MY FIRST SWORDS

[CHRIS]

EVERYONE I HAVE SOME GREAT NEWS I WENT OUT ON FEB 2,2005 WITH DEAN PANOS AND WENT 4/5 WE KEPT 2 THE BIGGER ONE WENT TO 180Lbs. I AM CERTAINLY HOOKED AND HOPE TO GET OUT THERE AGAIN SOON!

[Lake]

Nice job Chris. I have a charter with Dean in one week if the weather cooperates. I hope to get a few shots at a fattie like yours.

[Mike]

Awesome.. That one on the right is a SLOB for sure.... 4/5 is a great night!!! hb

How did you like Dean's new boat? The time I went out with him a while back, he had a charter cancel on him because it was too rough. He called me up that morning and we left the dock with the trees howling... I was impressed with his old seavee.. I'd imagine the new 34 rides like a dream..

Mike

[Anonymous]

Chris,
Nice way to pop your cherry. Good going \/ .

[INSPECTOR]

Congratulations!!!! NICE PAIR OF FISH!!!!

[Lake]

By the way, can I borrow your lucky pants for my trip?

[CHRIS]

HEY EVERYONE:

YEAH THIS WAS A DREAM OF MINE! I KEPT HEARING YOU GUYS GETING FISH AND I WAS GOING OUT WITH A BUDDIE AND GETTING ZILCH. THE BOAT ROAD EXTREMEMLY WELL HE HAS AN INSAINE AMOUNT OF ROD HOLDERS ALL AROUND MUST HAVE BEEN AROUND 30 ON THE GUNWALS. DEAN HAD BEEN HAVING A ROUGH TIME WITH HIS NEW 275 VERADOS AND THEY ACTED UP A BIT WHILE WE WERE OUT THERE BUT THOSE PROBLEMS WERE QUICKILY FORGOTTEN WHEN WE GOT THOSE FISH IN! I AM CERTAINLEY IMPRESSED WITH DEAN AND FREDIES PROFESSIONALISM. THEY CAN CERTAINLEY CATCH SOME FISH!!!! THE LARGER ONE HAD ALMOST ORANGE MEAT THEY CALL THAT A PUMPKIN. THAT WAS THE FIRST I HAD EVER SEEN ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHITE MEAT ON A SWORDFISH IN A FISH MARKET. I CAN CERTAINLY ATTEST TO THE QUALLITY OF THE BEATIFUL BEASTS MEAT. I AM HOOKED FOR LIFE. I HOPE TO GET OUT THERE NEXT WEEK ON MY BUDDIES BOAT THAT WE ARE FINISHING UP ON SOME UPGRADES AFTER TALKING WITH ALL OF YOU AND SEEING FIRST HAND THE KIND OF EQUIPEMENT NEEDED. I HOPE TO POST A PICTURE OF MY FISRT SWORD I CATCH ON MY OWN!!!

CHRIS

[bullfighter]

Hey Chris, Yada, Yada Yada and welcome aboard. But we need to know about the lucy pants.

[RiskTaker]

Where have I seen the likes of thhose before. oh Yeah, Lounge pants from JC Penney.

I know they're great for getting lucky ( I have two pair) but I never realized that included a deuce'um with SWORDFISH. :shock:

[cubanpuerto]

NIce job, that one one the right is a BEAST. :shock:

[SalmonSurf]

Chris,

Congats on your pair - Especially on the pumpkin! That is a real rare treat and you should know how lucky you are to have caught one. I've had the pleasure of fishing with Capt. Dean on several occasions and the guy knows his s#!^!!!!! He is as well rounded of a Capt. as they come - from Tarpon to Sails to Swords (even if I did get doughnouts one night without a single bite). Not his fault though, that's the way it goes.... I hope you are enjoying your sword, but let's all keep in mind that this resource is depleting, and as responsible fishermen, we should really release the "pups" - under 100-lbs. They are juveniles and have not reproduced. I hope and pray that 10 or 15 years from now, my daughters will have the pleasures of sharing these types of stories on forum like we are because they will be around - but for this to happen, we should do our share and limit ourselves to 1 fish and tag and release the rest. After all, how much sword can one eat? You know they are very high in mercury and you should limit consumption on them anyways. Tight lines, buddy. See you in the water.....

[CHRIS]

1 WEEK AND COUNTING AND HAVEN'T CHANGED MY SHROTS!!! THEY ARE GETTING A BIT CRUSTY. I AM GONA PUT THEM UP ON E-BAY MAYBE I CAN MAKE $50,000 LIKE THAT GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH OR MABEE I CAN GET A TEMPORAY TAT ON MY LEFT CHECK FOR ONE OF THE ROD MFGRS FOR LETS SAY AROUND 25K.

WHAT DO YOU THINK

[RiskTaker]

SalmonSurf:

You have a series of interesting opinions. And so do I. Since you chimed, we'll use your post as the bait today. Don't get offended, just go with the tide.... the fishery may actually be re-bounding and not declining.

I am very confident that we will find it very challenging to wipe out the supply of swordfish along the Florida straits by recreational and limited Rod&Reel commercial fishing alone.

All bets are off though, if the commercial longline fleets are permitted to set out a few sets of their highly efficient gear for a few seasons in these waters. I would suggest you stay focused on this issue first as your priority number #1.

Good for goose, good for gander. Agreed that keeping larger swordfish may allow more to stay free and make it to puberty before they are caught and harvested. But I like the law just the way it is (If you have seen any of my previous posts, I am negotiable and may even be on your side of the fence, but I learn and opinions can shift a bit.) If we were allowed to only keep fish larger than 60 inches, then that would mean to me that I could only keep one in the past year after about 15 or so fishing trips. I don't like that equation: then I might as well run over to Mr. Fish and buy some of their not so fresh swordfish, prohibitive costs otherwise. It would certainly be a lot cheaper considering the amount of provisions necessary needed to make those 15 trips hapen. 47" please, as a minimum, thank you.

Certainly, we must be proactive to monitor the fishery and make adjustments as necessary to protect a dwindling supply and maintain a viable fishery.

As a recommended solution, I suggest that you release all swordfish less than 60 inches. And everyone else hopefully will release smaller ones once they have a legal fish in the boat. For example, you have a 54" fish and now catch a 50" fish. Please let the 50" swim free. Or if you catch a 60" fish and then catch a 55". Mmmh, ok keep both, if you do not have a supply of fish in the freezer already. Or be a good sport and let 55 drive away.

Just for kickers - "Biological Magnification" - Suppose you were to analyze the flesh contents of two different age swordfish, say a 3 year old and an 8 year old, for organic methylmercury "the bad mercury".... which sample would do you suppose would have the greater ppms of ..mercury? Suppose you like to eat swordfish but are concerned about frazzling your mind and body with the "ouch ouch" syndrome (Minimata Bay, Japan classic story- if I recall the name correctly).

Suppose just for a moment, that we agree that older fish have greater methylmercury concentrations than their younger whipper-snapper counterparts that haven't even yet started to flash their swords around with the Lady-fish friends. Imagine, you as an angler being so fixated on not keeping those big fish that are already fooling around with the lady-fishes, but are tainted with high mercury concentrations, so instead you choose to keep those young pups (oh PETA - Child abuser!) for table fare instead and let the big ones go free. Imagine what that would do to the breading populations. So many experienced bulls in a fishery to make more.

Food for thought: thoughts for food. Don't want to sound too cocky. But this thread deserves a little feather rattling.

We're going out tonight: wish us luck to catch one over 60". We are packing our lucky Special K angler to boost the odds a bit.

And I also pray that my boys, 10-15 years from now, will be catching swordfish on an abundant basis and you should also pray [-o< that they are not chasing your daughters around the boat irat: while they are waiting idly hb for the bite to turn on.

Words from the Poet of Justice, RT

[Lake]

Salmonsurf, I really appreciate the conservation mindset but I'd like to throw a different spin on this. I think most agree that the larger fish are predominately female, and the smaller fish are likely pre-breeders. The female breeders can produce 30 million eggs per year. If you consider only 1/10 percent survival of offspring that's 30,000 fish produced from one breeder. I don't understand the thought that we should wait and take the fish once they can breed. You take one small fish vs taking a larger fish plus the 30,000 per year offspring. I think the mindset should be to take the eaters and release the breeders.

[FinalPoint]

I see your point, but people are no doubt killing small female fish too. These fish will eventually become breeders and produce 3 million more eggs.

[SalmonSurf]

Risk Taker and Lake:

First and foremost I'm glad I was able to spark a healthy (and friendly) debate regarding a way to help conserve our swordfishery.

I see valid points from the both posts.

As for the Risk Taker's statement that the swords are rebounding, you are absolutely correct!!!! This in a big part is due to the closing of the commercial fishery several years ago prohibiting swords from being longlined in South FL.

But..., here's a few interesting statistics I found recently:
-and I'm really trying to keep these stats in context and not as a defense to bolster my position - I am an open-minded person who does not mind being corrected when I'm wrong.

Please note most of this info. was obtained via research online from several different articles.

19th Century - Avg. Atlantic Sword weighed 300-400 with
individuals around 800-lbs
(source: Irby, Ed, 1994. "The Management of Atlantic Swordfish Under the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act," in National Coalition for Marine Conservation, Conserving America's Fisheries, p.119.)

Most fish were harpooned until 1962 - then the longliners moved in and swordfish catches soared, especially in from New England to Canada. With these catches, the number of juveniles (less than 5 y/o) caught increased and there were insufficient mature fish to maintain the population. (Source: NRDC - Natural Resource Defense Council)

Heavy commercial fishing for swords continued into the late 80's and by 1995, the avg. weights for swordfish caught had dropped ~70%

RT - you have confirmed this. 15 trips, and how many swords were juveniles?

I think these statistics are pretty intersesting and I encourage anyone interested to read this report as it's insightful and interesting. http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/fish/rnasword.asp According to this article, South FLA is home to more Juvenile fish than anywhere else on the Atlantic Coast

But do not despair. The good news is recreational fishermen are not really the ones "directly responsible" for the size declines -Longliners are. But at least in my opinion, it should not be a fact to take for granted. As more and more recreational fishermen take advantage of this fishery here, more and more juveniles continue to be caught. We really should give the benefit of the doubt and "assume" that just too many juveniles are caught and should be released.

Also, consider this "potential problem": The larger fish continue to die off and we're taking the juveniles before they reproduce. The law of statistics may show a continued decline in reproduction - altough the short term statistics (10 years or less) may show an increase in poulations attributed to the lack of commercial fishing of the past several years. Does this make sense? It almost seems like a chain reaction event. Enough statistics....

THe double edge sword - the larger the fish, the greater the methylmercury content. Nuff said....

In the end, I'm not sure if there is a right or wrong answer to this. We are each entitled to our opinion, and mine is that we should realease the younger ones and give them the chance to grow, reproduce and live to fight as an adult (but of course, I respect all others opinions too). If you think a "pup" or 180-lber is a heck of a fight, imagine those same fish at 300-lbs or 400-lbs!

Now RT, the "important part" of your post - your sons chasing my daughters around the boat while waiting for the bite: Perhaps fish billies were in a roundabout way designed to stun more than just fish prior to boating....

Best Regards,
SalmonSurf

[INSPECTOR]

Very interesting swordfight and great debate!

Oh - almost forgot, who hijacked this post/thread first?