10/7 SAIL Club Sword Tourney Report

Momentum · 10-09-2006, 01:29 PM

Headed out on the Fuzzy Details with Tom himself, Ernie (Lucky7Team2), and a non-member, Dale. Everyone on the boat was pretty much a rookie, beginning to sword fish consistently only a few months ago so we decided to have some fun and give it a try with the big guys. Everything worked out perfectly as far as preparation - I rigged the squids and had them ready to roll with plenty of extras (ended up being very important). Everything fell into place and we headed out extra early to pick up lots of runners. We ended up set up on the sword grounds about 45 minutes early so we put the chum out and immediately a shark came to check out the sea anchor. We fed him a scrap squid that was used for chum and he spit it three times and went back for it every single time. Finally we got a hook in him and had a fun fight on a spinner.

7:00 came and we set up deeper than the pack. The drift wasn't really in or out, practically just north. As I sent down the last 325' squid and ballooned it up, it gets nailed as Ernie was letting it out - burning Ernie's hand on the reel. He knocks the drag up to around 22 lbs. and we get tight and harness up Dale. About 10 minutes into the fight, the hook pulls and spirits are broken. It was only 7:30 so we had plenty of time to get another. We take that same drift for a while and decide to pack it up and move. We moved back to where we hooked up the first fish, but slightly shallower. I realized on the first drift that the bite and the slashes (2 or 3) came on the deeper baits (200+) so my next spread was reformed to 200, 225, 300, 325 ft. depths on the balloons and 250' on the tip rod runner along with a 75' runner. As morale was becoming worse by the minute, I was watching the spread, at that instant, the 225' ballloon, when it tips over quickly and simultaneously the rod doubles over and starts ripping off line. Ernie (his potential first fish) gets harnessed up and does battle with the fish that liked to sit on the thermocline...finally, Ernie starts to gain some ground (with a good amount of drag) and gets the light/weight setup to the rod tip where we take them off. The fish comes to the boat and makes another run, but comes back up after Ernie decided that it was time to stick a flyer in it. The fish got wrapped in the Hydroglow and we pulled that out of the water while I blindly stuck the fish in the shoulder above the gill plate with the flyer...in the boat he comes and tapes out at 55.25'' LJF. Nice and fat. Biggest fish so far on the Fuzzy Details and biggest fish I've personally been on the boat for.

We decide to move and set up again around the same area and promptly set up again. While I was hooking the runner leader up to the rod, I saw the 325' rod start bouncing and finally it bent over while Tom got tight. A pup came to the boat tail wrapped (the third pup I've got tail wrapped) and taped out at 44'' so back he went for a swim. 2/3 now.

Finally, things slowed down a bit again for us. Around 2:30 AM, I was absolutely beat. I didn't stop moving all night - from bridling runners, to rigging baits, to checking baits, to hooking fish....so I laid down for a couple minutes. Not long after I did, Tom says: "Hey, the short balloon popped off!" So I take a look and indeed it was floating back to the boat so I yell "REEL!" and at that instant I saw the light racing across the surface 100-150 yards out..."REEL, REEL, REEL!!!"...and then...I saw it jump. I think all of us did. "HOLY SH#T - HUGE FISH!!!" He jumped again as all of us watched with our mouths gaped down to the deck. The splash he made when jumping was equivalent to the amount of water a Fountain 34 throws when hitting a 4 ft. wave. Tom keeps reeling all the excess line up to get tight (fish hit the bait at 325' and swam to the surface). Finally, Tom gets tight on the fish and the fish burns off a good amount of line, stops momentarily, and turns the afterburners on. The fish kept dumping Tom on his Daiwa Sealine 50 with 80 lb. JBHC. I was reeling in the spread with Dale while Ernie was hanging onto Tom. At this point, Tom put the drag all the way up to FULL, BALL$ out, hammered drag...all the way up....and the fish kept running harder and harder...I ran to the helm, started the motors, and started driving towards the fish so we didn't get spooled. Finally, he slowed down and stopped. Then, the fish ran back up to the surface and chilled for about 10 minutes where we could see the light about 50 yards off the bow. Then, the fish decided he had enough of the surface and ran back down again, dumping half the spool of the 50 again with 35-40lbs. of drag applied constantly. I got the boat straight up and down on the fish to get line capacity and Tom couldn't budge him at all..not on the surface, nor down deep. The fish was towing the boat around into the current and slightly offshore. I could feel the boat moving like the motors were idling it along. Check out the spool of the reel - you can't see any line in what's shown...

After 30 minutes, the connection to the fish is lost and Tom almost falls on the deck when the fish pops off. None of us said anything as Tom reeled up all the excess line. We all reeled like hell on the spread to get it in and did everything in our power to help Tom out and keep this fish hooked up. We got back the leader and all, except that the 220lb. LP leader broke off somewhere semi-close to the hook with fraying on the leader about 8 ft. long...there was some noticeable fraying near the slanted break in the leader...we assume that the fish might have gotten wrapped up or just sawed through the leader with his bill from all the pressure.

All in all, we ended the night 2/4 releasing a pup and boating a 55'' fish. We're going to begin our search for the slob and we'll get one.

catching · 10-09-2006, 01:40 PM

Good Going guys, Nice report and great pics, lots of sea monsters were out eating Saturday.

Shark Tagger · 10-09-2006, 02:41 PM

rock on hb

Nick C · 10-09-2006, 03:02 PM

Nice work Mike!

on deck · 10-09-2006, 10:43 PM

Was that a sealine reel you were using as well..If so how do you like them? Fished a couple of 70 vs's last night...nice reels with nice handles but dont like the lack of a pre-set strike button. By the way...Had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago with a big fish....I hope we'll both get another chance.

JR.ANGLER 1 · 10-09-2006, 11:24 PM

Way to go Mike, I was 2/4 with Emijess. 62 and 64 inchers that didn't even hit the scale.

Momentum · 10-09-2006, 11:47 PM

We would have boated that fish one way or the other if that leader held up...

I'm ditching the 220 LP and going straight for 400...

My 50tw's and sw's are gonna be spooled with 130 JBHC....if I can't swing for 80's, it's gonna be STOP 'EM OR POP 'EM....not messing around here anymore....pup days are over. :-({|=

10-09-2006, 01:29 PM	#1 (permalink)
Momentum Hooked Up Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 330	10/7 SAIL Club Sword Tourney Report Headed out on the Fuzzy Details with Tom himself, Ernie (Lucky7Team2), and a non-member, Dale. Everyone on the boat was pretty much a rookie, beginning to sword fish consistently only a few months ago so we decided to have some fun and give it a try with the big guys. Everything worked out perfectly as far as preparation - I rigged the squids and had them ready to roll with plenty of extras (ended up being very important). Everything fell into place and we headed out extra early to pick up lots of runners. We ended up set up on the sword grounds about 45 minutes early so we put the chum out and immediately a shark came to check out the sea anchor. We fed him a scrap squid that was used for chum and he spit it three times and went back for it every single time. Finally we got a hook in him and had a fun fight on a spinner. 7:00 came and we set up deeper than the pack. The drift wasn't really in or out, practically just north. As I sent down the last 325' squid and ballooned it up, it gets nailed as Ernie was letting it out - burning Ernie's hand on the reel. He knocks the drag up to around 22 lbs. and we get tight and harness up Dale. About 10 minutes into the fight, the hook pulls and spirits are broken. It was only 7:30 so we had plenty of time to get another. We take that same drift for a while and decide to pack it up and move. We moved back to where we hooked up the first fish, but slightly shallower. I realized on the first drift that the bite and the slashes (2 or 3) came on the deeper baits (200+) so my next spread was reformed to 200, 225, 300, 325 ft. depths on the balloons and 250' on the tip rod runner along with a 75' runner. As morale was becoming worse by the minute, I was watching the spread, at that instant, the 225' ballloon, when it tips over quickly and simultaneously the rod doubles over and starts ripping off line. Ernie (his potential first fish) gets harnessed up and does battle with the fish that liked to sit on the thermocline...finally, Ernie starts to gain some ground (with a good amount of drag) and gets the light/weight setup to the rod tip where we take them off. The fish comes to the boat and makes another run, but comes back up after Ernie decided that it was time to stick a flyer in it. The fish got wrapped in the Hydroglow and we pulled that out of the water while I blindly stuck the fish in the shoulder above the gill plate with the flyer...in the boat he comes and tapes out at 55.25'' LJF. Nice and fat. Biggest fish so far on the Fuzzy Details and biggest fish I've personally been on the boat for. We decide to move and set up again around the same area and promptly set up again. While I was hooking the runner leader up to the rod, I saw the 325' rod start bouncing and finally it bent over while Tom got tight. A pup came to the boat tail wrapped (the third pup I've got tail wrapped) and taped out at 44'' so back he went for a swim. 2/3 now. Finally, things slowed down a bit again for us. Around 2:30 AM, I was absolutely beat. I didn't stop moving all night - from bridling runners, to rigging baits, to checking baits, to hooking fish....so I laid down for a couple minutes. Not long after I did, Tom says: "Hey, the short balloon popped off!" So I take a look and indeed it was floating back to the boat so I yell "REEL!" and at that instant I saw the light racing across the surface 100-150 yards out..."REEL, REEL, REEL!!!"...and then...I saw it jump. I think all of us did. "HOLY SH#T - HUGE FISH!!!" He jumped again as all of us watched with our mouths gaped down to the deck. The splash he made when jumping was equivalent to the amount of water a Fountain 34 throws when hitting a 4 ft. wave. Tom keeps reeling all the excess line up to get tight (fish hit the bait at 325' and swam to the surface). Finally, Tom gets tight on the fish and the fish burns off a good amount of line, stops momentarily, and turns the afterburners on. The fish kept dumping Tom on his Daiwa Sealine 50 with 80 lb. JBHC. I was reeling in the spread with Dale while Ernie was hanging onto Tom. At this point, Tom put the drag all the way up to FULL, BALL$ out, hammered drag...all the way up....and the fish kept running harder and harder...I ran to the helm, started the motors, and started driving towards the fish so we didn't get spooled. Finally, he slowed down and stopped. Then, the fish ran back up to the surface and chilled for about 10 minutes where we could see the light about 50 yards off the bow. Then, the fish decided he had enough of the surface and ran back down again, dumping half the spool of the 50 again with 35-40lbs. of drag applied constantly. I got the boat straight up and down on the fish to get line capacity and Tom couldn't budge him at all..not on the surface, nor down deep. The fish was towing the boat around into the current and slightly offshore. I could feel the boat moving like the motors were idling it along. Check out the spool of the reel - you can't see any line in what's shown... After 30 minutes, the connection to the fish is lost and Tom almost falls on the deck when the fish pops off. None of us said anything as Tom reeled up all the excess line. We all reeled like hell on the spread to get it in and did everything in our power to help Tom out and keep this fish hooked up. We got back the leader and all, except that the 220lb. LP leader broke off somewhere semi-close to the hook with fraying on the leader about 8 ft. long...there was some noticeable fraying near the slanted break in the leader...we assume that the fish might have gotten wrapped up or just sawed through the leader with his bill from all the pressure. All in all, we ended the night 2/4 releasing a pup and boating a 55'' fish. We're going to begin our search for the slob and we'll get one.

10-09-2006, 03:02 PM	#4 (permalink)
Nick C Grander Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: 900-1600' of water Boat: 25' Bluewater(Rough C's) Best Catch: est. 120lb Tarpon on 16lb tippet(fight time was 12 min) Occupation: Squid rigger Posts: 2,221	Nice work Mike! __________________ "Put your buoys out... we're comin' in HOT!"

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10-09-2006, 01:40 PM	#2 (permalink)
catching Grander Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 1,553	Good Going guys, Nice report and great pics, lots of sea monsters were out eating Saturday.

10-09-2006, 02:41 PM	#3 (permalink)
Shark Tagger Hooked Up Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Sunny Isles Best Catch: 475lb Mako Occupation: Engineering Posts: 921	rock on hb

10-09-2006, 10:43 PM	#5 (permalink)
on deck Lines In Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: ft lauderdale, fl Boat: fishing Occupation: restaurant manager Posts: 62	Was that a sealine reel you were using as well..If so how do you like them? Fished a couple of 70 vs's last night...nice reels with nice handles but dont like the lack of a pre-set strike button. By the way...Had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago with a big fish....I hope we'll both get another chance.

10-09-2006, 11:24 PM	#6 (permalink)
JR.ANGLER 1 Lines In Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: 5 6 ACE Boat: Goin' Raptor Posts: 71	Way to go Mike, I was 2/4 with Emijess. 62 and 64 inchers that didn't even hit the scale.

10-09-2006, 11:47 PM	#7 (permalink)
Momentum Hooked Up Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 330	We would have boated that fish one way or the other if that leader held up... I'm ditching the 220 LP and going straight for 400... My 50tw's and sw's are gonna be spooled with 130 JBHC....if I can't swing for 80's, it's gonna be STOP 'EM OR POP 'EM....not messing around here anymore....pup days are over. :-({\|=

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