The Chum Line February 2011
Welcome to the February edition of the Chum Line and to a new year of fishing action.
Offshore Fishing Report
Since the 31st of December came and went it is hard to believe we could experience worse weather for fishing... while we have had the occasional nice day for boating, most of January was characterized by awful mid-Atlantic gales. For some club members even getting to check on boats proved to be a logistical nightmare given the prevailing weather conditions. Plenty of centre console covers were lost to all points on the compass once the wind really cranked up.
That said the weather seems to be turning towards something that looks more conducive to fishing. Boats that have ventured out on the odd nice day have enjoyed success dink baiting for Yellowfins, with most of the fish in the 15lb to 30lb bracket. Other boats have done well on some very chunky Wahoo in the 60lb to 70lb bracket. Those are very nice fish.
From here on in the fishing should slowly start to improve, though we can expect further unsettled weather before the conditions could be considered spring like. Many of you will remember that attendance at last year's Miami Boat Show was impossible due to near hurricane force winds forcing extensive flight cancellations. Let's hope we don't get a repeat of that weather in 2011!
Fishing Reports From Afar
Club members Fiona Beck and Dean Rea enjoyed their annual migration to the Kingdom of Tonga in late December and early January.
The fishing action was pretty decent, though unusually the FADs were not holding the normal bait schools and this slowed the Dolphin fishing a little. At best it was one Dolphin per day. Well down on the usual three or more you could expect to encounter during a day on the water in the Kingdom.
Despite the lack of bait showing on the sounder, there were plenty of Blue Marlin around in the 150 to 400lb range and enough Yellowfin Tuna in the 100 to 150lb range to make the fishing exciting.
Fiona tagged a Pacific Sailfish on 30lb tackle that mostly certainly would have been a new woman's all tackle record for Tonga. But this sailfish was destined to be tagged and released and got to fight another day. Anyway... if you don't weigh it... don't say it! In the above picture Dean is about to make a post-photo release of the sailfish.
Club Events
The next regular Club meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 15 February at 7.30pm at the RHADC. This is your chance to hear from Mr. Norbert Simmons of the Fisheries Dept about what the new fisheries regulations mean for you. Be a responsible angler and know the new rules. We'll look forward to seeing you there!
Before the 2011 fishing season gets properly underway we'll be looking at holding a Club meeting that deals specifically with jigging. This is a form of fishing that has exploded in popularity on the Island in recent years.
The Club Christmas Dinner was held in December at Mad Hatters. Once again Mad Hatters put together some fine food for us to enjoy. The evening was a real success and those Club Members that attended had a great time. And if you'd like to see photos from the Christmas dinner why not go to our new website? The new website has been put together by Adrian Lynch over the course of the last half of 2010. If you follow this link you should be able to see the photos from the Christmas festivities http://www.bermudaanglersclub.com/gallery/xmas-party-2010
The website will be subject to a bit of tweaking in the early part of 2011 as we get things bedded down. Many thanks to Cindi Pearman for all her hard work in maintaining the previous website and to Adrian for his time in making the new website a success.
Club Catch Records
Even though it is still winter some of you must have plans to get out fishing!!! If you do get out, 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 visiting the new website and emailing us from the Home Page.
In the meantime... get out there and go fishing! You can't catch 'em from in front of the TV or PC!