I had the pleasure of going swordfishing yesterday with my good buddy, Capt. Billy Turnbull. This was not my first trip with Billy. I put one of my customers on Billy's boat back in June and went along for the ride. We took Jeremy Foell with us and headed out on Billy's 18' Boston Whaler.
Billy is the Swordfish King of the Middle Keys, as you'll soon discover. He owns two boats, his whaler and a nice 31' OceanMaster. Charter clients are treated to the OceanMaster, but fishing buddies go on the Whaler.
We left Billy's dock at about 8:30 in the morning, loaded up with his custom Daiwa 3000 electric/manual setup, various other rods and reels, gaffs of all sizes and his top-secret bait system. We had sandwiches and a case of water along to sustain us.
Speaking of Jeremy. He's a wiry lad of seventeen who lives and breathes spearfishing. He spends so much time in the water, I'm sure there are gills under that dive suit. His Facebook page is chock full of pictures of his snares – grouper, snapper, hogfish – not a puny one in the bunch.
When invited to go swordfishing, Jeremy jumped at the opportunity to expand his above water fish-capturing experiences. I don't think he knew what he was in for.
Back to the fishing. On the way out to Billy's swordfishing grounds, we encountered a school of gaffer size dolphin and put a dozen in the boat just for good measure. Jeremy and I agreed, "At least, we'll have dinner." But, what were we thinking? Capt. Billy Turnbull simply does not return to the dock without a swordfish.
We got to the first spot and drifted it with no bites. Billy moved to a second spot nearby and our luck changed. The first drift produced an instant bite and hook-up. I was strapped in to his ultra deluxe harness system and ready for the fight. The fish surfaced and dove several times and I could feel it thrashing its bill back and forth in an effort to free itself from the hooks. As it came closer and closer to the boat, we could make out its silvery blue sheen and those huge eyeballs staring us down as if to say, "You ain't got me yet, sucker!"
A bit more reeling and I had the fish to the boat. Billy saw that it was a 60-80lbr – nice fish – but not a keeper, especially that early in the day. On the very next drift, we had another quick bite and hook-up. This time, it was Jeremy's turn on the rod. The expression on his face was part "cool" and part "holy s***."
I held on to back of his harness as Jeremy fought the fish. His impulse was to let go of the rod and hang on to the boat so as not to be pulled overboard by the beast at the end of the line. He also wanted to bend forward toward the fish, which prevented the harness from doing its job. I told him to lean back and sit down just slightly as if on a bed of nails. That way he benefited from the leveraging effect of the harness.
Jeremy quickly got into the rhythm of letting the fish take some line, reeling it in, letting it out again. The fight went on for about an hour and a half when another set of those piercing eyes came to the surface to glare at us menacingly. Once again, the angler prevailed over the fish. This sword was a bulky 150lbr, and Billy put it in the boat without a second thought.
We made two more drifts for two more hook-ups. When the first came tight to the boat, we pulled the hooks and thought it must have been merely snagged. While reeling the bait up, something bit at about 700 feet. We never got to find out what it was as it was eaten by the largest silky shark we'd ever seen. It had to be at least 7 feet and 250 pounds, possibly larger. It dove under the boat and snapped the rod in half.
We swapped out the rod, made one more drift and hooked another sword. As it was running for the surface, the hooks pulled at about 300 feet. The sun was getting low in the sky; the beverages and Jeremy were exhausted, so we called it a day. A very good day.
Capt. Chris Johnson has been involved in the charter fishing business since he was a kid at the Jersey Shore. He now specializes in offshore, gulf/bay, bottom, wreck and reef fishing with SeaSquared Charters out of 7 Mile Marina. You can reach him at 305.743.5305 or SeaSquaredCharters.com. Follow him on Facebook: SeaSquared Fishing Charters, or Twitter: MarathonFishing.
