Marlin, marlin marlin! They are the talk of the week and will probably continue to be the number one topic on into next week. Foreign boats, local boats and just about everyone getting in on the act either as an angler or crew, spectator or just monitoring catches on the internet.

Last Sunday saw the world wide July 4th Blue Marlin World Cup fished. The winner came from Cape Verde, a group of islands in the eastern Atlantic not too far off the coast of Morocco. A former Portuguese colony, the islands have been independent for some time now and the big blue marlin that cruise their waters have become the sort of legend that Madeira once was. The problem, of course, is that it is relatively hard to get your sport fisherman over there and, once there, you are pretty much limited to that area.

The boats that stay on the western side of the Atlantic have a choice of Bermuda, the U.S. east coast, the Bahamas and the whole of the Caribbean all the way down to Venezuela handily available within distances that most boats can make on their own bottoms.

In any event, the boat Happy Hooker, captained by German Berno Niebuhr, caught and landed a blue marlin at first thought to be about 800 pounds but which eventually tipped the scales at 1097 pounds! The angler was Chris Brand and he and his team are the only ones to win the world Cup twice (previously in 2006).

Brand's fish was not the first fish caught that day. Another Cape Verde boat had a blue that weighed in at 511, a Canary Island boat had a 600-pounder and a Madeira boat managed a fish that weighed 546 pounds. With a minimum weight of 500 pounds already being upped to 600 or better, the word of a grander took the wind out of most competitors' sails. With Hawaii and French Polynesia still to start fishing the atmosphere was somewhat glummer here in Bermuda than usual.

As most followers of local fishing know, the July 4th event was fished in concert with the Bermuda Billfish Blast, a two day event that concentrates on releases. On the Saturday the fishing had been red hot with 21 blue marlin and seven white marlin released. Everyone had great expectations for the 4th!

It was not to be. Despite ideal conditions, the bite turned slow and uncharacteristically there were only a few shots at decent fish. In the final analysis, Sunday saw just seven blues and eight whites released. All in all, the Blast had 43 billfish caught and released: 28 blues and 15 whites. Twenty-seven of the participating 39 teams scored with hook-ups resulting in releases about 75% of the time.

One of the criticisms of the tournament was that a couple of the fish released on the Saturday would have made the 500-pound minimum but, under tournament rules no fish could be killed on the first day. There was some feeling that the 4th July should be the first day of the Blast with the second day being the mandatory release day. As it turned out a considerably larger fish would have been needed to even chase a claim on the eventual winner.

The winner of the Bermuda Billfish Blast was Jim Whitley aboard Que Mas, ably skippered by Capt. Travis Butters. Que Mas amassed 2,700 points from five blue marlin releases made on the first day of the tournament along with a solitary white that they caught late on the second day. By any standards, they put on a most sterling performance and fully deserve the congratulations that they received. Weez in the Keys was second with 1,200 points while the top local boat was Capt. Allen DeSilva's Mako which, along with two other boats, collected 1,000 points.

The billfishing certainly did not end there. After a brief pause, the Bermuda Big Game Classic got underway on Wednesday, 7th July with the Captain's meeting. This year saw a total of 49 teams participating.

Fishing commenced on Thursday in showery conditions with moderate south easterlies making life interesting.

The fishing looked promising however, with the first bites coming just after the eight o'clock start time. By the midpoint of the first day, there had been 22 billfish caught: 15 blues and 7 whites. Two blue marlin gave Capt. Tom Lynskey's Uno Mas the early lead but with a day yet to fish almost anything could happen. Anyone wanting to follow the fishing live on the internet can do so at bbg10.catchstat.com/ .

That website gives continuous updates and tallies all the results as well as providing background information on the boats and teams. The official website www.bermudabiggameclassic.com also provides information and pictures.

Although Saturday is the last fishing day of the Classic, it is by no means the end of the July marlin madness. The Sea Horse Anglers Billfish tournament gets underway on Wednesday the 14th July. This event was the original Bermuda billfish tournament and has been around a lot longer than many of the club's executive would care to admit. Leaving that aside, it has remained a popular event, attracting many of the foreign boats for a last shot at a big fish before the real onset of the hurricane season and the big events in August on the East Coast and elsewhere. It is also the finale of the Bermuda Triple Crown which is decided by the total number of points scored by teams in the three recognised events. More than once, this tournament has led to a change in standings making it exciting right up until the end.

Now, it is accepted that not everyone wants to burn fuel and contract a sunburn, something that is often associated with marlin fishing. The good news is that there is still some reasonable wahoo trolling to be had and the yellowfin tuna are available in sporadic numbers on both banks. There is also the option of chumming for smaller game on the banks. There is every likelihood that rainbow runners along with mackerel and robins will be available. The latter can be traded up for something that might be preferable for your dining pleasure but the rainbows do make for a nice fillet. Just remember the ice. The water is warm, the fish are warm and the weather is hot. The combination leads to fish spoiling really quickly and this defeats the whole purpose of going out for some fresh fish.

Another way of looking at things; with many of the local charter fleet involved in the marlin events, many of the preferred chumming sites will be vacant. The fact that the commercial fleet sinks a lot of bait there on a pretty regular basis means that there should be some fish in the vicinity and that surely enhances your chances of some Tight lines!!!