Memorial Day Weekend

[FinalPoint]

Who will be fishing and what nights? I get home Friday afternoon (can't wait! - it is 45degrees and rainy in Cambridge, MA right now), so I am shooting for Saturday, but I am gonna get out there a few times next week (weather permitting).

[Duke]

Would love to get out this weekend, but may only be able to Sunday night...

[Mike]

The weather looks great for this weekend... Let's get em!

Mike

[RiskTaker]

It's 89 degrees and sunny out of Hillsboro....

Where have all the swordfish gone? North for the summer? People were patrolling the swordfish grounds last Saturday night, inside, outside and everywhere in-between due to the NE drift. It was a full moon and calm seas as we got soaked after watching the lightning show on-shore. Nice night overall even though

the bite seemed to be off. We had only 2 slashed baits and one whack where we noticed a few clicks of the drag. That was it. 0-0.

It should be more favorable this weekend....

On your mark... Get set.....

Go Fish

[FinalPoint]

RT are you gonna jump aboard Final Point this weekend before you head off to the Bahamas?

[RiskTaker]

Yes Sir:

Absolutely, as Rocky would say. I just did not necessarily want to make it sound like I was inviting myself. You name the time, I know the place. Yeah, thanks for the invite. A swordfish is about due.

Besides I need to show you the new line configuration on those two new/used reels I picked up on E-bay a while back. Yeah baby - with Jerry Brown Hollow core spectra, High Viz 130# spooled all the way to the top plus a 50 foot wind-on of 200# mono, connected by finger cuff, served and glued. I did it, I did it; but it took some time to get over the learning curve. But with a little reinforcement from Tek, I stayed motivated and got it done. One of these days I may become a real swordfisherman that has his sheet together. I learned it all right here on Swordfishing Central along with a steady sprinkling of advice and tips from the more highly advanced swordfishermen as well as refinements to satisfy my own style.

On the finger-cuff, one of my frustrations was that I was trying to insert 200# flourocarbon into the 130# braid finger cuff. It turned out that the line diameter of the flouro was .062 which was right at the limit of the maximum allowable line diameter that would fit inside the braid. Once I switched to Momoi High-catch, which had a line diameter of .055", things started to move, although it still took some work to snake 5 feet of mono into the braid.

I am proud of the workmanship now. The only knot that is on this line is at the bitter-end where it is tied to the spool ! I am hoping that this knot will never see the light of day or moonlight until the year 2010 when it is time to re-spool for scheduled maintenance. Anything elso should be resolved by in-line splices. (I think Hannaman would be proud, minimal interconnects without knots) By sometime next year I will let you know if I have become a Hollow-core devotee or if I backslide to the straight monofilament method.

Hey, Can I bring one or two of those super high tech thing-a-ma-bobbers?
Patents Pending They can also serve as a dolphin marker as well as a rum-punch container, or water if you prefer.

[FinalPoint]

No floaty jug thingies on my boat! Balloons only. Ha, sorry for the hard time, but I like to do things my way. You CAN bring a beer or two in case celebrating is in order. I haven't seen a swordfish since the morning of Dec. 24th. Last time I felt one was that night during the heartbreaker on Ken's boat.

[CaptainEd]

Thursday and Friday for me if the work on my boat is completed. [-o<
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[RiskTaker]

This is surely a sign of addiction. [-o< Swordfishing can be habit forming.

Hmmm..... I wonder if someone will be looking over someone else's shoulders today... to make sure the job is completed in time. :bounce:

Good luck Ed. But if your boat is not ready maybe you can hook up with another angler. 0123

[jerry]

IIIIII aaaammmm nnnnot addddddicted. IIIIII haaaave nnnnnnot sworrrrrrrd fissssshhhhhed innnnnnn aaaaa weeeekkkkkkkkkk. :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

[kai akua]

LOL... do they make a support group for addicted sword fisherman??? Well I guess SFC needs sword fishing anonymous board for family support and the such....

Hey FP I will be in town from the 9th to the 11th of June then I am gone to the Abacos for a start of a 14 week tour. I will give you a call when I am in town. Sound like I have both nights already reserved to go swording, but things can and will change!

whats up with the SFC site and the popup adds?

Hanapa'a!

Robbie

[hannaman]

Guess what? You'll never believe it but I was out last night and mine was the only boat out there again. Sure enough the winds picked up out of the SSW and turned straight west around 15-20 knots. Even with the 15 foot paratech sea anchor the drift was at 18-20 degrees. It did slow us down from 3.8 knots to 3 knots and from 27 degrees to less than 20. Didn't make a differance though as we never got the bite. We started at 1200 feet and took her out to over 1700 feet. We had 1 missing bait on the tip and the rest of the squids looked like they were cannabalized. We headed in for the nasty ride home about 11:30. In bed by 2am with a large headache.
I'll be out there again Thursday night, moon should be a little smaller. last night the moon was still full. I'm praying for calm seas, I've yet to see them Swording lately.

[CaptKen]

Hanna
I may slip out there with ya Thurs night,wind is suppose to switch east,I wont believe it till i see it though,I had one of those bone jarring rides in Mon night,20 out of the west.did wind up with a couple slammer dolphin though.

thinkin on some tiles in the Am
Dolphin in the afternoon
a swordie in the evening
thats My plan,and I may not stick to it
Ken

[jerry]

ok ok, you all talked me into fishing tomorrow night. Sorry hon, I wont be home for dinner. RT ya better set up the satelite connecctions and video feed. :lol:

[Finlander]

Plan to fish PM to the grounds for dolphin.etc and then set up for s/f :lol:

[CaptainEd]

I helped out today and the boat is done :cheers: =D> 0123
I took her out for a spin from 4:00 to 6:30. Inside it was beautiful but outside it was bumpy. The gulf stream is in close (8 NAUTICAL MILES EAST OF PORT EVERGLADES). The wind was ripping out of the NW and then a nasty thunderstorm came in and it turned N. Tomorrow it is supposed to be NE and then turn east. I'm guessing it will be bumpy at best but I'm probably going to give it a go. I also got on the phone today and talked to some of the "A" list swordfisherman I know to get the 411. They all said the bite has been TOUGH! Very slow out there. My least favorite wind to fish is a west wind and I'm not crazy about a bright moon. Those two conditions usually equal lousy swordfishing for me. The good news is there have been exceptions to that. Tonight I'll finish rigging and tomorrow I'll decide based on the wind & seas.

[FinalPoint]

Only a couple more days for me. I feel pretty confident, but we'll see how it goes.

[RiskTaker]

Capt. Ed:

Hey that sounds great that you got those enhancements made on your boat before that nebulous weekend deadline. Glad to hear you were not just looking over a shoulder but you actually assisted in the tasks to made it so. Sure, there is a clear sign of complacent apathy going on here. :king: ADDICTION perhaps, highly MOTIVATED, you betcha !

Let us know how you make out should you decide to venture off-shore before the weekend. Not that I need to ask. It seems like you may be more than happy to post some informative results.

Seems like I recall you monitor VHF 16 only - what is your hailing name? #-o , I suppose Captain Ed may work. Start simple them expand.

Yeah, it seems like the summer time groove is upon us. Fewer and smaller fish in our local stomping grounds. Lightning storms and squals should be the weather events we need to contend with or else just the plain old doldrums.

Jerry - No me grites - You joke, meanwhile just this morning I see a colleague setting up a video camera on a tri-pod. I thought that was neat but was too busy to interrogate/understand what he was doing with this.... So are you saying that you are going to catch a "very showmanship worthy" swordfish catch that you would like to have video coverage , "LIVE by Jerry" such that we can broadcast this via internet and audio too. Do you also require a live chat room? (P.S. - Adm. Mike is chat room idea scratched or a feasible enhancement to SFC?) Man I cannot wait for the opportunity to get to your Island-mon ! If I bring the video you must accomodate with some island hotties: gorgeous models somehow stay in style.

Hey, does anyone have any ideas for this weekend? (oh, back to fishing)

Please advise... Perhaps we need to start a new weeks thread.

[jerry]

RT, the hotties are no problem, tall, brown and down. :lol: Only problem with the hotties is that when they are on the boat the contender takes on a mind of its own and usually pulls up to the first deserted island. Of course the cooler pops open of its own volition and the rum bottles ofcourse get into the act. So much for sword fishing. Is that the only type of fishing???

[CaptainEd]

Hey RT

Today started out sh*tty. I had a charter and my mate who was supposed to bring bait (rigged) & some trolling rods didn't show and left me with 5 people to take out by myself. First stop I put them on some Cuddas on spinning tackle and they had a great time with them. Two we released and one we kept for shark bait. Then we headed down to Tennaco and managed a decent king fish. We worked our way off shore from there I set up a 5 rodspread to troll. In about 800ft we picked up about a 12 pound dolphin that was all alone. We went all the way out to the 49 and notta. We headed north and found a bird. That got us into a double header. One dolphin went about 14lbs and the other 8lbs. Then we got slammed by a nasty thunderstorm. 30+ mph winds, lightning 0 vis, fun stuff... During the nastyness another dolphin hit a big marlin lure on a 50VSW, 80lb rod spooled with 80 that was down deep. I must have pulled the thing for over 1/2 hour without knowing it through this nasty squall. I was concentrating on keeping the boat into the wind and watching as best i could for ships coming through. As the storm started to break a little I noticed the bend. I reeled in some and felt the fish. I got the fish about 30 ft from the boat and a marlin had followed it all the way up and then broke away fast. It was cool to see that and everyone loved it. I boated the dolphin and it went about 10lbs. After a long day, some bad storms and more moving through on the way in I decided to 86 the sword trip for tonight. The seas were smoothe out there. Nothing but some nicely spaced out ground swell. Maybe 3 - 4 ft. Saw a few people heading out on the way in. Aside from the storms it should be good. I got in at 7pm.

This past SAT a buddy of mine boated a sword that went 250. I just found out today. It was a slob... No charter tomorrow so I'll be heading out to the grounds on the Hammerhead tomorrow night.