NZ Swords are back

[jbud]

Last couple of years it has been fairly quiet but the big fish are back on the grounds at the moment.
Three nights trolling off the top of the King Bank produced 12 bites, 6 hooked fish and 3 caught. They were all tagged and released and estimated weights are probably lower than actual. First fish 450lbs, then 470lbs later that first night. Second night pulled hook on two bigger fish then third night got one 485lbs possibly bit bigger. Best news was only one mako hooked (around 400lbs). When I first started fishing up there 6 years ago we reckoned on 6-7 sharks for every sword bite.
Boat sails again next week I'll let you know what happens.

[Disco Lady]

Thanks for the report.Capt.

[Tuna Devil]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is some awesome fishing. Your resume does not look bad either.

Look forward to your next report.

[jbud]

Bit more information about these fish in the "Great Hook Debate" thread.

[Nightfighter]

I've got to get over there soon. I'd love to try my toys in those waters. Not many troll for them here.

Nice work on those fish.

[quack quack]

Good job preety work!

[miamiangler1]

Originally Posted by jbud

Last couple of years it has been fairly quiet but the big fish are back on the grounds at the moment.
Three nights trolling off the top of the King Bank produced 12 bites, 6 hooked fish and 3 caught. They were all tagged and released and estimated weights are probably lower than actual. First fish 450lbs, then 470lbs later that first night. Second night pulled hook on two bigger fish then third night got one 485lbs possibly bit bigger. Best news was only one mako hooked (around 400lbs). When I first started fishing up there 6 years ago we reckoned on 6-7 sharks for every sword bite.
Boat sails again next week I'll let you know what happens.

J Bud... do you have any pic`s of the types of lures you troll and how you rig them

[jbud]

Don't troll lures, troll dead squid on downrigger at around 2 knots.
Bill Bucklands Fishermans Center Riviera Beach had some copies of "Confessions of a Billfisherman", rig and methods described in there, also history of Broadbill Fishing including list of the biggest ever caught on rod and line.

[jbud]

Nightfighter, your stuff looks superb, well done on a great job!
I would love to try them out, maybe not in NZ could be expensive with normally so many sharks and the 12/0 VMC open gape is a very heavy hook to put in a lure, accordingly we use quite large baits, around 14 maybe 16 inches. But fish other places for swords too where lures work real well.

[Disco Lady]

Wow!

[iriesoul]

J bud do you feel you have better results trolling opposed to drifting dead squid? Seems like you could stay in one area longer and work certain edges a lot better. Thanks for the reports. Sounds like an amazing fishery

[jbud]

Yep trolling produces much better results, less sharks and can work the bait schools easier, we often get big currents pouring around top of NZ and drifting is very hit or miss. Towing a bait so slowly it can take half a mile to turn the boat around to get back on a spot if the wind is pushing you away but overall it has been by far and away the most successful method here. When Big M had his big trip here he was lucky to sit on a huge bait school all the time and keep pulling big swords out of it. Every time the boat finished up on one fish, would run back to same spot and there the bait was ready to be plundered again. That doesn't happen every day but he was one Hell of a lucky guy when he came here.
Interestingly nearly every time we get a bite we see the sword on the sounder first so we are ready (sometimes they come in from the side and surprise ya). The last 2 years were a touch quiet with only a handful or so or fish caught but they seem to have come back in the sort of numbers we found 5/6 years ago. Pity only the longliners will be getting them!
Longliner brought in a 378kilo fish trunked 2 weeks ago! That's 833lbs with no head, tail or guts. I am not sure fish of that size are catchable on rod and line. Same boat had another big sword eaten by an Orca at the boat and the head on its own was over 120 kilos. I had a taxidermist call me a couple of years back asking if I knew where he might find a mould for a 1000lb sword. I laughed. A longliner had caught one and wanted the head mounted but he left it in the back of his truck overnight. Next morning he got up to find his dogs had eaten it!

[billspilingup]

From what I've read on trolling for swords in NZ, they crush the bait instead of swatting at it like our smaller fish do here in Florida. Have you found that to be the case?

What about pitch baiting these fish in an effort to get a better hookset? Maybe troll softheads a few knots faster than you are to get the fish excited and allow you to maneuver better and then take an engine out of gear and pitch a squid with a glow skirt overtop of it? I have a very high catch rate when pitching a bait to a lit up sword that either popped up in the lights or followed a whacked bait in while drifting but have yet to try to trolling (so my suggestion is based solely on theory). Seems like every hookup is deep and dependable when the fish has a chance to eat without a lead and jug prematurely letting them know something's up, I'd think a pitched bait would be the same situation. Considering the size of the fish you're seeing down there, I would think you'd be able to use really heavy drag with less risk of a pulled hook.

Oh, and congrats on having a great fishery down there! Post pictures! I don't think there's a single south Florida swordfisherman that has read this thread without dreaming of fishing down there!

[jbud]

We have no weight at all in bait or on line, it is towed behind 13lb pancake dowrigger weight to which it is attached by 32 rubber band, lightsticks are attached near swivel to 8-10 ft 400lb leader with rubber bands. We use windon leaders. Fish are eating bait 150 ft down, so forget pitching it a bait. We run solely on on nav lights and no other light, decklight comes on once fish is hooked up, so we have no light attractor other than light sticks near bait, period. As I say checkout book for all the details. I could fill up pages in the Forum explaining it all.
Many times the bait is slashed and occasionally crushed, just depends on how they are feeding in conditions. If it is rough or big swells then bait is rising up and down ten feet or more and hookups are poor, if it is calm then things improve dramatically. Lots of times the sword strikes the downrigger weight before eating bait which is 100ft or so behind it, sometimes whack the light sticks and get wrapped up, all varies as I am sure it does for you guys. Sometimes they eat well sometimes not at all even though you can see them on the sounder, last trip was a good one, not always like that and hasn't been for a couple of years. When Big M got 7 big swords in a week 3 years ago, I sailed back up the next day after he got off the boat and fished the same spots for 5 nights and caught nothing. Go figure.

[jbud]

The first 2 swords I ever caught, circa 350 and 500.
My son with his Junior World Record.
And the one we are all looking for.

[Thumper235]

Great info, thanks. That last picture is sick.

[miamiangler1]

Originally Posted by jbud

The first 2 swords I ever caught, circa 350 and 500.
My son with his Junior World Record.
And the one we are all looking for.

Now those swords are truly Slobs ...

[islandshark633]

ok, jbud, I'll bite. What is the story on the B & W photo of a sword that looks like it would weigh every bit of 2000 pounds ??? WTF ???

[jbud]

Was harpooned on the Georges Bank in the mid 1980's.
Boat was the Irene+Alton, skipper Bernard Raynes, fishing out of Owls Head, Maine.
The guy behind fish is Paul Molyneaux, author of "The Doryman's Reflection", nostalgic little book covering swordfish harpooning industry, now defunct of course.
I have a link to a colour version somewhere, I will post it if I find it.

[iriesoul]

WOW! Nice fish!