Sword Fishing Mind Bender learning Curve (pictures)

[Keith Poe]

No Swordfish but have some interesting information & some thoughts I would appreciate your opinions as we are a sportfishing team.

Some thoughts about my research is Swordfish move in shore during the day and off shore to feed at night.

Keep in mind banks canyons currents and the Swordfish depth average of 900' - 1500' average day depth night is at the surface.

Swordfish are caught in gillnets as far north as Oregon.

They are not like other Billfish they prefer much cooler water.

Rich up welling areas teaming with life are common areas Swordfish are taken in commercial fishing.

The California current and Davidson current are really good areas as they are nutrient rich with plankton
from the canyons and under water sea mounts combined with currents. (currents Gulf Stream Florida)

Another part of the process of elimination is commercial landings of Swordfish are full of Humboldt's.

Areas with large numbers of Humboldt's are a potential area of interest as they are an easy area for Swordfish to hunt.

There is plenty of water up north that could easily hold Swordfish especially temp current breaks combined with up welling and currents.

The area off Point Conception is a known spawning area for many HMS including Salmon sharks.
The females come from Alaska & males from across the Pacific.

I decide to watch the weather and wait for a window and loaded up and headed for Morro bay with my little truck & boat 60' 20'000 pounds
durramax 10 miles to the gallon.

Left the harbor Morro bay at about 8:00 PM headed about fifty miles off shore started trolling at 25 nm. right at the edge of the warmer water according to the SST chart where the life was concentrated.

The moon phase was new the air was clear and the milky way was bright combined with the nutrient rich waters ( chlorophyll ) from the up welling and
cold water.

This seemed to be a combination to learn a few things.

Once I put the boat on auto pilot and set out the 4, 80 Accurates with 2 pound squid at 150' 100' and 60 & 20' depth on the auto retrieve down riggers & out riggers
I noticed the bait was still bioluminescent strong off the bow.

Seals dolphin sharks lots of life present and the bait kept breaking the bow for 20 miles to my dis belief.

The bioluminescent was so strong I saw it was breaking the bow at a 45 degree angle leaving a bioluminescent trail about 100 yards back port & starboard.

I could see predators coming towards the bioluminescent by the bioluminescent they were emitting.

What I saw I did not like at the surface level they would head right down the 45 degree angle after the prey not going any where near my rigged weapons of mass destruction.

I had a day old SST chart from Terrafin, I noticed the water seemed much cooler than my chart and knew a cold water plum must have pushed in and rolled the water over.

I was content with learning as much as I could make the best of the situation as the phone was out of the question to get an up date from Jeff at Terrafin or anyone on the radio as it was devoid of sportfishermen no Sea tow on the radio available and only saw two ships in two days.

Heard the AFB broadcasting sections 1-3 were open and 4 was closed, guess I better figure those areas out before the next trip.


At first light I dropped down three lines at 1250' 1000' & 700' I noticed something was acting weird pulling like a smaller predator on the heavy gear and could not pull the 30 pounds of drag but had the out rigger bouncing pretty good.

Pulled the line up to find only the squid tail in the singles strand wire left with V shaped bites out of the squid Humboldt's.
I rigged up another 2 pound squid and a squid jig up with LP light and sent it back down and caught a Humboldt.

I noticed for hours I could not keep a 2 pound squid down with out getting HS ( Humboldt squid ) slammed all most instantly.

I started thinking after being able to get all the HS I wanted over a 20 plus mile area why a Swordfish would be interested in chasseing down one of the 2 # squid
I had been trolling?

Then I started thinking why are the gillnets only 130' catching Swordfish?

Then I decided to understand more about the prey to better understand the Swordfish.

Over all the miles about 20 I was breaking my back over a 30 some hour time period drifting day and night monitoring the HS behavior to the best of my ability.

I wanted to know if they were coming up to the surface at night as that is where the gill-netters get Swordfish at night.

I know HS live at 600' -2300' and they are a large part of the SF (swordfish) behavior patters as it's an arms race in the dark.
(night vision middle east)

Remember SF are mostly full of HS so I believe this to be very important.

I was dropping the HS jig down 100' increments every minute from 100 - 1000' depths waiting 1 minute in between every 100'

I only caught 1 at 600' the rest were at 900 or 1000' but mostly 1000' I never waited more than 5 minutes for a hook up in 20 miles.

If they were at a certain depth the heavy drop would be slack indicating a pick up so I would stop drop the 80 W accurate in low gear and start reeling slowly
then the rod would usually load up HS on.

It was all most a wrist breaker in high gear and takes a long time to get one to the top.

Remember this is a process of elimination prey & predator learning curve.

With this HS depth information obtained at a great physical price of reeling in hundreds of times from 1000' I started thinking why would the Swordfish be interested in my micro squid of 2 # ?

I believe the Swordfish can get a massive meal at depth easily as HS school in schools of 1200 up to 100 pounds.

After SF get their meal that is readily available at depth in an amazing abundance of HS they have plenty of time to spawn or what ever in the nice warm surface water
where they can be caught in Gillnets.

I can hear the SF saying hey look at the baby 2 # squid scared to death running from me, if that baby squid only knew I just ate his momma
and am as stuffed as a can of biscuits and would not chase him if I had to. Not worth the energy to slash my bill at.


I decide to stitch up some HS and send them down.

They ripped loose so I caught some more and set them out at 100' & 150' as it was night time at this point with the 100' HS getting hammered by a large blue shark and seal sucking down a nice 40 pound meal quickly.

I kept them on by sticking a 12/0 through the tail where it is like bone VERY hard area., this allowed them to swim nicely but the hook was totally consumed.
I set two more 12/0 J hook 400 # mono leaders in the snap swivel and stuck them in the mantel with the J portion sticking out and up so if a SF was to Bill slap them head first I would have a good chance of sinking the 12/0 right through his bill just like a threshers sharks tail slap hook up.

While it was still dark I wanted away from the surface and wanted to test a HS at 1000' and 1250' to see if I was able to bring them up bridle them and send them back down in a timely manner so they would be in good condition to defend them self's from other HS.

They were on the out riggers to keep the MONSTAA bait away from each other at depth.
They were just fine.

Had another one at 250' off the center transom.

I would like to try the HS fishing increments on the inner banks to monitor the HS behavior in other areas.

I would like to check out the diet of the stomach of HS on the next trip.

I will bring more fuel to stay longer next trip and a current SST chart.

Slow trolling HS might be a good idea as if I get one in front of a hungry SF ready for another meal or possibly provoke a reaction strike.


Better meter as mine only goes to 1000' so I can drop my super lighted LP light HS in the middle of the squid that SF is hopefully stalking.

When Thresher fishing they tend to be where there are large bait schools and we can see the red balls of bait on the FF with a red target ( thresher ) on the under side of the ball close.

Should be able to do the same with Swordfish as they attack from the under side as well.

I will leave it here for now.

[Keith Poe]

Salmon sharks mako

[Keith Poe]

Are in the same area

[Tunachaser]

Very cool pictures and great info. Manny & The Wild Boys crew must be a blast to hang with LOL. I live in SFL now, but grew up in So Cal. and did lots of Mako and Thresher fishing. I have been going back a couple of times a year in search of a Swordy, but only HS to show for our efforts at this point. We've done day drops, as well as drifting at night (SFL style), but have not put in any trolling time for them in So Cal. (going to put that on the agenda next trip). Good luck and keep posting your progress

[Cutler]

great pics

[Sword Hunter]

I think the area you are fishing in might have a population of humbolt that are some what large for a swordy. At least they would be anoying. Swordy's are going to target smaller prey or scavange around the edges of the humbolts in this situation. are the sizes of the squid you are seeing mixed during certain times of the year. different conditions, places depths. How are they gathering understand thier movments and you will find your swordy. find the tuna and also find your swordys. Temp brakes and structure are a factor also. Fish some on the surface 300'-50' use the LP lights change

[Sword Hunter]

Oh and your squid is going to spin not swim. You want it to swim. Take a sew around the tip of your squid through the wings where they meet the body,this is at the very tip. This will make it more hydrodynamic and natural.

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!!! That was one big MF squid bro. Great pics of the sharks.

DL,

[sammythebu11]

Luis, I want my RED DEVIL to be that size.....
awesome pictures....

[Disco Lady]

Yeah! me too. That thing is a "Red Godzilla Devil" brother I need two meat hooks to rig it awesome looking squid. Check your PM Keith.

DL,

[Keith Poe]

The fish mounts are from Global I fish with them when in Florida

Last time I was in Florida went to the SW Swordfish club with Black Bart, Manny Puig and TBF.

I have not had any spinning issues with the 2 # squid rig as I look at it every time before I send it down.

I will not use them any longer live Humboldt's from now on burry the 12/0 in the tail bone.
Then two more 400 # leaders in the mantel exposed.

The Humboldt's are all very consistent in size in this area.

NOAA is collecting the stomachs from the commercial operations and the swordfish are full of Humboldt's.
They said some were whole inside the swordfish.

Lets just say I know of over 130 caught in just three night in this area most dressed at 187 pounds.

Know of one just taken well over 700 pounds in the last few days.

Keep in mind the swords here get up to 1400 pounds the largest in the world by double.

Friend of mine got one at 1400 pounds.

I had one in the 500 pound class at the transom and it came un buttoned on a 12/0 360 wire live mackerel I watched it eat it right at the boat.

I got to watch her swing on two Makos right behind the boat at night in 500 watts of light on the transom when we were on a wide open mako bite all night.

A lot of the fish here are over 200 pounds 350 is not un common.

We tried baiting 18 on the surface all well above 200 pounds in just three days, Bill Boyce was with us at Fox Sports.

Guys have been trying to figure this out for a hundred years.

The area I am fishing has Very large Mako Threshers and Salmon sharks there right now.
The picture above of me leadering a thresher is a 19' 6" Thresher we got 8 makos to 150 and three threshers at 250-270 and the grander T-shark that day.

I just sent all the taggers data to NOAA from my shark tagging program for them to research and they asked me to re open my program as they were not going to open one after all.

I have caught around 4000 makos & threshers and tried to bait an easy 100 swordfish on the surface here.
Got bored with the sharks not much challenge any more.

The salmon sharks in the pictures are here from Alaska right now where I am fishing meeting all the males from across the Pacific.
There are 2000 in one area in Alaska all over 350 pounds all females for the most part.

I wrote about them in the New Shark Chummers Bible for Fred Archer.
Pacific coast Sportfishing magazine DVD West coast Sportfishing show Chuck myers.

There is a video on U tube part one and part two.

YouTube - Salmon SHARK FISHING PT 2[/youtube]


Anglerstube.com - SALMON SHARK FISHING PT 1


Did a show with Larry Dahlberg that aired out there I never did see.

Any way I love fishing in you guys back yard as it's nice to actually catch a swordfish once in a while.

Kurt Bollman Mako Minded Jody Ian Manny Bart Mike igfa friends in Florida

Fox catching threshers next to the queen mary in long beach harbor los angeles.

leadered a line class living apex predator igfa record mako and thresher there to. The picture above of pulling a thresher out of the water by hand

This link is incredible of mako salmon white sharks and much more satellite tracts

TOPP: Near Real-time Animal Tracks

[Another Toy]

Luis,
The bigger the bait the bigger the fish? Right? That would get you an 8000lb Pig.. Ill take 2..

[Keith Poe]

Bigger is better in fishing to

[conchydong]

Keith, I have been following your reports here and the Allcoast forum with interest. From what I have read it seems the commercials in your area are either harpooning them on the surface with the help of spotter planes or gillnetting them. Is this because longlining is illegal off the Ca coast as it now is in S. FL? Here some of the commercial guys have adapted to buoy fishing in order to get more lines in without legally having a "longline". I would imagine that this might be legal in Ca. and it might give you a better shot instead of trolling or drifting with 3 or 4 rods. You would have to get the required Federal Permits if it is allowed. It also seems that those giant Humbolt squid can be a real pain in the ass as far as chewing your baits. Maybe you can use a smaller dead squid inserted inside of a fairly thick rubber squid to try to keep them from eating the bait. As long as the smell from the natural squid is there I think the swordie would slash at the rubber squid if presented properly. Anyway good luck, I hope you get one to prove your doubters wrong.

[weekley rehab]

wow , excellent input very interesting ! good pics.

[Sword Hunter]

Originally Posted by Another Toy

Luis,
The bigger the bait the bigger the fish? Right? That would get you an 8000lb Pig.. Ill take 2..

elephants eat peanuts

[Disco Lady]

Originally Posted by Sword Hunter

elephants eat peanuts

Yes! they do. But I'll take a Whopper over a Cheeseburger anytime.

[Keith Poe]

Originally Posted by Tunachaser

Very cool pictures and great info. Manny & The Wild Boys crew must be a blast to hang with LOL. I live in SFL now, but grew up in So Cal. and did lots of Mako and Thresher fishing. I have been going back a couple of times a year in search of a Swordy, but only HS to show for our efforts at this point. We've done day drops, as well as drifting at night (SFL style), but have not put in any trolling time for them in So Cal. (going to put that on the agenda next trip). Good luck and keep posting your progress

Let me know next time you are on the left coast lets hook up.

Manny is a good dude really enjoy chumming him and the boys.
He freaks out when we talk as he is a shark freak and goes Johnny Five more input rogue on me.

[Keith Poe]

Originally Posted by Cutler

great pics

Thank you Cutler as you know they are not easy to get but priceless.

[Keith Poe]

Originally Posted by conchydong

Keith, I have been following your reports here and the Allcoast forum with interest. From what I have read it seems the commercials in your area are either harpooning them on the surface with the help of spotter planes or gillnetting them. Is this because longlining is illegal off the Ca coast as it now is in S. FL? Here some of the commercial guys have adapted to buoy fishing order to get more lines in without legally having a "longline". I would imagine that this might be legal in Ca. and it might give you a better shot instead of trolling or drifting with 3 or 4 rods. You would have to get the required Federal Permits if it is allowed. It also seems that those giant Humbolt squid can be a real pain in the ass as far as chewing your baits. Maybe you can use a smaller dead squid inserted inside of a fairly thick rubber squid to try to keep them from eating the bait. As long as the smell from the natural squid is there I think the swordie would slash at the rubber squid if presented properly. Anyway good luck, I hope you get one to prove your doubters wrong.

Harpoons spotters and Gill-netters are correct and there is one experimental long liner here. The jugs are not legal out law-ed in the nineties but might be legal with the beepers I will check in to it but am more interested in how to do a certain set of things to catch a swordfish on a regular basis rather than catching a swordfish.

I have all ways been a believer in matching the hatch and have found the Humboldt squid can easily be presented by hooking them in the tail bone with additional leaders in the mantel. I will get some pictures of them rigged up next trip. The double markers have 10 pound whole Humboldt's in them.

Thank you very much for the well wishes very appreciated Amigo.