PROCRASTINATORS beware! No matter how you look at it, the new angling season is upon us. Even if you swear by the old government Fishing Information Bureau (a.k.a. Pete Perinchief) calendar, then Thursday next, May 1, is officially the start of the 2003 season.

What is markedly different from previous years is not so much the lack of an Opening Day tournament - these fell by the wayside some years ago - but just how long it is until there is a tournament that is open to the public.

Bermuda Anglers Club (BAC) kicks off their season on the May 18 with a fun event but it isn't until the June 1 that Spanish Point hosts its annual tuna tournament to which all comers are welcome. That, by the way, coincides with the BAC Annual Tournament.

Meanwhile those who know have been taking advantage of some of the early season action. This has actually petered out the last week or so but that could be due to the moon having just undergone some of its brighter phases.

There are those who swear that the bright moon allows the fish to feed at night and, for certain species, this is certainly possible.

Just consider the bigeye tuna. The larger eye is better at gathering light and allows the fish to act as a predator at depths beyond where other tunas are found. Although not thought of as a deep-water species, the blackfin tuna has a hefty eye that may well allow it some nocturnal hunting opportunities.

On a more practical level, everyone who has made a lot of pre-dawn moves and has put trolls out before the complete break of day will have, on at least one occasion, had a strike. While these have sometimes come from fish like bigeye that are known to feed in the dark, there have been other common game species caught as well. Thus the fact that the fish can and do feed other than in daylight is established.

Almost all the action has come from trolling and the wahoo is the target of most anglers' interests. Numbers have been variable but, on the plus side of things, the action has been pretty well spread out. Even casual boaters have managed three or four fish and the average size has not been too bad. Mixed in with the run-of-the-mill fish have been some larger hoos and just one of these can significantly enhance any fish box.

Trolling is also producing a few yellowfin tuna and, if past seasons are anything to go by, there might just be a few fish in the 100-pound range willing to eat a well presented bait. Try fishing a natural flying fish on a long rigger. A natural swimming (weighted) garfish might also do the trick. While these are prime tuna baits, most wahoo won't turn up their noses at them either, making them good generalist baits.

Although early, there should be a few white marlin around and these often run with schools of wahoo. Don't be surprised therefore if you get into a concentration of wahoo and a white crashes a lure or bait. Lures often get the nudge for any billfish simply because they will come back and hit an artificial time and time again while a smacked bait usually has the marlin lose interest pretty quickly.

In any case, expect the trolling to improve markedly over the next few weeks before the warming water moves the fishing into chumming mode come late May or early June. In the meantime, try some of the most exciting time for local angling when there is increasing variety and every chance of a trophy fish.

Has it ever occurred to you just how strange it is that a fish like the wahoo, which is tropical by nature making a few inroads into the sub-tropics, occurs in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans? This is very much an open ocean rather than coastal species so wandering may well be in the wahoos nature but to get to the Pacific from the Atlantic means going around Cape Horn (cold at the best of times, Antarctic at worst) or the Cape of Good Hope which is also rather temperate. Before even contemplating what the evolution of this species has been, just remember that even in a single ocean, say the Atlantic, the wahoos range is pretty limited to the area between 30N latitude and 30S latitude. Forget about the Panama Canal, that is a relatively new development and it is hard to think of any wahoo wanting to swim that far inland in the first place.

The most obvious explanation but not an entirely satisfactory one is that the species was spread as a result of the movement of eggs or larvae by the oceans currents. While this might explain how the species got into the various oceans, it does not address various other questions.

To take things a step further, why are the Atlantic and Pacific blue marlin considered to be a single species, even though the IGFA holds the records in separate categories? Why do white marlin only occur in the Atlantic Ocean and striped marlin in the Pacific and Indian Oceans but never the Atlantic. Like the wahoo, the yellowfin tuna is found in the three major oceans as is the bigeye tuna, skipjack and the albacore. The bluefin, on the other hand, is basically found in the North Atlantic although a separate species, the southern bluefin, occurs throughout the Southern Ocean (collective name for the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans toward the southern polar region).

The bluefin tuna is also found in the northern Pacific although not in the numbers or sizes that are found in the temperate Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Actually this whole business can get really complicated. How about the snook that is common to the Florida/Caribbean region but a variation of which occurs on the Pacific coast of Central America. Not only that but the speciation is so poorly understood that the IGFA actually accepts records at the genus rather than species level. And why is the roosterfish so limited in range? The list goes on and on with science unable to provide any definitive answers.

What is certain is that each and every one of the recognised game species is capable of putting up a heated battle on its day. While most locals don't have too much to say for sharks, in many places they are considered top class game. These include places that also have the benefit of tuna and billfish, so it is with some basis for comparison that the sharks have merited inclusion. Perhaps it is the kind of sharks that inhabit local waters that have earned these species such a poor standing in Bermuda eyes.

Or perhaps it is the local anglers desire for something exotic and more flamboyant that has relegated the sharks to the back ranks. After all, if there is one thing that can be said of a large tiger shark, it is that it is more than capable of making for some very Tight lines!!!