Swordfishing
- June 25, 2007
- 0 Comments
- By Story By Matt Badolato
My dad, my buddies Jason and John, and myself left Indialantic around 3pm Friday afternoon. With our 22' Aquasport in tow, we snagged some ice from a friend, went over the inevitable mental checklists, and hopped on 95 south. Reminiscing about our previous trip to the "dark side" of the Gulf Stream and a quick nap made the two hour drive to Lake Worth Inlet pass quickly. After flipping my SUV two months ago I've been a tad reluctant to relax on interstate journeys, but thoughts of the pewter skinned broadbills calmed my mind like an Indian temple.
We launched the boat at the end of Blue Heron Blvd around 5 and idled out to the mouth of Lake Worth Inlet, which reminds me at a glance of Sebastian, minus the mammoth north Jetty. Enjoying one of the few times we would be happy to see Pumphouse not pumping, we gathered a few monster blue runners off a bouy similar to Bethel but only a couple hundred yards offshore. After securing some live baits to bridle on circle hooks, we rigged up four rods to high-speed troll out to where we would be drifting for the swords, twenty miles out above the Palm Beach Canyons.
The sun was taking a rest on the horizon before settling in when we starting deploying the first sword baits in 1400' of water, a couple miles north of the spot we intended to drift over. With the Gulf Stream carrying us north a clip of a few miles an hour, it wasn't long before we were floated over the territory of the swords. Without a single strike high-speedin, we were anxious for some action. The blue runners fought great on light tackle, but still...Setting a spread of 3 large squid and a live blue runner on the TLD 25's took about an hour, and it was a good half hour into the night when we finally got to sit back and watch the lines and the small nocturnal creatures attracted to the Hydroglow, a four foot long neon green flourescent light tube suspended in the water at the transom. A few flying fish cruised through including a juvenile one that looked like it had tentacles growing out of its mouth. A keeper sized dolphin cruised along the shadow line looking for a blinded flyer, but he was too busy with that to eat any of our offereings of jigs.
One pepsi and a pack of Peanut M&Ms later I decided to give the chum bag a good shake. Jason and I were trying to bring some more flying fish into the light (dip net range) when we looked over at the corner rod, the farthest one out, and see that it is curled over like a candy cane. "Fish on!" Jason hollers, and as he sets the hook on the mystery behemoth, the line starts screaming off the reel. He hands the rod over to my dad while John and I start to clear the other three lines and prepare for the battle ahead.
We were about spooled before we finally got the motor started and started to chase down the fish. John took the wheel and kept the fish beside us the best he could. We would gain a hundred yards and he would run down two hundred yards. Heavier tackle would certainly be nice here. After gaining back the 500 yards of power pro backing, we were happy to see that mono again. My dad fought the fish for about 45 minuntes before his back and arms could take no more. We didn't have the bucket harness so this fish put a hurtin on us. I took over and got my chance at battle. The fish used the current against us and did what he wanted to. After another half hour of coaxing him in, we finally got him on the wind-on leader where I could put a lot of pressure on him with the light tackle. We could see him 60 feet down in the clear water. The eight foot long fish looked like a dinosaur with the hydroglow illuminating it. My dad took the helm and John assumed wireman duties. John pulled up the fish by his 200lb mono leash and Jason got him with the harpoon. The shot just about stoned the exhausted fish, and it took both John and Jason to pull it over the gunnel and onto the deck.
After failing to get more than one decent picture between 3 broked digital cameras (technology, sheesh) we managed to jam the sword into the fish bag and pack in as much ice as we could. We opted to try and troll for another, but we had all the meat we needed and it was now midnight and we had a long trip home. We did get a good picture of me laying next to the fish on the deck and a couple more at the dock that the Coast Guard was glad to take for us.(After the cavity search, j/k, they were actually really cool) We didn't weigh the fish but we all estimated it to be around 150lbs, our biggest one yet. From bill to tail she was 96". We probably carved about 90lbs of meat off the fish, so it is gonna be catch and release until I can close my freezer door without the broom handle I rigged.
Awesome night with the dad and some good friends, seas weren't too bad. Right after we set the lines out we were surrounded by thunderstorms with some spectacular lightning. Lucky for us we stayed between the storms without a drop of rain. It did get really windy and cold when we hooked the fish, but the gods were good to us.
Well, thats all from me for now. I will post some pictures when we get the camera fixed this week.
Check back for a report every week, whether it's inshore or offshore, night or day, I'll have something to say.
Happy fishin,
Matt B from Whitey's Bait and Tackle