Northern Drift Fishing Report by "261Mako"

[Mike]

Ran out last night in hopes of catching my first sword since everyone has been talking about how awesome it is. Left Jupiter at 5:15 and ran south to 1300 ft. off Palm Beach. Put out 3 squid and within minutes I see a one of the green sticks swimming away. I come tight on him but pull the hook. 0-1. About 10 minutes later, we get anoher hit and this time it starts pulling line pretty good. So I let him eatfor a while and were on. We are fishing 50 Wide Tiagra's. About 15 minutes goes by and I see the wax thread come on the spool that we used to mark 300ft. Needless to say the fish wasn't having any of that. To make a long story short, 2 1/2 hrs. later, and 1 broken fighting belt later we had the leader and sank 2 gaffs in him. Back at the scales he weighed in at 137 lbs. I have seen alot of Swordfish caught but never caught one. 2 of the Guy's with me work on Charter Boats and they both said they had never seen a swordfish make those kind of long, fast runs. On one run he pulled off about 400 yds. of mono and another 200 yds. of Dacron. Needless to say I am a little sore today.

[RiskTaker]

Congratulations 261Mako and team:

Catching a 137 lb. swordfish as your first keeper must certainly be a thrill.

Happy Thanksgiving, you should have full bellies with fresh swordfish for a while. Hey, we had swordfish for our Thanksgiving dinner. We still had turkey and duck to keep it traditional for those that don't do fish on "Turkey day". I kind of actually liked it since it doesn't really matter what we eat on Thanksgiving as long as we are Thankful about it. As a youth we would have Calamari(salad), stuffed artichokes, Lasagna and Brazziole or ham. So a little swordfish is excellent table fare too.

We caught a fish about that size (124 lb.) that was foul hooked right at the base of the dorsal fin. This fish fought for 2 hrs. 20 min. before we had him tuckered out and into the boat. On his big run he must have pulled line for a continuous 30 minutes and (~ 200 yds. of line) before we were able to start gaining on him.

Yeah, a nice workout. I hope you had a shoulder harness too; otherwise you must be REALLY sore today and tomorrow too.

Good luck on your next fish when you set out again on teh North side.

I hear it is kind of flat up that way. Are you guys picking any type of countours or just going to a preferred depth? RT

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

Originally Posted by RiskTaker

Congratulations 261Mako and team:

Catching a 137 lb. swordfish as your first keeper must certainly be a thrill.

Happy Thanksgiving, you should have full bellies with fresh swordfish for a while. Hey, we had swordfish for our Thanksgiving dinner. We still had turkey and duck to keep it traditional for those that don't do fish on "Turkey day". I kind of actually liked it since it doesn't really matter what we eat on Thanksgiving as long as we are Thankful about it. As a youth we would have Calamari(salad), stuffed artichokes, Lasagna and Brazziole or ham. So a little swordfish is excellent table fare too.

We caught a fish about that size (124 lb.) that was foul hooked right at the base of the dorsal fin. This fish fought for 2 hrs. 20 min. before we had him tuckered out and into the boat. On his big run he must have pulled line for a continuous 30 minutes and (~ 200 yds. of line) before we were able to start gaining on him.

Yeah, a nice workout. I hope you had a shoulder harness too; otherwise you must be REALLY sore today and tomorrow too.

Good luck on your next fish when you set out again on teh North side.

I hear it is kind of flat up that way. Are you guys picking any type of countours or just going to a preferred depth? RT

Nice catches guys. I've been trying for the last year to swordfish the GOM. I will get that chance in May.
We had fresh tuna for Thanksgiving. Yes, it is nice to have variety.

I don't know about that shoulder harness. Seems to me that you would still be sore.
I took a marlin using a small Braid belt and off brand plate. I required 3 days "rest" before I could get comfortable enough to sleep well.
I'm retiring the Braid setup for my young teenaged boys use. I am getting a Smitty's Spyder harness and large long-range plate. It may be overkill most days but, I like the load being placed accross my backside not lower back and no way my upper back!
http://www.bad-fish.com/smitty.html
I'm not affiliated... just know that these fishermen give great service and advice.

[gsniffen]

You guys are killing me! Her I sit in Atlanta, my boat in West Palm and no vacation days left this year...

Good catch!