Sword Track

[SteveMras]

Here's a chart of an 8-day PSAT track of a SoCal Sword. Like to hear your intrepretations and the implications for fishing them.

http://myfishingpics.com/photopost48...days_Sword.jpg

[quack quack]

very cool.Nights 100ft day time 900ft.

[SteveMras]

Actually, nights 0 to 80' or 100'. Our thermocline normally shows at 80' to 90' on the meter. More importantly, look at the the light chart. You can see two spikes in the light which correspond to two very brief day time surfacing events during the entire 8-day track. The rest of the time, the light is basically the same level. So you could deduce that they prefer a certain level of light and descend/rise in the water column to achieve that level. No doubt your Florida swords are behaving differently as you guys get them at 300' to 400' on the drift at night. Based on this one fish, you'd get zilch fishing below 100' at night.

Our issue off SoCal is sharks. Tons of blues and makos. You can eliminate blues by trolling as they are lazy. Makos will run down marlin lures at 7 to 8 knots. However, a friend conducted tagging studies on small makos (our greatest problem) and found that they spend 85% of their time at night in the top 12 meters of the water column. Look at the track above and it looks like swords spend their time in the top 25 to 30 meters of the water column. When I trolled surface baits like they do off Kenya, I was mako bit. Anything above 40' on the donwrigger, I get mako bit. I've been running baits at 60' to 70' on the downrigger and have nearly eliminated the makos, but still have not got my sword. However, it's a matter of time.

Here's a pic of a bigeye thresher we got in September while trolling at night:





Very rare catch off SoCal, principally because no one fishes them at night. For me, it's a good sign as the boys in New Zealand who troll swords at night regularly tussle with the bigeye threshers.

[ContenderWays]

This data is a bit unpredictable as most novices would say the fish would be deeper on the fullmoon/last quarter which I believe your data is there...

[SteveMras]

Originally Posted by ContenderWays

This data is a bit unpredictable as most novices would say the fish would be deeper on the fullmoon/last quarter which I believe your data is there...

Yes, it's hard to make definitive conclusions, as this is a track from just one fish. The track is also from at least two years ago, so you can't use this year's moon phase. Also, you can't compare this fish to anything in Florida, as they are two entirely different ecosytems.

I use it for general strategic planning of my approach. Suffice it to say that daytime fish off SoCal are entirely incidental. People come upon swordfish incidentally while targeting other species and then try to bait them. Looking at the charts, you can see that the odds for success are very low. If you were to plan a trip to specifically target swords off SoCal, it wouldn't be during the day time.

In fact, here's a current example of exactly what I'm talking about:

http://www.bloodydecks.com/forums/in...die-today.html

Man, do I want to kick myself in the bag. Met up with Frank and his daughter today heading for the 9 to do some Sharkin. Got bait and was out there early on for a beautiful day.

Found some lettuce and started chummin for not much. Did see some Skippy or Bonie lookin stuff cruise and jump on bait, wish we coulda hung a couple.

About noon we move again, this time right on top of the 9 and right away we all yell.......SWORD!

I'm on the 50 wide like stink while Frank brings the boat around for a pass. I knew we'd have to set it up just right or forget it. This fish is hunting, circling and looking for some bait that the Dolphins were chewing up. You could tell by the amount of birds in the area diving. We make one big sweeping turn and it's almost perfect. (cept for dipshit me leaving the 50 in low). The Sword crosses over and I see the line right between his fins 15 feet too far . No worries, this fish isn't scared so we turn to do it again.

Well, he's starting to get pissed but still looks like he would take a bait. We stop and here he comes about 25 out on a track to run into the bait or us.

Then he JUMPS right at us!!! All 3 of us yell WHOA!! This thing is between 3 and 4 bills easy!! I have never seen a Swordfish this big up close and I am now shakin He was full of vinegar and ready to tear our asses up!!!

We try 2 more times to get a Jumbo dino in front of him as he is still boxing his little area looking for bait.

Humbug----------- we see him about 10 feet in front of the boat..SHIT!! That's all she wrote.


Man I've baited, hooked (lost) and seen a lot of Swordies before but not this size.

The swords are out there in numbers, the sword boats are knocken em out. If you want a shot at one of these now is the time. We are gonna be out next week taken a shot at em. Damn flattie tourney Damn Deer season.

Dicked with this guy for at least 20 minutes. Next time gotta have some good sized macks or bones or even skippies. Hell those dink yellows would be perfect. With the 50 wide and 80 lb we would have been on this fish forever but in 500 feet of water doable. I think Frank is hooked

[Verado06]

Roger that. I too believe that the same fish species act very different in different parts of the world. Some of it can be explained by the water temp, ecosystem, etc... but some data we will just always to in the dark on...

[SteveMras]

Originally Posted by Verado06

Roger that. I too believe that the same fish species act very different in different parts of the world. Some of it can be explained by the water temp, ecosystem, etc... but some data we will just always to in the dark on...

Well, I've got calls out looking for a second to troll them tonight because they're in and both the stick boats and the drift gillnetters are getting them good. Difference, air temps will be in the 50's and the wind will be variable 10 knots or less, ocean basically flat, the water temps 64 and no one out there.

[njoimia]

all i have to say is that is sweet!!

[SteveMras]

Also note that the bottom temperature on the chart looks to be about 8 Celsius, or about 46 Farenheit. The top temperature looks to be about 18 Celsius, or about 64 Farenheit. Coincidentally, 64 is the prevailing surface temp right now off of SoCal.

[islandshark633]

do we have an idea of the water depth? Question being were the fish holding at the bottom around 900ft or was it much deeper and they liked that particular temperature/light condition?

if I thought they were holding at 900ft or so I would not hesitate to drift during the day with baits at that depth. MAybe there is a 'majic' depth they hold at over here?

[SteveMras]

It's really hard to determine depth unless you have geolocation and certainly this chart does not provide that data. We have at least one offshore bank that comes up to about 70 fathoms and a number of others which come up to 152 to 300 fathoms. I generally troll around the perimeters of these when the swords are known to be there from commercial stick boat activity during the day.

I'd have to say that it's more a feed issue than bottom structure. The two often coincide for obvious reasons. However, I'd look for area first, then find feed. I noted when I fished in SE Florida that you guys mostly look for bottom/zone and let the current pull you through the known historic producing areas, then repeat the drift. We don't have the luxury of a 3 knot current.

[tunaman81]

Very interesting to see the beharior of the swordfish, however, you need many more tags to see any behavioral trends.

Originally Posted by SteveMras

Very rare catch off SoCal, principally because no one fishes them at night. For me, it's a good sign as the boys in New Zealand who troll swords at night regularly tussle with the bigeye threshers.

I believe that bigeye thresher sharks are federally protected and are illegal to kill or possess:

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/rec_info.htm

[SteveMras]

Originally Posted by tunaman81

Very interesting to see the beharior of the swordfish, however, you need many more tags to see any behavioral trends.

I believe that bigeye thresher sharks are federally protected and are illegal to kill or possess:

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/rec_info.htm

Those regs only apply to the Atlantic:

Atlantic sharks
• Allowed species other than Atlantic sharpnose and bonnethead: 1 fish per vessel per trip. For a list of prohibited shark species, please see the table below.

In fact, the entire regs referenced only apply to the Atlantic.

That bigeye thresher was caught at 33 11 43 N, 118 04 24 W, also known as the 277 spot about 8 miles off the East End of Catalina (right at the "0") which is in the Pacific:



I agree, you need more tags to see more behavioral trends. I don't have the tracks of those, but have seen the summarized results. Basically the same as this one.

[tunaman81]

sorry, my mistake.

What I find interesting in this graph is that the swordifsh did repeated
dives from the surface to about 75 ft during the course of the night.
The thermal structure is different in the Pacific so a lot of info can
not be applied directly to our fishery, but I would bet this trend will
be in the SAIL club's PSAT data. cheers, arthur

[SteveMras]

Originally Posted by ProfessorO

What I find interesting in this graph is that the swordifsh did repeated
dives from the surface to about 75 ft during the course of the night.
The thermal structure is different in the Pacific so a lot of info can
not be applied directly to our fishery, but I would bet this trend will
be in the SAIL club's PSAT data. cheers, arthur

Good observation Professor. I'm willing to bet that the fish is swimming below and coming up to ambush bait near the surface. When out cruising at night in SoCal, where there is biolumenescence we regularly often see bait balls scattering from the bow wake lighting up the water. Many times makos are seen chasing the bait balls. My belief is that these fish are look for feed above them, not below them. I've tried trolling baits at depths starting from 225' on up in 25' increments under the belief that I'd stay away from the sharks and possibly interface with swords. I basically stayed away from everything until I got above 80'. When I run baits from 40' to the surface, I get makos. Below that, makos are much less of a problem. I did get a bigeye thresher this year and I know the boys in NZ get those trolling for swords. Their water is closer to ours in temp, a lot closer than Florida's. In trading e-mails with one of the top sword captains down there in NZ, they get 90% of their fish trolling at 100'.

[Another Grand]

Steve,

I im'ed Pro-O because I was thinking the same thing. Not sure about the squid but I feel that they may attack the Tinkers over here in the same manner. On several instances over time I have had Tinkers get "pushed" to my boat and then we get tight. Anyways just an observation.

Thanks for the info, pretty cool

[John Doe]

Originally Posted by ProfessorO

but I would bet this trend will
be in the SAIL club's PSAT data. cheers, arthur

Too bad only Pumpkineater and the longliners are the only ones able to cash in on this info. And the way I heard it they did cash in pretty well ! 200 fish for 400 hooks ! right where the tag popped ! And another boat way better than that . I guess you need to be in the click.

[tunaman81]

Originally Posted by SteveMras

. My belief is that these fish are look for feed above them, not below them.

Almost all open ocean pelagics (marlin, tuna, shark, swordfish) feed on bait above them. They attack from below. Most cannot physically see below them...their eyes are designed for looking up and forward.

[SteveMras]

Originally Posted by tunaman81

Almost all open ocean pelagics (marlin, tuna, shark, swordfish) feed on bait above them. They attack from below. Most cannot physically see below them...their eyes are designed for looking up and forward.

Precisely.