some standards there are usually a few white marlin travelling with numbers of wahoo, and some brightly coloured rigs, preferably hot pink or similar, might well get them to beat a wahoo to the troll.

Don’t think that there aren’t any blues around either. They may prefer the deep, and shy away from the wahoo schools, but they have long since come north from the Bahamas and might make their presence known at any time.

With no one really prepared expect a few outfits intended for wahoo and tuna to take a beating. As said earlier, it is fishing season.

On a related note, a local team competed last week at the Offshore World Championship tournament event held in Costa Rica. The team, titled the 2003 OWC Champions, consisted of Bobby Rego, Captain Allen De Silva, Danny Fox and David Fingland.

With a total of 4,900 points they finished a creditable 22nd out of 66 teams, who hailed from all over the world each having qualified by winning some major angling event.

All the points came from Pacific sailfish at 200 points per release, other than a sole blue marlin caught by De Silva that earned 500 points.

In terms of individual performance De Silva placed eighth out of the 309 anglers taking part in the competition. He scored a total of 2,700 points, which is admirable considering that the overall top angler had accrued 5,000 points.

The numbers of fish caught are not much short of staggering. The total catch for all the participating teams was 1,509 billfish. The sailfish provided 1,495 of the catches with 12 blue marlin also making their contribution.

The uncommon catches that also scored points included two eligible dolphin, one wahoo, a single black marlin and a lone striped marlin. The overall winning team had scored 9,000 points, catching a total of 45 sailfish including a first day tally that saw 19 fish caught and released.

To put things into focus, the average catch per team over the four-day event worked out at 22.86 billfish, an incredible amount of Tight Lines!