On the Troll Friday night.

[Nightfighter]

Been hearing the last few night were slow.
My buddy Bryan wanted to put the first sword on his boat real badly. Friday night looked to be the best weather window, so we both blew off our wives work Christmas parties, and got a late start. He wanted to try the trolling with the Transformers, so it was a very easy night for me, we only took lures, all rigged with Transformers, and 4 rod & reel set-ups. Didn’t have to rig a single squid.
I had everything ready to go in the time it took us to get to Boca inlet from the Silver Palms ramp. That was it, from there on all we had to do is get out there and put the lures in. How easy is that.
Lot of boats out there, they were spread from the 50 to 47 lines, and two sets of buoy guys had their blinkers from the 48 to the 46. The radio was slow and only heard 2 guys say they had a fish, or fought fish.
2 fish, all those boats, it didn’t look good. My goal was to troll through the typical 50 to 47, and told Bryan if no one is getting them out here, and we don’t have any knockdowns by the time we get out to the 47, then they aren’t out there. They are up feeding, just not out there, so let’s go look for them on the inside. Nada all the way out to the 47, so we headed back inside of the 50. We pass back by the 50 and still heading in, about 1-½ hours on the troll and still nothing, the radio was still quiet. Typical slow night. We were on the 53.5 when ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ fish on. It hit the right long, about 15 yds back, at the surface, Pearl Transformer with green/yellow lightsticks, in a chugger lure.

This is the lure lit-up with Pearl Transformer.
Kept the boat at speed, about 7 knts, in case of a double header, and to keep tension on the fish. I cleared the other lines while Bryan was on the reel. It made a few nice runs but didn’t act like a big fish. It taped out at about 50” and the first swordy on Bryans new boat. It was just the 2 of us, so we had plenty of meat. The rum flowed, and we headed in.
1 ½-2 hours max, and we covered water from the 50 out to the 47, and back in again to the 53.5.
1 for 1 trolling, 100% hook-up ratio. Not a big fish but a keeper, the first on Bryan’s boat, and plenty of meat for 2 families, and a few friends.
We would have continued trolling the inside if there were more people onboard to feed.
Trolling for swordfish is so easy, almost no prep work. Anyone who can troll for Dolphin can troll for swordfish.

Bryan, with his first swordy on his boat.
Caught with Pearl Transformer.

[playin snooky]

thats sick dude, swordy on the troll. how was the gas consumption, did you burn alot more?

[mannyc]

I wanna know how you guys got out of your wife Christmas parties. You are the man!

Good job on the troll swordy!

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!!!! that lure looks Hot!

[Flyin By]

I have to say I have been watching you troll for swords for a while and am amazed. I poke to a guy a while ago who aid they troll for them i the Iland way way outh and it productive. OK, now I am old. Q: what i your average trolling peed? And, are you getting any depth on the bait or are you dead on the urface? I alo would like to get some of the new gizmos you came up with are they available yet? Thanks Bill I gotta get out..

[Captain Ollie]

Transformers......more than meets the eye.

The bite's been slow?

Well......
Kind of.....
That is if you have left the grounds before sunrise, then yes.....
It has sucked. BADLY.
However....
It's gone off every night for the past 2 weeks AFTER 3 AM. Up till that time, for me anyway, its been all about keeping the various bait eating nasties well fed.

I would absolutely love to be able to hang a camera over my baits and see just WTF is eating them faster than an Ethiopian on a bag of rice. If I didn't know any better I'd swear there was such a thing as saltwater piranas.

[miamiangler1]

Proabably Mark the shark

[krisis7]

How about a picture of the Transformer lure ready to troll.

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!!!! Willie,

[catching]

WTG Stew love that hook placement

[krisis7]

Trolling Lures For Swordfish

Marlin - Artifical Dreams

[Nightfighter]

Originally Posted by Captain Ollie

Transformers......more than meets the eye.

The bite's been slow?

Well......
Kind of.....
That is if you have left the grounds before sunrise, then yes.....
It has sucked. BADLY.
However....
It's gone off every night for the past 2 weeks AFTER 3 AM.

Yea, Ollie I would say that fish approached the lure from the outside right when it went for the bite.
Like most, I usually have too much to do the next day, to be able to stay out for a 3:00 AM bite to start. It's good to be able to troll around to find them, instead of waiting for them to find you. Trolling usually makes the night even shorter, and often gets me back to the dock in time to party and grill up some fresh swordfish.

Snooky, with the 4 stroke and less than 2 hours of trolling, fuel wasn't an issue, but I know what you mean. I often hear that comment from people that will troll all day for Dolphin, Tuna, and Wahoo, and just say WTF, I would prefer to do it for a Swordfish any night.

Flyin By, that's a classic post. I troll at whatever the conditions allow. Mostly try to make the lures swim at the speed they are designed for, usually between 6 and 8.5 knts. If you like to troll slower than that, put a Transformer in a rigged squid, which works great also. I often do that once I've found where the fish are. I always put one down on a planner, and try to get it down as deep as possible. (rubberband/paperclip method) and like to put a LP light on the planer as a teaser. I get fish both at the surface and down on the planer.
They are available for the tackle stores to stock them right now. Just ask your local tackle store to get hold of me and I'll get them to them ASAP. They won't stock them unless you ask them to get them. That's how the industry works. Call them early in the week and they will be able to have them by the weekend. Supply & Demand.
If you are out of the South Florida area, ask Tek, from Reel Pro Shop, he will stock and ship them on demand.
I have had a lot of requests from people to buy direct, but that would only stop the tackle stores from carrying them. I'll wait another month or so, and if they don't start carrying them I'll have set up an online store for them.
So PLEASE, ask you local store to get them in. They will be cheaper from them, because I'll have to charge shipping.
Krisis7, here is picture of a selection of lures ready to troll with the Transformers in place.

You can use whatever lures you currently have or get some killer Blue Marlin lures from your local tackle store and rig them with a Transformer.

Try it, you'll like it.

[Nightfighter]

Originally Posted by krisis7

Trolling Lures For Swordfish

Marlin - Artifical Dreams

Both great articles. I used to troll for them that way up until a few years ago, but found both my bite and hook-up ratio doubled when I started testing the first Transformer prototypes. When I realized what I had on my hands I went strait to Patent. It's taken a while to perfect them, you can't imagine what I've gone through to manufacture what seems so simple. My manufacture is a true artist and known as one of the best in the industry. Wait to you see what else we have coming out. I've had a blast testing all the new prototypes and I'm not manufacturing anything I haven't personally caught swordys with.

[billspilingup]

Originally Posted by Nightfighter

Both great articles. I used to troll for them that way up until a few years ago, but found both my bite and hook-up ratio doubled when I started testing the first Transformer prototypes. When I realized what I had on my hands I went strait to Patent. It's taken a while to perfect them, you can't imagine what I've gone through to manufacture what seems so simple. My manufacture is a true artist and known as one of the best in the industry. Wait to you see what else we have coming out. I've had a blast testing all the new prototypes and I'm not manufacturing anything I haven't personally caught swordys with.

Did you find that the swords were eating the lightsticks when placed in front of the lure?

It's an interesting product.

[Nightfighter]

Originally Posted by billspilingup

Did you find that the swords were eating the lightsticks when placed in front of the lure?

It's an interesting product.

They were swatting at them, nicking up the line, and this is why so many swivels came in opened/unsnapped. Originally, years ago I tried the 6" glow sticks up in the skirts but didn't get anything but swats, by dimming them down I started to get the actual bites, and started hooking up. Basically made the lure look like what they feed on, more realistic. I tried putting the glow sticks on the hooks and also tied in front of the hooks but found they were in the way and affected the hook-up ratio. Kind of like when a squid bait gets all the mantle meat bunched up in the gap. So through trial and error, I came up with the Transformer, which holds the lightsticks, makes the lure look realistic, and slides away from the hook for the fight, thus the hook was clean at the bite and for the fight. Just like any trolled lure. Simple but very effective.

[quack quack]

Congrats Stu nice fish.

[Captain Juan]

Definitely a "rum flowing" moment. Congrats!!

To me, the thrill of a sword on the troll has got to be nearly up there with a sword on fly. I have not done either.

Keep up the good work!

J

[Brand H]

Nice report!!! That lure looks great.

[Flyin By]

Thanks for the info, I am way north of you all and we have a fishary which has yet to be even tapped. We are getting swords every time we go out and have had some big girls on. I am one of those people who don't like to limit things and also I don't stay out all night. it would be cool to troll towards the inlet when we get our fish and then run the rest. I have a good relationship with Tek and will be getting with him. The only thing concerning is that everyone is mentioning that sound plays a big part in these fish. I do not like to use planers, I have downriggers. Will the humm from the cable be a factor? i am also looking at the yozuri and mold craft squid for this application. what about leader size, i use 300 for drifting. do we lighten up or go heavier? Dam i hate asking these dumb ass questions but i want to give this an honest try. I am a troller by heart and would do a back flip if we got one of these awsome fish on troll.

[Disco Lady]