As the song goes, “What a diff’rence a day makes.” Nothing could be more applicable to the overall fishing scenario at present.

As an example, Captain Alan Card’s Challenger enjoyed a great day, catching 22 wahoo, followed the next day with another haul that also made it into double figures for wahoo, along with a few other fish that added variety.

Move onto the third day. Hitting the same locations, using the same basic baits and tactics, and doing almost exactly the same thing resulted in severely slimmed down pickings, with the day’s tally being two wahoo and two dolphin.

Naturally there were some missed strikes as well, but this outcome was mirrored by any number of other boats that had fared similarly in previous days and then encountered what can only be described as a “slow” day.

While that can be a bit of a disappointment, there are a couple of positives. The wahoo that are being caught, be they solo fish or the results of multiple strikes, are a really nice class of fish.

There are very few of the usual summertime “lizards”. These are fish mostly 30lbs or better and ranging on up to 75lbs and more. They all appear to be in good condition and have fairly obviously been living well up until recently.

Recently, because there does not appear to be all that much bait on the Edge or down on the Banks, although appearances can be deceptive.

There are numbers of small blackfin tuna that will attack lures or baits that are too big for them to inhale, and if there are enough of these, they may well be the staple in the wahoo’s diet.

The second positive is that a day or so later the fishing may well be excellent again. This has been the trend for the past few weeks and although it is characteristic of spring fishing, it probably won’t last a whole lot longer as summer is not too far away.

In keeping with that thought there are quite a few dolphin around and these usually please, willing as they are to take most any offering. Normally associated with warm summer conditions, strikes from dolphin are pretty much to be expected at present.

There has also been at least one report of a blue marlin putting in an appearance. That won’t be at all long now.

Finally, there are some yellowfin tuna out there but they seem to be on the move and haven’t settled to the point that chumming is really an option. Having said that, the first of the light tackle tournaments takes place next week, so that should provide some insight into how things are shaping up.

Casual anglers may not have noticed that a change has been made to the protected areas legislation. Although the main protected areas remain much as they have been and are presently closed until the 1st September, a small portion of the southwestern protected area will remain closed until the 29th November.

Often referred to as the “hind grounds”, the idea, which originated many years ago, was to keep fishermen and anglers out of the areas where various grouper species aggregated to spawn.

It doesn’t take much to realise that the fish probably got their name from the fact that they “grouped” or came together at certain places at certain times for reproductive purposes.

The downside to this is that it made the fish easy targets for any kind of fishing and this has, predictably, led to the demise of many grouper populations throughout the world.

The actual size of the protected areas is considerably larger than the site of the aggregations but erring on the side of caution is a necessary evil in fisheries management.

That there is a small area being afforded additional protection seems to suggest that it is inclusive of the actual site where the fish meet up.

Something which seems to be a bugbear for fisheries managers is their lack of flexibility, especially at short notice.

For some reason this year, warmer water or whatever, the hinds were aggregating earlier than usual and full advantage was taken of this fact with some remarkable catches of prime red hinds being made.

This was a stroke of luck and a definite boon for anglers and fishermen but not something which is going to do the overall population any good in the long run. By the time April was over and the area closed to fishing, thousands of pounds of hinds had been caught.

Whether or not this will prove devastating is not known but it does seem to go against the idea of protecting spawning fish in the first place.

On a parallel, once upon a time the spiny lobster season used to run through April; hence the adage that the season was any month with “r” in it.

Fishermen brought to the attention of the authorities that the lobsters were often showing signs of carrying eggs in April and so, in response, the season was revised to exclude April and to conclude at the end of March.

As most nature observers and fishermen can tell you: dealing with natural systems has to have some flexibility built in simply because Nature is reliably inconsistent.

Such is the nature of Tight Lines!