IF you have been getting the feeling that summer is over ¿ take heart, you may well be right! The humidity is gone and the first bit of blustery breeze is making its presence felt. As the song says "the times they are a changing"! Come Sunday evening when the darkness sets in around five o'clock, you'll be pretty sure that something has changed.

Another give away is the fact that the media is already starting to carry adverts for the turkey-related festivals that will dominate the next two months, leaving little room for other pursuits.

As luck, and the weather, would have it, the fishing has been slow as of late. Every so often, someone gets lucky and picks up a nice haul of wahoo but that is the exception and the sportsman usually is not in a position to go out "on spec". So, although there have been a few wahoo and even the occasional yellowfin tuna willing to please, it is hard to justify the expense.

With trolling not first choice, most minds turn to using bait to lure desirable fish to the boat but the tides on the Banks and elsewhere have made chumming a rather "iffy" proposition. Concentrating on the deeper reefs where yellowtail snapper are often found also gives the option of bottom-bouncing and there are usually some barbers willing to play along. If nothing else, they are all about the same size and do make for a nice firm, white fillet. Way better than nothing at this time of the year! A viable option is to go drifting, preferably on the Banks. The reason this is the preferred venue is that you don't have to set the drift so that you stay along the edge or in a single draught. The Banks are pretty flat and certainly the southern and western sides offer enough bottom that a drift should bring you over a few willing hinds and coneys. As you move north, the bottom type changes and things become a little bit more challenging. Hardly the home of grouper-like species, this is where one hopes to encounter schools of jacks and other floating species. As a result, things are a bit more hit and miss. With today's fuel prices, not too many of us can afford too many misses.

Looking at seasonal matters, it will probably come as a bit of surprise for many to learn that the Feast of the Eve of All Hallows (Hallowe'en to the rest of us) is definitely alive and well in the watery world. Let anyone with any doubts be guided accordingly.

First off, to really celebrate, we need to have witches. Not just any old witch but a Sea Witch®, an item that is widely used by all local anglers and forms the mainstay of many offshore trollers arsenal. Over time, this term has been used in conjunction with everything from the name of a famous ship to the marine version of the same evil spirits that brought fear and trembling to landlubbers.

And what would a witch be without a broom? Although there are no "broom" fish, there are plenty of sweepers including some species that are often abundant here.

As for a witch's "familiar", you might not want even to go there. This particular manifestation of evil is normally thought of as a black cat, but have you any idea how many different kinds of catfish there are? Apart from the Atlantic cat, there are over 3,000 catfish species worldwide. These range from tiny little specimens all the way up to the massive catfish that call the Mekong River home. This particular species is a sought-after gamefish in the area formerly known as Indochina.

There can't be anyone who has been to the United States, the southern states in particular, who has not encountered cat fish on menus, at catfish farms and as the most desirable target of all the local anglers be the fishing done in a lake, pond or even the mighty Mississippi River. Need more be said? What would it be without ghosts? Rest assured, there are plenty of fish that are called "ghosts", absolutely no shortage of these. There is a ghost knifefish (a rather lethal sounding combination!). Try to imagine, a ghost shark, a ghost pipefish and even a ghost flatfish. Plenty of ghosts in the watery world! Don't worry, there are lots of skeletons. In fact, there are a whole bunch of fish that are referred to as skeleton fish. These are not dead fish that have been worked over by a cat or anything else. These are living fish whose bodies are almost perfectly transparent and all you can really see are bones, yes, a living skeleton. Plenty suitable for the 31st October! There are goblins a plenty! Leading this group are the goblin sharks, a rather rare deep water species that is pretty much found all over the world. Obviously, given the angling carried out by locals, this species is pretty much unseen but then again, who really wants to meet a goblin ¿ especially in the dark.

The crescent moon is also pretty characteristic of this scary holiday and the watery world is full of things linked to the moon. There are moonfish, moon jellyfish and the term is actually even applied by Caribbean peoples to what we call a turbot (triggerfish).

A key ingredient in any witch's brew is eye of toad and even in the watery world, there are plenty of toadfish. They come in an array of colors, bizarre shapes and sizes. In case, you are a bit of a purist when brewing up a spell, there are also frogfish, so there shouldn't be any shortage of the makings.

Monsters. There aren't too many anglers who ply their sport offshore who haven't come across those things that can only be described as sea-monsters. Of all the Halloweeny things mentioned this is probably the only one which many of actually want to encounter, even though, as with the scary sort, we want to do this in the daylight and on our terms.

Oh, back to the Atlantic cat! Actually this is better known as a wolfish and that has to have something to do with the concept of a werewolf. That fits in well with the season.

As for anyone who wants to take this a bit further, there are plenty of avenues of knowledge left open to research. The idea of a ghoul actually moves into n English translation meaning demon. One of the big hooks used offshore is called a Sea Demon ¿ need any more be said?

Looking ahead, the sportfishing will take a serious backseat to what commercial fishing persists over the winter months. In the normal course of things the fishing is usually alright up until the onset of the New Year but right after that, things drop off almost to the point of non-existence. A few hearty souls will do their best over the next few weeks but, for most of us, there won't be too many occasions involving Tight lines!!!