Weekend in the tropics

[jerry]

I am now totally hooked. I hope my wife doesn’t divorce me over sword fishing. Friday night found four boats in “my” spot trying for sword fish. We had one squashed bait and caught a 60lb oil fish to show for the night. Two other boats had fish on and lost them. Both boats experienced fish actually jumping beside the boat before realizing they were betting bit. On Saturday night my son Andrew and I went out with a friend on his 36ft Luhrs. Duane, the owner of the boat, has never caught a billfish before and hopes were high for catching him his first and it being a sword. Again we had one mashed bait really early and then nothing till midnight. The inside balloon starts moving out of the drift and I get to winding and fish on. Duane jumps in the chair and 20 minutes later we boat his first ever sword and his first billfish. My son Andrew who had been sleeping most of the night is now wide awake and rearing to go. Five minutes before our planned ending time the tip rod bounces once, twice and zzzzzzz, fish on. I am praying it will be his first sword as well but the sea genie has other plans. He boats another nice oil fish around 40lbs.

[Mike]

Welcome to the darkside.

What are you getting the oil fish on ? Squids?

Good Job on getting your buddy his first billfish.

Mike

[RiskTaker]

Jerry:

Great job on dealing with that addiction. Sounds like you had 2 fixes this weekend. I just hope for your sake, you are not a Scorpio. 8-[

Can you provide any photos of the other fish (non-swords) you caught and post in the General Fishing Gallery?

You called them "Oil Fish" . After Darkside caught his unusual fish several moons ago here in So. Fla., there was some confusion about its proper naming: Oilfish or Escolar.

After a few forum posts. I believe it was reasonably determined that he had actually caught an Escolar. And a photo of Capt. Roddy Hayes, holding a fish was believed to be an Oilfish.

Oilfish: http://www.swordfishingcentral.com/g...il_fish?full=1
(Oilfish has rough scaley skin)

Escolar: http://www.swordfishingcentral.com/g...ishing2004/2_G (Escolar has a smoother scaley skin - Escolar is very popular for Sashimi here in So. Fla.)

If these statements are not correct then please advise.... It would be nice to have some current photos in the gallery and properly labelled as to what they are.

P.S. - If anybody else has any good links to show clear identification between the two types of fish that would be great to post too. (Oilfish & Escolar)

[jerry]

Hey guys, we are not 100% sure if these fish are oil or escolar. My friend Tommy Greene upon sending him a pic of the first one we caught advised me that it was an oil fish. That these fish come two ways, with scales and without as RT mentioned. We have caught three of these fish now, one close to 60lbs. I have pictures of two of them and will post them in the gallery. I may have to post the most recent one later as my camera is at home.
Mike, we have caught all three of them on spanish macs. All three were caught in the 60-70 fathom region on our deep tip rod.
We were told and also read up on the net that these fish are great eating but if you eat a lot it can cause a runny belly. Any truth to this?