The Chum Line April 2011
Welcome to the April edition of the Chum Line... the fishing season is about to get underway!
Offshore Fishing Report
While the Bluefin Tuna encounters have tapered off, there are still school sized Yellowfin Tuna out on the Banks and, from time to time, a good selection of Wahoo to tangle with.
The bite seemed to slow a bit as we moved through March. But, on the other hand, the water temperatures are beginning to head north. The current sea surface temperature is knocking 68 degrees and that is well up on its February low of 61 degrees. And that means summer is not that far away, though right now it might not feel that way.
A couple of anglers have reported fantastic whale watching while they have been out looking for pelagics. Richard Lee took this tremendous shot a few weeks back.
Remember, if you are out enjoying some time with the whales make sure to give them plenty of "flipper room".
Heayy Metal - the Jigging Seminar!!
Danny Fox hosted our March jigging seminar at the RHADC. We had a great turnout for that event - around 38 attendees and, importantly, a number of prospective new Club Members.
Danny was supported by Bobby Rego, Donald Lewis and other anglers who supplied tackle for the event. One of the notable features of the evening was that it combined instruction, video and some hands on time with rods, reels and jigs!
We managed to capture most of the seminar on high def video, though some of the sound quality is a little less than ideal! We need a better mic! We'll post that video on the Club website in the not too distant future.
Our thanks to Danny for hosting such a extremely successful seminar. We will look at having a follow up session focusing on knots and rigging a little later in the year.
While we are on the subject of jigging, the IGFA has just released its new ruling on assist hooks (those are hooks attached, typically, to the head of the jig through a lead made of multifilament or wire and occasionally mono). The IGFA ruling states that:
"the lead cannot be more than 1 ½ times hook's length and the bend of the hook may not be more than 4 inches, whichever is less, from the closest point of attachment on the lure. Double and treble hooks may not be used as assist hooks."
Confused..? It's not the most clearly worded ruling. The idea is you can no longer use very long leads on assist hooks. This will probably impact those of you who make your own assist hook/lead combos. But it would also be prudent to run the ruler over commercially produced assist hooks too! We'll get some pictures up on the Club website soon to help illustrate the IGFA ruling.
Annual General Meeting
We also held a brief AGM the night of the jigging seminar.
The following people were elected as officer holders:
- Dean Rea (President)
- Mark Henneberger (Vice President)
- John Ringold (Treasurer)
- Fiona Beck (Secretary)
The following people were elected to the Executive Committee - Ken Henneberger, Steven Antonition, Mark Booth, Thad Crouch, Michael Batista, Richard Lee and Cindi Pearman.
Mark, Thad and Michael are new Executive Committee members and we welcome their input and enthusiasm.
Club Members in the News
In its March/April "International Angler" publication the IGFA ran an article on women world record holders. A bio of own Cindy Mitchell appears on page 18 along with a picture of a lovely Yellowfin Tuna Cindy caught on a fly rod, presumably here in Bermuda during the annual fly fishing invitational.
For the record (if you'll excuse the pun), Cindy's stats are seven IGFA records and two retired records.
April 2011 Prize Giving
Our Club prize giving is just around the corner. It is going to be held at the RHADC at 7pm on Friday 15 April. The cost will be $55 per person plus 15% gratuities. Please RSVP either Fiona Beck (fiona.beck@sccn.bm) or Cindi Pearman (cindipops@ibl.bm) if you will be attending. It promises to be a great evening.
New Jigging Trophy
We have recognized the surge in interest in jigging with a new Club trophy. The jigging trophy will be for the largest fish (excluding sharks) caught jigging irrespective of line class. Club members are using a wide range of different breaking strains of braid and it would be difficult to have trophies for each and every permutation. In the end we decided we make it easy... the jigging trophy goes to the heaviest fish weighed! But no sharks!!!
Club Catch Records
Remember to email Francis Patterson with your catches as they come to hand. Francis needs to know the species, the line class, and the weight of the fish, the date and the boat on which the fish was caught, along with any method of catch.
Francis' email is fhpp@northrock.bm.
Contacting the Club
Contact the Club by email at bermudaanglersclub@bermuda.com or by emailing us from the Home Page at www.bermudaanglersclub.com.
Catch'em up!