Your First Swordfish and Picture

[wahooman]

Well this is what is left of it, god it was tasty.

[Nick C]

Originally Posted by Tuna Devil

I am the fish in the middle.

Oh

[Gr8fldiver]

Still out hunting for a big one.

[WhItEoUt 23]

WOW!!!! GUYS AND GIRLS GREAT POSTS FROM EVERY BODY LOVE THE PICS

[just2fish]

the first 58"
sword 008.jpg

[ameristrat]

I'll admit, I was ridiculously luck the first time I went swordfishing - this post comes with a story - Have a drink!

All right, here goes -

On August 13th 2007, a buddy of mine, Niklas Anderson, gives me a call with the new that he and his dad are going swordfishing on his boat - a 21 foot bay cat.

Nick has never fished for swordfished before. Infact, he doesn't have the stuff. A friend of his was a charter captain and had a set of two old Penn 50s and a massive old senator. He lent us the rods, lights, and all of the gear and gave us the coordinates for his favorite spot. So we went to Ray's offshore (the ideal starting point for any fishing adventure - that's for you Ray! ), and picked up half a dozen pre-rigged squid - I could have rigged them but, at this point, my obnly experience rigging squid is trolling fro dolphin and that is on 20 lb tackle, not 50 -80 so....

Anyway, we picked up the lights and the bait and pulled out of Boca inlet around 6:00 and headed down to our spot off of Port Everglades. We set up around 7:45 - we stopped to eat some pizza on the way out. Our priorities were in line . So we set out our baits, adn waited without a really good idea about what we should be doing except drift and keep our lines from being tangled.

It turns out that we were doing it right.

Let me stop and say that I really wish I could say it was completely because of me that the following story happened but...

So at about 8:30, our mid-depth bait (I think it was 200 or 225) went down (the jug dove under the surface). Naturally, I grabbed the rod long before anyone else knew what was going on. The fish had a good grip on the bait and I reeled up and came tight - pretty routine. The fish ran and we were hooked up to a pretty good fish from what I could tell. As the fish ran line off of our old Penn 50 International, we attempted to situate the harness around my back so I could be strapped into the rod and use my weight to fight it....

The harness was in more of a mess than the worst birdsnest I have seen, God knows how. Oh well, I'm fighting without a harness but I have a belt. I've caught a few marlin and tons of sailfish standup without a belt (on 20 lb test but this fact didn't occur to me) so how hard could it be?

About fifteen minutes later, I am on the front of the boat slowly gaining line from the 300 yard run the swordfish initially had. As I crank in, I see something out of the corner of my eye. One of our baits, which we left out just in case, is racing across the surface. Nick quickly picks up the rod and comes tight. The fish jumps and we recognize the unmistakable profile as that of a swordfish.

We really did not know how to swordfish. We were going off of the instruction I had received before purely.... and within 45 minutes, we had a double-header. I call that luck. (but really, it was all because of me )

Nick quickly caught an released his fish within fifteen minutes. In hindsight, that fish was probably a fifty incher but we didn't measure it and, at this point, we realized my fish was probably bigger. It was still a few hunred yards out and I was struggling to gain an inch.

Two hours later our prospects have not changed much. There is a mark on the line that signified 225 feet on the line (so we would know how deep to drop the bait) and I am now intimately aquainted with this mark. Honestly, there was a good hour of that fight where that mark was within five feet of my rod and never moved.

The clock strikes 11:00. I am still fighting the fish but the 225 mark is securely on the reel.

11:15 - I can begin to see the glow of the light deep beneath the black surface of the ocean. We drop the hydro-glow light in the water to try to illuminate the fish... we had no such luck.

11:30 - the fish is finally on the surface and close to the boat. As we keep inching him in for the last 100 feet or so, a large swordfish begins circling our boat in the light (probably in the 150 - 175 pound range - it was a good 75 inch fish at least and it was one of the most remarkable things I have seen on the ocean to see this great fish swimming freely in our midst).

About five minutes later, my opponent for the last three hours surfaces next to the boat. It is a large fish. Two flying gaffs later, he (or probably she in this case) is in the boat and we head back into hillsboro to weigh the fish.

I am utterly exhausted - I have been fighting a large fish on heavy standup gear without a harness for three hours. I ended up being sore (my arms and back) for a week afterwards.

An hour later, we pull into Hillsboro - a measurement puts the fish at 81" fork length. We weighed the fish and the scale told us 154. I weighed myself and came out 10-15 pounds lighter than I was so... we weren't quite sure.

Anyway, we got back, steaked it and I went to sleep with a night of the best beginners luck ever on my mind. It was a good day.



P.S. - I used the formula later and it called the fish 176. I think this might have been a little more accurate just because my friend and I couldn't lift the fish and I really hope I am not that weak.... that and the scale weighed me wrong....

Anyway, Istill call the fish 154 because you have to be credible in your fishing stories -I'd rather talk about smaller fish than be called an exaggerator in my fishing tales

And that.... is the story of my first swordfish.

Tight Lines!!!
Ameristrat

[Disco Lady]

[ameristrat]

RT - In response to something you said about my story on another thread - yeah, it was really weird seeing a fish that long with so little weight. I may have measured wrong. I mean... I was tired so I might have slipped or something but I am positive the fish was bigger than 75". I have a picture of me laying beside it (I'm six feet tall - 72") and the fish is definitely at least 4 or so inches longer than me. My only idea to it's small size is that the fish was incredibly skinny. It's girth was smaller than a girth we got off of a 50 something inch fish (which was a fat one but still) we caught a few weeks later (and released). It was a big swordfish that had been doing some serious work on the South Beach diet .
Ameristrat

[maverick18b]

Cool post !!! I"ve only caught one and he went 53".