I called up my mate Kenny Josack and told him we got a ride out to the Sword grounds on Saturday night. We got all the gear prepped; fresh leaders and crimps, and put a sharp edge on all the hooks. We counted our leads, lights, rubber bands and jugs. We made sure we had a few fat squids and got our bait rods ready to catch some Blue Runners.
As we cruised past the inlet the moon was already up. We stopped at one of the ships and found plenty of bait on it. We caught more than a dozen Blue Runner baits which would be plenty for our trip.
We were escorting Nick doup from Boston, MA on this trip. Nick was out with us earlier this year sometime in February and caught 3 Swordfish and a nice mako Shark on 2 trips. He was looking for some of that good action this time out so we were going to give it our best shot as we do every time.
We had a decent NE wind blowing on us but not much more than 10 knots. As we arrived in the area I saw about 8 Sword boats with us but nobody in our area. I was happy about that. Me and Kenny took turns rigging baits. He rigged the first Blue Runner and I sent him down. Kenny was having too much fun so I decided to rig the next one and kenny sent him down putting a kung fu grip on the line counter because he lost my last one. We get a 3rd line out and our #1 rod goes off with a medium speed but enough to rip off the jug and lose our lead. I was surprised because we secured that lead with 2 bands. We reeled it in and found our live bait in tact. Something was fishy. So we let the #2 and 3 rod go out farther ( now as #1 and 2) and reset the #1 rod and sent him out as # 3 rod now.
As we reposition the rods in the holders the rod I'm holding on to starts ripping line off the spool. Slowly I increased the drag until line stopped slipping off the spool. I could feel some pressure but not what I was feeling for, then I noticed the electralume on the surface so I had to wind him tighter and handed him off to Nick. At first the fish was coming to the boat pretty quick and we thought we had a small fish. Then the run began. The fish sounded hard then would slow down almost to a stop. Nick was harnessed up and would try to turn the fish's head but each time as soon as he put any pressure on the fish it would sound harder than stop again. Nick would try again and the fish would do the same thing. We were at about 22 pounds of drag and Nick was feeling it hard each time the fish sounded into deeper water. This went on for over 20 minutes as Nick could not gain even 1 crank on the spool. Finally the fish seemed to settle down and Nick was able to gain some good line back on the spool but then again the fish took it all away from him.
Finally this time Nick was able to steadily crank him in 1 or 2 cranks at a time all the way to the surface. The 3 of us looked like a hungry pair of Gorillas hanging over the gunnels ready to leader this fish. I was designated to gaff the fish as Kenny grabbed hold of the leader and pulled the beast closer to the boat. We first get sight of this enormous tail coming at us and it looks as if he is hooked in the tailfin. The tailfin was huge and we emmediately knew we had a nice fish here. The fish gave no resistance to us as Kenny pulled him closer. I took an easy gaff shot to the head area and all 3 of us pulled him over the gunnels on the 3rd try. The Swordfish had died because he was wrapped up in the leader the worst I have ever seen. It looked as if the leader first caught around his tail and circled his body 4 times upwards towards his head, around and in his mouth, then back down his body a few more times and the hook grabbed the leader near the tail. The hook was never in the fish, it just grabbed the leader and cinched tight the leader that was wrapping the fish. We have had quite a few fish come in this way. Mostly on live baits. I would love to see how it went down as the Swordfish went after the Blue Runner. It seems like the Swordfish takes a swing with his bill and hits the leader with it as the baitfish tries frantically to get away. As the leader is caught on the Sword bill, this makes the Runner swim faster trying to escape and winds up wrapping the fish up in the rest of the leader. Another scenario could be as the leader gets caught around the Swordfish he senses something is wrong and he sounds deep and fast and as he sounding 30-40 mph in the water the bait is going along for the ride but spinning hard around the Swordfish.
We should have a great winter Swordfishing and I hope to meet alot of new friends this season. Come on out and catch a big one with me and Kenny. We are one of the best teams out there as we want to get on the fish of a life time also each time were out.
Lets get em,
Captain Cary Hanna
New Lattitude Sportfishing
954-907-0967
