Sword reports??

NightCrawler · 07-06-2008, 08:29 PM

Nothing for thursday or friday or saturday??? I know yall were out there!!! I heard a bunch of you on 72. I guess nobody is cathing Chit!!!
Where are all the fish?? This is the worst 6 month stretch.

I guess I'll keep fishing the reef a little while longer. I put my swordlights out and its almost like swordfishing

Broadbill-Pro · 07-07-2008, 05:50 AM

If it was any year between 1978 and 2000, I'm sure the answer would be simple.

weekley rehab · 07-07-2008, 06:38 AM

yes it is slow, I have made 2 trips in a week, with no bites at all.

StartinEarly · 07-07-2008, 07:31 AM

just got all new gear about a week ago two 80 tiagras and four 50 tiagras and have yet to break them in in the last 2 trips. we went out thursday just some chewed up squids and one nice hit but i am pretty shure it was a shark as it bit right threw the 400 pound leader about 10 secounds into the fight i will be out there again on friday ive all ways been hard headed at least i can drink some beer out there in peace

NightCrawler · 07-07-2008, 08:55 AM

StartinEarly I hope you're not StartinTooLate

and the bite picks up for you.

I wonder what the folks at NMFS think. I'm sure they've noticed the lack of reporting. I used to chat with them quite often, but the last fish I reported was back in March and did it online.

Ron.38 Special · 07-07-2008, 02:50 PM

BP,

Its so interesting to now know that the swords were never fished out by the longlines, we just hit a few bad nights back in '78 and gave up.........

bajakian · 07-07-2008, 04:57 PM

Vinny puts out the bait with a red cylume and Ron inhales it..........

just2fish · 07-07-2008, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StartinEarly

i will be out there again on friday at least i can drink some beer out there in peace

ive been drinkin at home lately.

weekley rehab · 07-07-2008, 07:56 PM

I hope they come back soon. I am sick and tired of these damn little reef fish.

Broadbill-Pro · 07-07-2008, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron.38 Special

BP,

Its so interesting to now know that the swords were never fished out by the longlines, we just hit a few bad nights back in '78 and gave up.........

That's not totally correct, a few of the Rec's continued to fish thru the PLL years and did just fine.

Ron.38 Special · 07-08-2008, 07:57 AM

Mike Leeche and I compared notes over ten years of fishing and trust me Vinnie, while you were on the high seas, recs weren't catching anything off our coast,

oh, and the US didn't land on the moon either, it was just photoshop!

(seriously, you gotta be kidding)

(no he's not kidding???)

billspilingup · 07-08-2008, 08:54 AM

I'm not saying the swords were here or not here for the vast majority of the time between when the rec fishery dropped off and the longliners were ousted from local waters but I do know there were fish out here in 1999 - before the longlines left... I would know, a longline knocked a very nice fish off my line.

Had 3 hits that night just fishing two rods with live bait and no clue as to what I should be doing considering it was my first trip for swords.

This year, I have only a half-dozen trips under my belt and have only caught one fish and had maybe a half-dozen hits. With normal conditions, I average over a fish a night so yeah, the fishing has been maddeningly slow... more so than a slow checkout lady at the grocery store, a blue hair in the left lane of 95 doing 35, or slow waitress when all you want to do is get out of the restaurant and get your date back to your place for a drink.

I wish I could attend tomorrow night's Swordclub meeting but family obligations will take priority. I would like to ask Arthur for a comparison in speed of the Gulfstream between the first half of 2007 and the first half of this year. My experience fishing earlier this year is that the Gulfstream seemed to be absolutely ripping. My hypothesis is that the Gulfstream was moving along at a much faster rate than normal earlier this year and the swordfish that would normally be in this nursery getting larger were pushed to the north and to the east. This would explain why the experimental longline boat, despite fishing the eastern edge of the Stream in the closed zone, had to go east out of the stream and join other longline boats in catching the swords and tuna that were stacked up there. At least this is what was reported at a Swordclub meeting regarding the experimental fishing. Now it's summer and the tinkers have gone back up north as the water up there has warmed and I think that the "nursery fish" that are the bread and butter of our fishing out here have followed them unusually far north. If you look at the sizes of fish that have been caught off here, they seem to be trending larger than normal - using the tournament as an example, 9 fish brought to the scales ranging from 545lbs to just above legal size (weighed but smaller than 5th place @ 65lbs) ... looking at my own numbers for the last 27 fish I've caught, only two have been above 60" - a 64" a few weeks ago (night before the tournament as luck would have it) and a 77" last February and over half were under the minimum and released. The night of the tournament was slow (I would know, I fished it) and the fleet wasn't wading through little fish and putting lots of 50"s on the deck hoping for that one big slob. In short (too late), I believe our residential fish aren't out here right now, they are to the north getting FAT on tinkers and butterfish, and whatever else lives up there in northern waters, and the nicer quality of fish we're seeing mostly through daytiming is indicative of the larger migratory fish transiting our waters. If my theory is correct, we should see a wave of fat mid-50 to 60" fish push south this fall as they follow the tinkers south providing the current doesn't pick up again. I now invite everyone to shoot my theory full of holes.

And I'm tempted to go swordfishing one night and hang out just outside of the deeper schools of bonita. Gogs are thick, bonita are thick... maybe they are just way inside? It'll get me off land one night anyway...

NightCrawler · 07-08-2008, 09:27 AM

Pulling full stringers on a 13 foot beach rod is not fun enough for you?
We tried it half ass 0/0. but yeah, was thinking of dedicating a night with a full spread. Worth a try?

the rest of your theory?? I don't know. The lack of small fish worries me. Not because I think they are somewhere else.

Look at the hydroglow, the're was a little surge in catches leading up to the tournament, recs and bouys then nothing??

PURPLE FEVER · 07-08-2008, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bajakian

Vinny puts out the bait with a red cylume and Ron inhales it..........

billspilingup · 07-08-2008, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NightCrawler

Pulling full stringers on a 13 foot beach rod is not fun enough for you?
We tried it half ass 0/0. but yeah, was thinking of dedicating a night with a full spread. Worth a try?

the rest of your theory?? I don't know. The lack of small fish worries me. Not because I think they are somewhere else.

Look at the hydroglow, the're was a little surge in catches leading up to the tournament, recs and bouys then nothing??

Embarassingly, I've found gogs harder to learn to catch than swords! So when I pull a full stringer over the side I still get pretty excited!

Baitfishing before the Rodeo, I was in 600' of water, right at the edge of the Gulfstream catching gogs and having football-sized blackfins destroy my sabikis. No self-respecting sword would hesitate to eat either. A Blue marlin is a fish that enjoy some water under their bellies just like swordfish do but we've all seen blues that shallow (and shallower) when looking for dolphin or sails. I know of several swords taken in 700' earlier this year when it was really slow... so who knows? They have tails.

Does anyone know the average size of sword the longliners were catching outside of the stream earlier this year? Any south Florida tags show up there?

And let's not forget, not too many people are fishing right now.

NightCrawler · 07-08-2008, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billspilingup

And let's not forget, not too many people are fishing right now.

Huh, so you're saying if more people fished I'd be catching more fish

j/k

billspilingup · 07-08-2008, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NightCrawler

Huh, so you're saying if more people fished I'd be catching more fish

j/k

I'm saying there's been nights (for example) guys I know have called me out to the 48 line and onto bait and fish and there's been nights I've called buddies of mine onto the 54 line and fish when they were out deep and fishless. One or two guys fishing doesn't cover enough water to make an accurate judgement. The night of the Hydroglow did have a lot of boats fishing but we were also sitting in lightning for the better part of the night (I cannot recall EVER getting a sword bite with lightning overhead or nearby) so that could have skewed the numbers to the lean side. Just because everyone's not catching doesn't make the relation between cooperating boats and high catches untrue.

It could be the nights that it goes off no one is out there but I do believe it's lean for the reasons I discussed earlier. Everything is cyclical but I sure do hope they don't take their sweet time swimming their asses back down here!

There was buzz about trolling off here but with the numbers of fish we saw, no one (I think) really put forth a lot of effort or wanted to burn the fuel. With the numbers of fish way down, trolling (despite gas prices) might be a good idea to cover more water and work over spots known to catch fish.

tunaman81 · 07-08-2008, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billspilingup

the "nursery fish" that are the bread and butter of our fishing out here have followed them unusually far north.

Swordfish are highly migratory at most sizes. It is highly unlikely that they spend any significant amount of time in the Florida Straits. When fishing is hot, there are large numbers of fish pushing through the area.

I would agree that right now the fish just aren't in the area.

NightCrawler · 07-10-2008, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tunaman81

I would agree that right now the fish just aren't in the area.

ProfessorO says the fish will be here next week!!!

Sharpen your hooks boys!!!

MarinaBay · 07-10-2008, 09:17 AM

You can go pull on some big Amberjack for fun in the meantime, caught 10 between 12-22 lbs on Tuesday dusk bite. Last week had one over 40. Don't think I want to pull on anymore of those.

07-06-2008, 08:29 PM	#1 (permalink)
NightCrawler Hooked Up Join Date: May 2005 Location: pompano Boat: fishing Posts: 505	Sword reports?? Nothing for thursday or friday or saturday??? I know yall were out there!!! I heard a bunch of you on 72. I guess nobody is cathing Chit!!! Where are all the fish?? This is the worst 6 month stretch. I guess I'll keep fishing the reef a little while longer. I put my swordlights out and its almost like swordfishing __________________ A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.

07-07-2008, 07:31 AM	#4 (permalink)
StartinEarly Grunt Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: pompano beach florida Boat: startin early, sea vee, 32 Best Catch: 34 sailfish in one day Occupation: insurance agent, realtor Posts: 1	thursday night just got all new gear about a week ago two 80 tiagras and four 50 tiagras and have yet to break them in in the last 2 trips. we went out thursday just some chewed up squids and one nice hit but i am pretty shure it was a shark as it bit right threw the 400 pound leader about 10 secounds into the fight i will be out there again on friday ive all ways been hard headed at least i can drink some beer out there in peace

07-07-2008, 08:55 AM	#5 (permalink)
NightCrawler Hooked Up Join Date: May 2005 Location: pompano Boat: fishing Posts: 505	StartinEarly I hope you're not StartinTooLate and the bite picks up for you. I wonder what the folks at NMFS think. I'm sure they've noticed the lack of reporting. I used to chat with them quite often, but the last fish I reported was back in March and did it online. __________________ A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.

07-07-2008, 04:57 PM	#7 (permalink)
bajakian Grander Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Ocean Ridge, Fl Boat: Venture 34 Best Catch: 300 lb Yellow fin Tuna, Blue Marlin 240 lbs on 30 lb test, 423 lb Swordfish Occupation: MD Posts: 1,068	Vinny puts out the bait with a red cylume and Ron inhales it.......... __________________ You can't have everything- Where would you put it?

07-08-2008, 09:27 AM	#13 (permalink)
NightCrawler Hooked Up Join Date: May 2005 Location: pompano Boat: fishing Posts: 505	Pulling full stringers on a 13 foot beach rod is not fun enough for you? We tried it half ass 0/0. but yeah, was thinking of dedicating a night with a full spread. Worth a try? the rest of your theory?? I don't know. The lack of small fish worries me. Not because I think they are somewhere else. Look at the hydroglow, the're was a little surge in catches leading up to the tournament, recs and bouys then nothing?? __________________ A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.

07-07-2008, 05:50 AM	#2 (permalink)
Broadbill-Pro Grander Join Date: Jan 2006 Best Catch: When I look at a Commercial Fishing Vessel I see 300 million Americans and you only see the Crew Posts: 1,298	If it was any year between 1978 and 2000, I'm sure the answer would be simple.

07-07-2008, 06:38 AM	#3 (permalink)
weekley rehab Hooked Up Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Deerfield Beach Boat: Pro Line 25 center Best Catch: !59'' sword new years day 2008 Occupation: General Manager Posts: 137	yes it is slow, I have made 2 trips in a week, with no bites at all.

07-07-2008, 02:50 PM	#6 (permalink)
Ron.38 Special Hooked Up Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 234	BP, Its so interesting to now know that the swords were never fished out by the longlines, we just hit a few bad nights back in '78 and gave up.........

07-07-2008, 07:56 PM	#9 (permalink)
weekley rehab Hooked Up Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Deerfield Beach Boat: Pro Line 25 center Best Catch: !59'' sword new years day 2008 Occupation: General Manager Posts: 137	I hope they come back soon. I am sick and tired of these damn little reef fish.

07-08-2008, 07:57 AM	#11 (permalink)
Ron.38 Special Hooked Up Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 234	Mike Leeche and I compared notes over ten years of fishing and trust me Vinnie, while you were on the high seas, recs weren't catching anything off our coast, oh, and the US didn't land on the moon either, it was just photoshop! (seriously, you gotta be kidding) (no he's not kidding???)

07-08-2008, 08:54 AM	#12 (permalink)
billspilingup Hooked Up Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Lighthouse Point Boat: 31' Ocean Master Best Catch: 300lb & 200lb back to back daytimers Posts: 469	I'm not saying the swords were here or not here for the vast majority of the time between when the rec fishery dropped off and the longliners were ousted from local waters but I do know there were fish out here in 1999 - before the longlines left... I would know, a longline knocked a very nice fish off my line. Had 3 hits that night just fishing two rods with live bait and no clue as to what I should be doing considering it was my first trip for swords. This year, I have only a half-dozen trips under my belt and have only caught one fish and had maybe a half-dozen hits. With normal conditions, I average over a fish a night so yeah, the fishing has been maddeningly slow... more so than a slow checkout lady at the grocery store, a blue hair in the left lane of 95 doing 35, or slow waitress when all you want to do is get out of the restaurant and get your date back to your place for a drink. I wish I could attend tomorrow night's Swordclub meeting but family obligations will take priority. I would like to ask Arthur for a comparison in speed of the Gulfstream between the first half of 2007 and the first half of this year. My experience fishing earlier this year is that the Gulfstream seemed to be absolutely ripping. My hypothesis is that the Gulfstream was moving along at a much faster rate than normal earlier this year and the swordfish that would normally be in this nursery getting larger were pushed to the north and to the east. This would explain why the experimental longline boat, despite fishing the eastern edge of the Stream in the closed zone, had to go east out of the stream and join other longline boats in catching the swords and tuna that were stacked up there. At least this is what was reported at a Swordclub meeting regarding the experimental fishing. Now it's summer and the tinkers have gone back up north as the water up there has warmed and I think that the "nursery fish" that are the bread and butter of our fishing out here have followed them unusually far north. If you look at the sizes of fish that have been caught off here, they seem to be trending larger than normal - using the tournament as an example, 9 fish brought to the scales ranging from 545lbs to just above legal size (weighed but smaller than 5th place @ 65lbs) ... looking at my own numbers for the last 27 fish I've caught, only two have been above 60" - a 64" a few weeks ago (night before the tournament as luck would have it) and a 77" last February and over half were under the minimum and released. The night of the tournament was slow (I would know, I fished it) and the fleet wasn't wading through little fish and putting lots of 50"s on the deck hoping for that one big slob. In short (too late), I believe our residential fish aren't out here right now, they are to the north getting FAT on tinkers and butterfish, and whatever else lives up there in northern waters, and the nicer quality of fish we're seeing mostly through daytiming is indicative of the larger migratory fish transiting our waters. If my theory is correct, we should see a wave of fat mid-50 to 60" fish push south this fall as they follow the tinkers south providing the current doesn't pick up again. I now invite everyone to shoot my theory full of holes. And I'm tempted to go swordfishing one night and hang out just outside of the deeper schools of bonita. Gogs are thick, bonita are thick... maybe they are just way inside? It'll get me off land one night anyway...

07-10-2008, 09:17 AM	#20 (permalink)
MarinaBay Lines In Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Fort Lauderdale - Flamingo Park Boat: 28' Mckee Craft Center Console Best Catch: 140 lb sword Occupation: Commercial Banker Posts: 20	You can go pull on some big Amberjack for fun in the meantime, caught 10 between 12-22 lbs on Tuesday dusk bite. Last week had one over 40. Don't think I want to pull on anymore of those.

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