Thursday Night Report, 3/24-25

[RiskTaker]

Boat drinks: the boys wanted boat drinks. It seemed to be slow out there Thursday night. A full moon and no bights. So we cruised back home at 1:30 in the morning at 0-0.

We tried a drift from the 26:00, 79:46.3 up to 26:04, no bites.
We reset and tried another drift from 25:58.5, 79:50.5 up to the 26:06, no bites.

You could tell it was slow. If you tuned into Ch. 72, you could hear music at times. I thought only the AM/FM bands had music. I guess a few of the VHF channels are now offering Karaoke sing alongs.

Someone mentioned calling it a night with a nice Mako caught. Did I hear the number 400 lbs. ? Let''s wait to hear a first hand report before getting too excited about that story.

My freezer is now devoid of swordfish chunks. I need to re-stock but the fish do not seem to be cooperating with this angler.

We setup up lines at 400,300, 200, 150 & 450, a little bit deeper due to the full moon. At one point I dropped a tip line to 600 to see if that would help. Nothing. Where have all the swordfish gone? Could they be west of the 52 line tonight.

[CaptainEd]

I heard the Mako was around 400lbs. I got tight at 10:30 on the 49 at 250' on a jug. I fought him for about 40 minutes with only about 12lbs of drag and unusual for me, pulled the hook. Reset again and notta the rest of the night. A good night on the water and there was a decent bite. That stupid shit on the radio needs to be toned down a bit. It's getting really old.

[sabiking]

We started our first drift on the 52 / 48.8 and took it to the 00 with no bites. 2nd drift started at the 58 / 50.5 and ended the night at midnight with only one slashed bait. We fished 6 lines from 60' down to 425'. Very slow out there tonight, could they be in 600 - 800 with the tinkers?

[cogzwell]

1/2 early bite. Set up on the 25.5 47.6 @ dusk. 10 min after we set up the Tip rod starts going tic tic tic...... down 225. It makes one run and then nothing. As we pulled the tip to check the bait, the middle balloon (down 250) goes under and line starts zinging ....... god, what a fantastic sound! We clear lines and after 30 mins put a nice 52" on board. I WAS DUE!

Back in Boca with sword on the grill by 10:30.......

[Threesenough]

We fished down south last night around 25-32. No real action on the first drift. Set up again around the 25-34. We where just starting to set up. Had the first squid just barely hanging over the gunnel into the water and all of a sudden its tight on a fish before we can even get any more of the leader and gear into the water. Five minutes later we are cursing this shark, but at least it got us a little more motivated.

About an hour later we come tight on a fish we belive to be a sword on the 400ft. tip rod. While we are clearing the other rods the fish decides to weave a tapestry with our far jug. Somehow ended up busting off the fish. All happened very fast. We should have paid more attention to the far jug, we probably could have avoided the problem. Anyway lost my favorite set-up so I'll be back at the tackle shop today for replacements. Guess if your afraid of loosing your gear you shouldn't put it out. Just hang it on your wall and look at it!

Now as for the entertainment last night. Enough is enough of the singing. I guess that's what happens when you go out solo, because if anybody else was on the boat I'm sure they would have made him stop!

[woody]

Went out last, set up on the 49 line and 30 minutes later we got nice hit on the 300 ft rod. Fight it for about 25 minutes and get it up to the boat and see that its hooked right in the throat.It was bleeding every where so we decided to keep it, 50' fork to jaw. Set up again and drifted till 10:30 with no hits, so we decided to pack it up. Also picked up a few dolphins on the way out, lots of scattered weeds. Radio was pretty quiet other than a couple idiots.

[soundownsam]

We had to turnoff the radio last noght due to the stupidity. You can't even have a 30 second communcation w/o wise ass or worse comments all over the place.

As for fishies we had one tight and pulling drag for about 3 minutes. Besides that nada.

Sam

[Bull Market]

0-2, at 8:00 the 125' starts screaming a minute later the 225' starts screaming. Now we are both hooked up with a double. another minute later I lose my fish and reel up with everything gone-wind on, flasher everything. 30 seconds later my buddy loses his fish reels everything up and everything is :cry: gone? I do not understand a possible failure at the bimini knot but both rods? Plus we did not have a lot of pressure on and have laneded swords with the same set-ups. I am lost and pissed. Try again tonight and I will be re-trying all bimini knots. The bite was early.

[ReelIntubaiter]

We went 1 for 1. Got hit early on a tip rod at 250 ft. depth on a rigged squid. Brought in a badly bleeding and nearly dead 48" fish. The rest of the evening was very quiet. Headed in early at 9:30 PM after putting a sword newbie on his first fish. Mission accomplished.
So far we're 6 for 9 on the tag end squid rigs. The only problem is that most of the fish are hooked very deep which makes catch and release a challenge.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Bull Market

0-2, at 8:00 the 125' starts screaming a minute later the 225' starts screaming. Now we are both hooked up with a double. another minute later I lose my fish and reel up with everything gone-wind on, flasher everything. 30 seconds later my buddy loses his fish reels everything up and everything is :cry: gone? I do not understand a possible failure at the bimini knot but both rods? Plus we did not have a lot of pressure on and have laneded swords with the same set-ups. I am lost and pissed. Try again tonight and I will be re-trying all bimini knots. The bite was early.

Maybe 2 shark bites? Sounds like a tackle failure though.. Double check all your knots by pulling them against a clete before you send out.. I am confident in my knots but alway check them just in case...

Good luck tonight.

Mike

[LHPfish]

Reelintubaitor, wouldnt you rather have them hooked deep? We've been using the the tag end method too and have elimated the problem with the squid balling up on the hook which led to alot of bad hooksets/missed fish. With the tag end method, the fish are usually always hooked in the throat or deep in the jaw and we lose less fish. Whats yoour drag setting during the fight?

[ReelIntubaiter]

Reelintubaitor, wouldnt you rather have them hooked deep? We've been using the the tag end method too and have elimated the problem with the squid balling up on the hook which led to alot of bad hooksets/missed fish. With the tag end method, the fish are usually always hooked in the throat or deep in the jaw and we lose less fish. Whats yoour drag setting during the fight?

LHP, Yes I would rather have them hooked deep especially if they were big fish but it pains me to see a small fish come to the boat bleeding from being hooked deep. There's probably a very high mortality rate after release. My drag setting is around 12- 15 lbs. I was thinking of experimenting with circle hooks but everyone I've spoken to says they don't work with Swords. I suspect it doesn't work because of the Swords jaw anatomy. If circle hooks worked I would expect the long liners to be using them. Do you or anyone else have experience with circle hook use on Swords?