Fish Finders for Swords

[Mazatlanreelnrockn]

I own a charter sportfishing business in Mazatlan, Mexico. The water here has swordfish but no one is fishing for them. I am looking to buy a enexpensive fish finder for Swords I have chartplotters, radar ect. . What do you recomend?

[swordfish123]

I belive that most people use their fishfinders to read the bottom and thats about it. Swordfish typically are found near bottom struction and hills, mountains etc on the ocean floor, even if it is 2000' down. Hopefully some of the experts can chip in on this as I do not even have a bottom machine on my boat.--but i have still caught swords. If you can get your hands on a bathymetric chart for your area, that would help too.

[RiskTaker]

I still have a lot of learning to do: but sometimes I question whether the little lumps and dips we see off of Hollywood, (certainly a stretch for the words Canyon and Pinacle), make that much of a difference for improving odds of a swordfish hook-up. I would rather interpret them to be mounds and dips with little more the 200 ft. delta in most every contour change within a half mile span.

Maybe the Biscayne Canyon is a deserved name where the depth can change by 300 ft. within a 1/2 Nautical Mile. There are a few other places too. But for the most part the delta may be 200ft. in select places.

I have yet to notice a rip or an upwelling in 1000 ft. of water where it is so obvious a change in current flow.

Now as a comparison, I have observed one helacious rip or current flow collision down in the lower Keys, say about 15 miles south of the coast around Big Pine in about 800 ft. of water. No major bottom contours to notice in this area. But one hell of a collision in water flows, to the point where you want to pay attention as you traverse the zones, (Whitewater breakers) whereas everything else was smooth cruising.

It seems like generally acceptable conditions that upwellings may bring desireable conditions, or at least pinnacles that get closer to the surface. I have seen the Islamorada hump on calm water days and even without the aid of GPS, etc. you knew exactly where the upwelling of water met with the surface.

But back to swordfishing, it seems like there is just about as much chance of hooking up with a swordfish over uneventful bottom, as over what looks like eye candy to the angler looking at a Bathymetric map with bumps and divets.

Certainly we must admit that we have something special going on right about the 79:50 W longitude line at that particular lattitude zone. But in the bigger picture it seems to be like at Carribean Sea/Gulf funnel that concentrates a great deal of activity very close to our shore line or at list with a 50 mile wide restriction.

It seems like swordfish may be caught in great number on the Bahamas side of the EEZ as well. Just that the general consensus is that there are more sharks to contend with. Probably true too. Seems like over the years the Bahamians have utilized far fewer 12 Gauge shots than the cowboys on the western side. I'm not picking on anyone, for I have fired plenty of shots on the open ocean in my youth, and it ain't for no food fish or pop bottles neither.

So I just wonder if we are not over trumping the bottom contours. I may learn otherwise as time goes on. But for now, I am awed if i see a sharp contour change on the bottom. But I have yet to notice the rods firing off due to that contour change. Certainly many anglers have some preferred fishing locations but that may have become learned through many trials and errors. (Is it really the bottom structure that matters so much for fish in migration? Tomorrow they are somewhere else and they may have to traverse boring bottom to get there. )

[catching]

RT,

Very nicely put but these are preditors and rome where the food is. From what I have experienced they are all over the place just need to set up where they are feeding and you will catch one, best night I had no GPS or Depth finder and still had five hits and one in the boat within 2 hours of fishing and 1 hour and 15 minutes fighting the one we caught. Still have not caught one on the 50 line :shock:

This is not rocket science this is just fishing right place, right time, and the fish are feeding you are catching not fishing.

RT no offense just my 2 cents
Catching

[RiskTaker]

Catching,

No offense at all. Your post is actually supporting the point I was challenging, "that a specific geographic bottom holds the swordfish". I think that it is more like you suggest, following the food.

I agree that in some places upwellings really do launch nutrient rich waters from the depths. It just seems like in our area we have only small contour rolling hills about a 1000 ft. down. And on any given night the fish can be at one place or another, perhaps a direct function of the bait.

I mentioned the 50 line simply as Swordfishing central but "the zone" could easily meander from plus or minus 5 miles of longitude adjustment from there, 79:55 - 79:45 or more, like to the Bahamas. From there it is only a couple miles more to the grey line or the EEZ boundary, so many anglers may simply not push further offshore. Which in legal terms you should have your Bahamian fishing permit in effect to fish in that zone.

So in reality swordfish are caught over over the place out there, not just over particular points of structure. But sure enough if you look at the swordfishing map, X marks the spot where there are interesting contours for a map-quester. I am still learning and I could be all wrong on the contour thing, but I can still catch plenty of swordsfish without ever once drifting directly over one of them thar Xes.

That's my swordfish finder technology: forget the map( but they sure look pretty and good for bottom fishing spots ), but grab the phone, and ask other anglers where they can report the bait or where the bite has been active on previous previous nights, if you can. Or cross check with historical catches if you are keeping a log.

P.S. - Has anyone caught a swordfish with a tag in it yet?

[catching]

RT,

Very well Said =D>

None of the fish I have caught and none that any of my freinds have caught have had tags on them.

Tight Lines
Catching

[cogzwell]

u da man RT. I'm thinking of heading over to bimini friday and then up to port lucaya sat, sun and monday. back om tuesday. Trinidad John, Bossuk have committed. wanna go?

[RiskTaker]

Yes, Absolutely, but did you mean this Friday? :shock: :shock:

I call u.

[jerry]

RT, sounds like a honey "do"day :shock: :shock:

[RiskTaker]

Yeah, more like a Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday honey-do deal. (Well not truly it is just a list of things pending)

But have you ever seen a Moray Eel on deck of a boat. That will be me trying to negotiate my new priority listing.

[jerry]

wiggling all around or what????

[RiskTaker]

Ya Mon, that sounds about right.

[Disco Lady]

RT, and Catching,right on Bro!!!!!!!!!

[CaptainEd]

RT

I think current and temp (thermoclines) are more important than bottom structure, although bumps and hills are directly related to both. The key will always be where the bait is. I think the bait gets moved around from nature involentarily quite a bit. I'd stick to current lines and temp differences if you are trying to go "hi tech". Too bad I could not respond to the locked thread sooner. I was delivering a yacht to Sebastion and you know I just don't spend much time on the water.

Ken, give me a break. You know i'm right but just don't want to take a popularity hit. I think if you kill a swordfish, especially a 600lb one and let the meat go to waste you are a dildo. You honestly think the fish those guys posted here was under 47"? No way in hell.


I'd be glad to tell anyone that including kids. You think the word dildo is something a kid who surfs here hasn't heard before? If a kid asked me what a dildo is I'd show him a picture of commercially permitted guys posing next to a 600lb swordfish that wasted the meat. Trying to divert obvious stupidity by using kids as a crutch is weak.


I never "troll" this board. I post what I think and I'm respectful. It's a few of you new guys that seem to want to start sh*t here.

Tim (who I'll gladly wait for) or any of you internet badasses don't try that I'm hiding on the internet sh*t with me. I don't post under a fake name and I'm easy to find. If any of you want to lock horns with me I'm giving you an open invitation. Just let me know. In fact I look forward to it more than you know. My boat's right across from the Dania pier in case you want to surprise me or try and F*ck with it/me. Hammerhead

[Rod Chucker]

:shock:

[Disco Lady]

CONO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock: