SUMMERTIME; the living's easy; fish are jumping - there could be a song in there somewhere but that is not going to mean much to local anglers.

Actually, it is about time that the weather started to act something seasonable. The month of May was quite inhospitable to small boat anglers and even though the fishing was good, conditions were generally uncomfortable and wet. This kept the weekenders ashore and made some inroads into the tournament calendar.

This lack of effort combined with early warmer than usual water temperatures has meant that many anglers, have missed the spring trolling action.

While it is still possible to extract a modicum of success from dragging a spread of artificials and baits around Bermuda's Edge or the Banks, this tactic is probably counter-productive. The odd wahoo or dolphin may please but, more than likely, strikes will be few and far between. There may be an odd pocket or two where it might be possible to generate a bit of action but this is likely to come from the smaller summertime fish in the ten to twenty pound range.

Most anglers accept the fact that, at this stage, the options are limited to chumming on the drop-offs or over the deep reefs; or working the deep water for billfish.

The pros and the visiting sport fishing boats have opted to put in time for the latter and this has paid off, in spades.

Virtually every boat putting in any serious effort has enjoyed shots at blue marlin. Happily, the full moon coincided with last weekend and there seemed to be no shortage of marlin action. Capt. Alan Card's Challenger returned to the road that has consistently seen this boat as a top marlin producer with several releases over the long weekend. Also maintaining a record, Capt. Allen DeSilva's DeMako has continued to raise, hook, catch and release both blue and white marlin. With the latter thinning out on the offshore grounds, all the attention will be focused on the bigger fish and quite a few veterans feel that this will be a great year for the big blues. On this note, some enthusiasts might want to be reminded that the first big money event of the billfish season is only a fortnight away. That's right, the Blue Marlin World Cup will be fished on Friday, 4th July and now is the time to get an entry in. This can be accomplished by contacting Jim Hardie in Florida directly or by going through local skipper Capt. Alan Card.

And right on the heels of that tournament comes the Third Annual Bermuda Big Game Classic which gets underway in less than three weeks' time.

Another international event has been going on all this week in the shape of the BAC International Light Tackle Tournament.

Proving to be a disappointment, the yellowfin tuna are proving elusive and forcing tournament teams to look elsewhere for the points that will make them victorious.

These have come in the form of blackfin tuna and bonita. Early on in the competition, anglers, have had to settle for the smaller game species. Although not brought to the weigh station there have been a lot of fish caught and released and this also helps to rack up the points. As this competition scores both from landed and released fish, it remains wide open, giving into the final day.

The early leaders was the team stylising themselves as "the Internationals" and captained by Garry Toy. Tuesday's pickings were a bit slim at dockside even though Capt. Keith Winter's Playmate reportedly scored quite heavily with releases. The jury will remain out until the last boat weighs in on Friday.

A holiday outing to Challenger Bank paid off with a trophy catch for angler Edward Barnes. Fishing aboard Mark Mitchell's Doing Time, young Edward found himself putting in time on a 30-lb. test outfit. A whole hour, in fact.

The episode had started when the pair dropped anchor on the Bank and proceeded to get the robins up. These were available in quantity and a number were rapidly fed to the wahoo that delighted in snipping off the monofilament leaders.

This state of affairs caused Edward to send a robin down deep where it appeared to have departed for Argus. At that point, the drag was pushed up and a serious tug of war kicked off.

After suspecting that it was a shark that had taken the bait, the fish's antics suddenly suggested that it was a tuna that was tugging away. When the leader finally showed, it was a large amberjack that was brought to boatside and quickly hauled aboard.

At the weigh station, the amberjack clocked in at 96.5 pounds -a fine catch indeed!

This particular event suggests an alternative for the anglers who will be taking part in this weekend's Bacardi Rum Angling Tournament.

As entrants will know, in addition to the awards for wahoo and tuna there is a category for gamefish other than billfish and sharks. prime candidates for this are amberjack and Almaco jack (bonita). Both species attain sizes capable of winning tournaments and, best of all, they seem to be in good supply.

Considering that the Bacardi is a popular tournament, attracting a wide variety of entrants, the winners have frequently found success by trying something different.

The apparent lack of heavyweight yellowfin tuna makes it worth considering a different strategy. Trolling might turn up a dolphin or wahoo but neither of these species is likely to produce a large enough specimen to guarantee a place in the winner's circle.

Traditional chumming will probably attract a few wahoo but these also are probably going to be on the small side. While blackfin can be chummed up, these too are unlikely to weigh more than about thirty pounds. This leaves either finding the yellowfin (if they are even there) or going deep for those species that have often been ignored by sportsmen.

Live baits, preferably robins, are the best bait but don't despair and decide not to try either fresh mackerel meat or a large piece of squid. Both forms of cut bait have taken their share of these big jacks and are well worth a try. Although difficult to fish, a live mackerel sent down deep has also proven to be a good amber bait but they do tend to attract sharks. Not exactly the right sort of Tight lines!!!