I fished the guys from C&T Custom Renovations on thursday night for a sword only charter. Theses guys have never caught a sword before and they had heard how they fight. They were not to be disappointed. The night started out pretty slow we had a east west drift instead of our normal deep to shallow drift. So it took a few drifts to find the depth they were in. But once we did it was pretty stupid fishing. But up until then we had a few sword imposters namely sharks.
But it gave everyone a idea of what to expect when a sword finaly eats the bait. We constantly had magnum turbo sized hardtails in the light along with gogs and a handful of squid and a few 3" dolphin. So making a few livebaits was pretty easy. Finaly with my crew wondering if there were any swordfish in the gulf. The tip rod with a magnum turbo runner on it gets smoked. But I was never able to get tight on the fish. When the bait was reeled in it had a slash that just about cut it in two. Trey wondered if it was a shark but I assured him a shark would of found the hook. So now the confidence level is back in my crew.
And with the swordfish having the upper hand it is now personal. I reset the tip rod and the 200' line with a squid gets nailed but once again I didn't get tight on the fish. Now we are 0 for two but everything was about to change in our favor. Once again the runner gets whacked and about three feet of line was pulled from the 50W then nothing. But before I could reel in what I thought was another slashed bait. Kyle asks me to check out something on the other side of the boat. It wasn't a fish but it was my disco electralume swimming away from the boat. This fish hit a 300' and went right for the surface. So around the engines with the rod and finaly we are tight on a sword. It gave us a few jumps and settled into his comfort zone but with 20lbs at strike we had the fish to the boat pretty quickly.
I gaffed it a pulled it into the boat only to find it was perfectly lassoed behind the gill plates. It measured out at 49" and since it was leagal and a very fat fish and my anglers first. I gutted him and iced him down. Now I have a idea on where to reset my lines. I went right back to my man overboard mark and as I was setting out the second line the 200' line gets hit. I came tight on the fish and put Kyle in the harness this fish didn't do much at all when he popped up at the boat I could only see a few feet of my leader. I guess the hook had done some major damage to this fish. He was barly legal but legal so we kept him instead of feeding him to the sharks. The next drift I was able to get all of the baits out before we got a hit. And again it was on the 200' line. When I came tight on the fish I could tell it was a better fish than the other two in the box so another angler was harnessed in and the fight was on. I readied the harpoon and went over what I wanted everyone to do. After the hour and ten minute mark the fish started to tire and we were able to gain line on him. When he got close I harpooned him and pulled him into the boat. This fish measured out at 62"X39" and later weighed in at 133.7lbs which is good enough for number eight in the state of Louisana. It not a big one for South Florida but not many guys fish them over here. And the fishery is still unexplored. Now with our three fish in the box.
Well two in the box and the bill of the last fish sticking out of it. I reset for our last drift since I only had one squid left. As it got into postion the jug pops off and we are tight again to another fish. Kyle gets another shot on this fish since the one he had in the boat was pretty small and didn't put up much of a fight. He did a good job on the fish with the drag at sunset. I wanted to see what kind of heat I could put on a fish without the hook pulling and I was going to release the fish anyway. We got him to the boat real quick. So I grabbed the gloves and billed him only to have the hook fall out. Which was perfect but with him being green and not very happy I had him by the nose I let him go without a measurement. But he looked to be in the low 50" range. Now I was wishing I wouldn't of killed the smaller fish. But he was gut hooked and was going to die. So I did the right thing. We cleaned the boat up and everyone was pleased with going 4 for 6 for the night. My next sword trip is on the 18th. But I have several days of tuna fishing after that so it might take a week for the outcome to be posted.
Capt. Mike
