One of my best customers and his son, Donny R and Sam from Pittsburgh, requested a swordfish charter last week. I've taken Don fishing many, many times. He especially enjoys going to the far Gulf (65 miles from my dock at 7 Mile Marina) for cobia and other larger critters. Because I value Don as a truly great client and I wanted him to have an excellent experience, I decided to cop-op this charter with my buddy, Capt. Billy Turnbull, who fishes out of Key Colony Beach. Billy is really dialed in to this fishery with nearly 200 catches under his belt.
We headed out of KCB about 8 o'clock Saturday morning (7/11) on Billy's 31ft OceanMaster. Conditions were - in a word - SPORTY. It took us two hours to get to his favorite hunting grounds 30 miles (or so) off Marathon. Throughout the day, waves varied anywhere from 8 to 12 feet, and we got bounced around quite a bit. Despite all that, Billy and his deckhand Mike worked their magic with their secret baits, rigs and techniques and we had our first sword on the line pretty fast. Sam, 17, got the fish to the boat and we saw it was about an 80lbr. Don made the decision to let in go in favor of catching a larger one.
So, we continued to drift, and drift, and drift. Just when we thought all hope was lost, we caught sight of the unmistakable brilliant blue-gold flash of a dolphin in one of the waves coming toward the boat. We weren't prepared for 'phins, but Mike threw a bucktail and she took it. In the boat she went. Nice 30lbr, but not our target.
About four hours went by when we saw the 80lb rod bend nearly in half. Then go slack. What the heck? Turns out it was a sword and it was coming to the surface - fast. As soon as it realized it was - oops - hooked, it took off and the line screamed off the reel. Again, Sam was up. Don hung on to his harness to keep him in the boat, and he did an awesome job fighting the fish. We were delighted to see it was a hefty 140lbr. A keeper, for sure.
With success in hand, we decided it was time to head in just when a LARGE sailfish surfed past us. Again, Mike threw a bucktail at it, but it wouldn't bite. No biggie. We had our target. It translated to about 100lbs of tasty swordfish steaks.
Capt. Billy and Mike did an awesome job and I will put my clients looking for swordfish trips on their boat anytime, even if I don't go along for the ride.
