LAST weekend saw the fishing of the annual Flybridge Junior Fishing Tournament. This event is continuing to be remarkably successful, often having served as a foundation for youngsters who go on to become active members of the adult angling community. Organiser Bobby Rego and Flybridge Tackle should be congratulated on having staged a highly successful community event for many years now and having made a major positive contribution to the quality of island life.

As is always the case in this event, there were lots of winners. In the Under Five age group, fishing from a boat, the winners were Serena Madeiros with a 4 lb 12 oz turbot and Ajani Burchall with a 5 lb 2 oz chub. Both were caught on rod and reel. Using handlines, Zayla Bollin and Alexander Zuill were winners with a 3 lb 14 oz turbot and a 1 lb 7 oz bonita, respectively.

In the same age category but fishing from the shore, the rod and reel winner was Wyniko Showers with a 6 oz garfish while handliners Zylah Bean found a winner with an 11 oz bream and Nas Smith came up trumps with a 2 lb 4 oz mackerel.

In the Five-11 year age group, the boat winners fishing with rod and reel came up with some nice fish. Tia Froud had a 3 lb 2 oz porgy and Cullen Stout has an 11 lb 10 oz dolphin to each claim a prize. Using handlines from a boat, Ashley Soares scored with a 1 lb 8 oz turbot while anglers Kiwon Waldron and Kim Malpas each caught a 2 lb 14 oz tilefish (better known to most as a slangdang) to tie in that category.

Also in the Five-11 category, rod and reel shore fishers the winners were Tracy Jackson with a 6 oz grunt and Kaiream Easton with a 1 lb chub. Using handlines, Camryn Swan emerged a winner with a 1 lb 4 oz chub and Max Faulkner joined the elite with a 6 oz squirrelfish.

Moving into the Senior category, the 12 to 16 year olds demonstrated their prowess as well. Fishing from a boat and using rod and reel saw Brittany Ricca catch a 14 lb 12 oz wahoo to earn a prize while Mustafa Ingham got into the limelight with a 15 lb 3 oz wahoo.

In this older category but fishing from the shore the winners were McKenzie Stewart with a 6 oz garfish and Kenneth Burt with a nice 13 lb 1 oz amberjack.

The big winner was 15-year old Julia Judd. While fishing from Capt. Steven Rance's Knockdown, she caught a fine 18 lb 12 oz wahoo to win the Largest Fish Overall category.

All in all, this was an incredibly successful tournament with 160 youngsters registering to fish and a high catch rate brought 75 fish to the weigh-in. In contrast to most adult events, this is a much better proportion of registered anglers actually bringing fish to a weigh-in. Congratulations to all the winners and an honourable mention to all those juniors who took part. Well done!

The prize presentation for the Flybridge Junior Tournament will take place on Saturday at Flybridge Tackle, Church Street at 10 a.m. All winners are asked to be in attendance. All others can pick up their photographs from Flybridge Tackle starting yesterday.

Moving back into the great big offshore world, the marlin continue to be the big story. There are still some big fish around and the numbers of smaller fish are on the rise, much as expected.

Some deep water trollers have had strikes from large yellowfin tuna and there have been a few albeit really nice fish caught. In terms of the tuna usually caught in the chum things are pretty bleak even though there is the outside chance of a late run of mid-sized fish over the next month or so. Anglers trolling to take advantage of the hoped for wahoo run will be the first to see if the tuna put in a late appearance. Otherwise it will be down to the blackfin tuna to provide the light tackle sporting action on the Banks.

Wahoo continue to please with some boats managing to get into double figures. This has been fairly consistent over the summer and is really something to marvel at. In simple terms, there is usually a spring run then a few fish are taken regularly through the summer, eventually building up to the much larger autumnal run. Any significant increase over this summer's supply of wahoo would be pretty much unprecedented, though no doubt welcome, especially with winter not all that far in the future. Such could augur well for the Mid-Ocean News Wahoo Tournament and would-be participants should remember to get their entry forms in on time.

Down in the Virgin Islands the annual Boy Scout tournament (more properly, the USVI Open/Atlantic Blue Marlin Tournament) also turned out to be wildly successful. The winning boat was familiar to Bermuda in the shape of Rum Bum which emerged as High Point Boat with 4,000 points from ten blue marlin releases. Top angler was Richard Rice with six blue marlin releases. Somoya, skippered by James Barnes, had its moments, leading the fleet but then going "oh for nine" (that would hurt anybody's head) and eventually finishing up in 12th place.

It is in the statistics that the quality of the marlin fishing is made quite evident. This year the average boat (a numerical value rather than a real reflection of individual performances) caught over 4.3 fish during the four day event. The average for anglers was just shy of 1.4. There was a total of 125 fish caught by the 29 boats that registered for the tournament. This lower than usual participation rate was attributed to the beginnings of an economic downturn and the ever-rising cost of fuel.

Fuel costs have undoubtedly had an effect on local fishing effort; hitting both casual local anglers and the charter industry. In fact, the state of the economy, particularly in the United States, is affecting the local angling scene whether we recognise it or not. Along with other destinations that list fishing as one of the attractions, Bermuda is getting less visitors than expected and a smaller percentage of those who do come are opting for a day offshore. Taken together, there is an effect on the local scene.

Many amateur boats are confining their efforts to the inner bottom ¿ closer to home and cheaper to get to in terms of fuel. This is not necessarily a bad thing. There are good numbers of yellowtail snappers willing to please and the amberjack and bonitas are only just coming into their own. Bottom fish and so-called "non-game" species also make for some good eating and fillets for the freezer. After all, there are those who know that you don't have to run fifteen miles offshore to experience some rather pleasant Tight lines!!!