Swordfighting in Venice Louisiana

[Captain Mike Ellis]

I knew that the northen gulf had swordfish since a few other captains have caught them up here. And I finaly had the crew to give them a shot. So I studied the charts and pulled my swordfish gear out of the closet to give them a shot. I picked out a deepwater dropoff point area for my starting point. The baits went out and we had about a thirty minute wait before the first fish was hooked up. The fish was pulling pretty good but was at the boat in a little under a hours time. But I goofed and put to much pressure on him and pulled the hook at the boat. So I went from hero to zero in a heartbeat. The fish was a good one and we just watched him swim away from us. Nothing left to do but reset our gear so that is what I did. On the next drift we had a double runoff one fish was not fighting and the other was going nuts. The one not fighting was a small but keeper sized sword and I had Peter the angler lock the drag up and get him to the boat so he wouldn’t tangle the much larger fish up and beak him off. Well the hook didn’t pull and the sword just fought harder and wrapped up the other fish. So I managed to get it unwrapped and not break either fish off. The the first sword decide he had enough and spit the hook after all of that. Oh well we still had the larger fish on. But as luck would have it the fish turned out to be a very large hammerhead. So I ended my first La. swordfishing trip going 0 for two.
I had another sword trip scheduled a few days later. So I knew I would have my revenge at that time. I set out on a mission to learn all of the tricks to keep theses fish on the hooks better and got some very good information to put into use on my next trip. My next obstacle came in trying to find the right sized squid for bait. The smallest squid to be found was about 16-18” long but it was the best bait available so it would have to work. I got everything rigged and ready to go but arriving at my first spot I found absolutely no current whatsoever. But I did see a bluefin tuna in the 500-700lb class skying on some form of bait. But with no current I decided to go to another spot I had marked on the charts. About a mile or so into the ride to the next spot I did a 180 and went on a feeling I had. I am glad that I did because at this spot we went 2 for 6 here is the recap of that trip.
I setup on a very steep drop off from 700’ to 2000’ in about a three mile distance. I put the swordlight in the water in 1200’ and was amazed at all of the life in the water squid,gogs,flyingfish, and three inch dolphin. So as the first bait was going out I clipped the jug to it and got it all of about fifty feet away before it gets nailed. And the fight is on Will Wall fought this fish for about ten minutes before the hook pulled. No problem we are on them so I tried to put the rest of the baits out but I couldn’t as soo as the bait got the the edge of the light circle it would get whacked. So here we are thirty minutes into the trip and our score was 0 for 3. Well I though it couldn’t get much worse I reset the baits in deeper water to have them all out when I go back to the proper depth the fish were in. As the bottom machine clicked down to the proper depth it was on as soon as the magic number appeared on the screen. This fish was different from the get go than the others. He did his best to dump a 50W as he slowed down I put Brycene into the harness for his shot at a sword. He did a good job of fighting the fish and at the hour forty five minute mark the fish became tail wrapped and he got him to the boat quickly. I grabbed the leader to set a flying gaff into him but I guess I changed the pulling point on the leader and he got his tail free and lunged away while I still had the leader and he pulled the hook. This was the largest sword I have ever seen at the side of the boat. I don’t know for sure if he was over three hundred but if we wasn’t he couldn’t of been very far from it. Great I though here I am at 0 for 4 so I reset baits to give it another shot I was determined to not get a sword on this trip. I made another drift with nothing to show for it. But the next one had a good runoff when the bottom machine was showing the magic number again. I put Will back in the harness for another shot at a fish. This time the swordfish gods were on our side and in a little under an hour I was putting the gaff to a good swordfish.



Now that the first fish was aboard I was relieved. But I remembered I had one more angler to break in on a sword so back to the starting point and reset. It took the third drift before we finaly hooked up again at 5 AM as I was reeling in the baits to go home. This fish came to the boat pretty easy at first but he saw the boat and jumped once and then he put on a pretty good fight but Ed manged to get him to the boat for the gaff shot and a ride to the dock. We ended the night with that fish with the final score of 2 for 6.




I only talked about the swordfish trips I have had lately and did not mention the tuna trips I have been running in which I have had tuna to 150lbs. and plenty of nice dolphin. Once again Venice Louisiana proved why we have the best fishing in the United States. I will add a few of the tuna and dolphin pics at the bottom of this post.
Capt. Mike

[jerry]

Awesome cap. What a night. Congrats.

[RiskTaker]

Hey Capt. Mike:

It sounds like the Gulf coast swordfishing is more active than the SE Florida action, of late. Hopeefully it will pick up again for us soon.

Thanks for sharing that wonderful report.

Are you presenting any live baits in your spread as well? The plus side is that they really entice the swordfish to commit. The back side is that the live baits can do their " darndest" to evade being eaten and consequently, a lot more break-offs due to poorer hook sets and foul hooks too. (The blue runners that we use here can be very crafty, so a slight fin trimming can stack things a little more in your favor, if you want to take the time to be very particular on the presentation.


Just curious to know the style of rigging you are doing there. I read an article from the boat J-Hook out of Pensacola and the captain descibed using the "Carribbean" technique as being a popular presentation for the Gulf side swordfish anglers. (That method involves the electrolume and the weight being at the bottom of the rig while the bait is branched off with a 3-way swivel above it. (I guess you could also call it chicken rig style as being somewhat comparable to a bottom fishing rig.)

I believe that the most popular Atlantic side rig has the bait (live or squid) at the end of the line, with a light or 2 or 3 a few more feet back followed by a lead weight, ~ 2 lbs. , between 25-75 ft. back away from the weight.

BTW - was that a dolphin you pictured under the weeds? I just saw all the Tuna fish landed and was suspecting it may be a tuna?

[quack quack]

Nice fish all of them

[Captain Mike Ellis]

I don't like the idea of a chicken rig for swords. I am rigging up just like you guys do in south Florida. I am just having to deal with using monster squid for bait.
Capt. Mike

[RiskTaker]

Capt. Mike:

It sounds like you are in need of the medium sized squid instead of the "marlin sized" pitch bait squids. In Florida, most everything shipped UPS ground, within Zone 2 arrives the next day. I would think that you could order a cooler full and have it arrive by cheap freight charge still frozen hard, even if it takes 2 days to get to your door.

If you do not mind the price, the big squids should work fine too, if you rig them right. Some of the smallest as well as biggest swordfish I have caught went after those big squids. (Greedy little buggers, almost as bad as those pesky dolphins.)

I prefer to rig my squids where the hook exits aroud mid-way in the mantle, not down through the squid then hooked in the head section around the eyes. When rigged with hook in mantle, it is more difficult for a squid to bunch up on you, after it has been whacked, to interfere with a sharpt point and solid hook set.

A large squid rigged through the head section would seriously get bunched up. So the only way I would entertain that method for a large squid would be with a double hook rig, one in the sweet spot of the mantle and one in the head.

I am not sure how you do yours or if you already know these styles, just sharing thoughts in the event you have not already "been there, done that" . Another option could be to try the regular smaller squids. You buy a 5-10 lb. box and there are usually a few larger speciments in the box. The smaller ones you could simply double up on a hook and see how that works. But even if you get the right sized squid to suit your needs, it may still be a good idea to keep a big squid in the line-up for a variation to your spread. A live bait or two can't hurt either.

I fish in the same style you describe, with the hook at the end of the line. But I am tempted to "experiment" with a tandem hook set-up: one on the branch with a live bait and another rigged with a squid (dead or even an artificial. The only dreaded consideration would be the possibility of getting a "double" on one rod. But I certainly wouldn't mid seeing it happen, once. :shock:

[Shark Tagger]

one word... .......... AWESOME!! love the dolphin pic..

that first swordfish is hefty


ST

[Verado06]

Great work capt mike!!

Looks like your fish have smaller heads than the ones we get around here...Maybe its just an illusion to the fat body


Your clients will be eating well for quite some time.+

[Disco Lady]

CONO!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock: :shock: : Cheers! Capt.