THE passage of several winter gales and the promise of more to come has indeed hampered fishing let alone cancelled out any idea of angling. There has certainly been no sporting effort and even the commercial operators have spent days tied up alongside.

When they do get out, the object of the exercise is to conserve fuel and to try and load up on bottom fish. These find a ready market and can be caught while drifting, thus using no fuel and not a whole lot of bait, either! The only time the trolls will be out will be when the boat is running from place to place and maybe a very little effort will be put in for wahoo.

These also sell well and, happily, have remained in local waters despite cold spells for as long as anyone can remember.

It is therefore not surprising that if the sportsman does manage to get out to the Edge that is will be this species that is the sought after target. A lot of anglers feel that the cooler water puts more fight into wahoo and that they run longer and battle harder when the water is at its winter low. Unfortunately, with the state of most sport fishing here today it will take a huge wahoo to challenge the heavy tackle that most people use. Settle for some good action and a nice supply of steaks that even a school-sized wahoo will supply.

Although just about everyone has seen one and, even more likely, tasted some, have you ever really looked at a wahoo? What is it really, apart from the backbone of the local commercial and sport fisheries? The wahoo is related to the mackerels and tunas but just how has scientists disagreeing. Probably the closest relative is the kingfish which is common on the southeastern and Gulf coasts of the USA.

Some old books will refer to the wahoo as the queenfish, presumably to contrast it from the king mackerel (kingfish).

Beware that although kingfish are plentiful down through the Caribbean islands, particularly around Trinidad and Barbados, most of what sports this moniker is, in fact, wahoo.

For the record, the kingfish seems to be the continental shelf version of the wahoo with the latter confining itself to the true open ocean, commonly occurring around isolated islands.

Now this is a pretty good trick itself. Wahoo are found in all the tropical and sub-tropical oceans of the world. Try figuring out how this open ocean spawner got from the Atlantic to the Pacific or vice versa.

From the Pacific to the Indian Ocean is a little simpler, but the thought of having to traverse the Southern Ocean (cold) in sufficient numbers to be able to establish a viable population is a bit mind-boggling. No suitable explanations have come forth, yet.

Places like Madeira and the Canary islands get their fair share of wahoo and there are places along the coast of Africa that catch, literally tons of wahoo. They are also commonly encountered in the Hawaiian Islands and the South Pacific. They do also occasionally invade continental shelf waters hence most of the southeastern USA and the Gulf states having wahoo records. Suffice it to say that the wahoo gets about a good deal.

Look closely at a wahoo. Its cigar-shaped body is arguably the nearest thing to hydrodynamic perfection that can be achieved. Don't just look at the pointy end expanding and then tapering over its length. Try looking at the third dimension and note that it too tapes as it elongates. This allows water to be displaced by its swimming with a minimum of friction.

In fact, the wave action set up by the 'hoo's forward progress is also a thing of beauty to those who study such things. Yes, people do study such things among them marine architects. A lot of nuclear submarines boast similar lines and those things can travel pretty quickly and cleanly through the water.

The tail is almost vertical as compared with the more pronged or circular tails of other pelagic species. This is obvious a very effective propeller that shifts a lot of water as it is swept from side to side. On either side of the tail are a couple of ridges that act as stabilisers, preventing rolling, when the fish is in fast forward. On the dorsal (back) and ventral (belly) sides are a number of little finlets that the fish can use for course correction as it torpedoes forward through the water.

Although most drawings of wahoo show a long but low dorsal fin running along the top of the body, you would be surprised to see that it actually retracts completely into a groove that runs alongside of it. The next time you have opportunity to do so try running you fingers over the dorsal fin from front to back and watch it disappear almost completely. Add in the fact that the small pectoral fins fit almost flat against the body and you should be able to visualize the wahoo as a stern-powered projectile with virtually no water resistance and the ability to correct direction quickly with just a minor change in the positioning of the finlets. Sort of like those torpedoes that you see in the old World War Two naval movies. More of man trying to mimic nature.

And like the torpedo, the front end is the deadly bit. Examine the wahoo's jaws closely. The first thing is obvious: a set of razor-sharp teeth that resemble a serrated blade. Make no mistake; even dead wahoo can slice the skin as easily as a sharp knife. Look toward the rear of the jaw and you will notice that the hinging point is actually ahead of where you would reasonably expect it to be. This has the effect of making the upper and lower jaws work like a set of shears, exerting maximum cutting ability.

Not surprising that a razor-tipped powerhouse has no problem zipping through your wake, neatly slicing the tails of your baits without so much as bending a rod. Hats off to Bermuda's number one game fish!

The Miami Boat Show Big Game Room continues to draw the interest of anglers worldwide. This year the winner of the Big Game Room Hall of Fame award is Michael Leech. This is being given to Mike in recognition of his many years of contributions to the sport. Leech was the life and soul of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) for many years and continues to inspire and influence game fishing now as IGFA's ambassador at large. The actual presentation will take place at 5.00 p.m. on February 17th in the Big Game Room. Any locals expecting to be able to attend should make an effort to do so. Mike is a great guy, really approachable and he is always willing to talk fishing with just about anybody. He has had first hand interaction with a number of Bermudian anglers and has a pretty good handle on local events as well as the fishing itself. At the very least, you will be able to talk Tight lines!!!