Trolling for swords at the Swordfish Club meeting

[Nightfighter]

Skip,
Thanks for the invite to the Swordfish Club meeting last night. I was humbled by the caliber and experience I saw in that room. I’m not one to speak up in crowds and that crowd was daunting, hope I didn’t look too much like a deer in headlights. Did the best I could to relay the experience I have at trolling.
I’ve been night trolling since 1995 and have changed methods greatly over time. I always say one gets better with each fish they loose. I wish I was as good as that statement implies, but as all of you know, to swordfish is to loose fish, no matter how good you are.
When you troll at night it is no different, you will loose fish, but as you tweak your game you will loose fewer. I tried to relay as much as I could, but one can talk all night on the subject of trolling for swordfish and never get it all said. There were a lot of questions that I didn’t get to answer and a lot of things that I should have said but didn’t get to. There is a lot of info on the nightfighterslures website that I have put down in writing that should answer some of those questions.
It was good to see Dan there, we both love trolling for swordfish but differ greatly in our approaches and methods. As they say there are many ways to skin a cat. Just as many use different methods while Drift fishing for swordfish. When I used to fish the Blue Marlin tournaments, every Capt at the dock had their own methods, and most of them worked. If your game was good enough all it took was to run over the right fish to win.
I use a Transformer lure plug in almost everything I put in the water now, dead squid bait and lures. My theory is to attract the swordfish directly to the bait. As you all heard last night the squid give off light and that is what I am simulating with the Transformers. It works so well for me I came up with the idea of the transformer and knew I had to patent it. Unfortunately for me, I introduced it right as fuel prices were going through the roof. Bad timing, but what can you do. Now that fuel prices are back to normal get out there and give it a try. When you hook one on the troll you will be totally amazed. A good strike and you will think your 80 wide is going to explode. Usually when a rod gets hit everyone tries to jump on it. When a big swordy strikes on troll most newbie’s run away from it.

Enjoy the troll, and thanks again for the invite. It's a great bunch of fishermen you guys have there.

Stewart

PS. Feel free to post up any questions, I’ll try to answer as best I can.