Another awesome week on the water…… Monday night I had Billy Crookshank, his son BJ and their friend Jimmy. Billy had caught every other kind of billfish there is to catch and swords were last on his list. We left the dock about 1pm and headed out in search of bait. The rip was at about 30 miles and full of willing volunteers. As we were filling the live well we saw about a 300lb blue tossing chick dolphin in the air like popcorn so I dropped the riggers and we put big baits. The rip was about as perfect as it gets…current, grass and a buffet of baitfish. Unfortunately we struck out and with only about an hour before we had to set the sword baits we headed to a rig for a couple of late afternoon tuna. Whenever I go sword fishing I like to put a few tuna in the box first. It kind of helps relieve the angst of clean ice- not just for the crew but for me as well. Late afternoon became late evening and we had the big zero in the box. I was a little stressed as we headed to the sword grounds but spirits were still high among the crew. Billy kept telling me, " I don't really care about anything but a sword. If we catch nothing but one sword the trip will be worth it." I was hoping he meant it. As the sun slipped beneath the horizon I set the last bait, flipped on the hydroglow and the waiting began. It's hard to describe bow beautiful it is out there at night, just drifting out in the open, away from the noise and lights of any rig.
On a calm night, it's common for the crew to start unwittingly whispering instead of talking in a normal voice, as if their normal voices would somehow disturb the serenity of the scene. Monday night the serenity was short lived as the clicker on the middle line began to scream right at about 9pm. Bryan scrambled to get the other baits in as BJ and I got Billy in a belt and gave him the rod. It didn't take long before we knew it was not a large fish but Billy kept saying, As long as it's got a broad bill…." Fifteen minutes later I was leaning over the side of the boat grabbing the bill of a 48" swordfish! Not a monster but the last billfish on Billy's list was checked off! We were going to let him go but the hook had swung around in his eye and we decided to put him on the ice. Mission accomplished! We reset the boat and put the baits back out but had no action for the next few hours other than a couple of sharks that got free Mustad 7732 TB Sea Demon hooks. Finally about 4am things started to heat up. We missed two fish back to back that billed the heck out of the baits but never swallowed. Finally on the deep line we made solid contact with a mammoth sword! He ripped out 27lbs of drag like nothing. He was shaking his head so violently that when BJ had him in the harness it was swinging the rod back and forth. Ten minutes into the game though the line parted and BJ almost fell flat on his butt! We reeled in to find out that the 130 spectra had just broken. I can't explain how or why. I had just resoled the reel, the line was fresh. I guess that fish was simply not ready to be caught. We reset the baits and drifted till about 7am but didn't have another strike so we picked up and headed out for a few tuna. On the way, I started thinking that since we had gotten several strikes in a short period that maybe we could drop to the bottom right in that area and catch one during the day. I stopped the boat and discussed it with the crew. BJ was game so we turned around and headed back from whence we came. I positioned the boat right in between the last two strikes and we let a super squid down. It took almost 6 minutes for it to hit bottom with a 9lb weight but only about 3 minutes for it to be sucked down the throat of a SWORDFISH! We must have hit him in the head when we dropped. He came to the top fairly easily but when he got there he was not happy at all! He saw the boat and instead of making another run, he attacked! I had to keep gunning the engines to stop him from coming in! After about 20 minutes we got a handle on him and I grabbed his bill. He was 56 inches of DAYTIME SWORD! After a lot of high fives and pictures we ran out to the tuna put a few quick 60 pounders in the box and headed in. Wednesday was not quite so eventful but still a lot of fun. I had a group of plumbers from Conroe, Texas.
They were a hoot and we had a really good time fishing with them. Total take was 4 yellowfin and a few dolphin. Not a bad day at all! Big fish was right at a hundred. Thursday and Friday I had Mario, Bob, Joe, and Gary from Carrabelle FL. The first day we fished the rip and had a nice collection of Dolphin and 7 wahoo. The second day it was tuna or bust. It started out slow as the "brownfin" tuna were thick and wouldn't leave us alone. I picked one 60lb yellowfin out by about 9am but it cost us about twenty Mustad 39950 hooks and lots of wasted effort reeling in sharks. Time to move. Next spot the current was ripping and the water was dirty. I made a long drift and caught 1 rainbow runner and 1 brownfin. I was just about to reset when I looked up at the sonar and saw marks I knew without a doubt were tuna. I sent a bait out and sure enough, fish on! Gary was first up and he gave 30 minutes of sweat and tears until passing the rod to Joe. I could tell the fish wasn't huge but he was certainly an athlete. Joe finished him off in about 15 minutes and I stuck the gaff in a 100lb yellowfin! The crew was ecstatic and took lots of pictures while I drove back 2 miles to the rig. Next drift produced another athlete! Weighing in at 115 he barely lost the fight against 4 anglers with a combined weight of,…well a lot more! After their near KO the crew was ready for a shower and dinner so we headed back to the dock. I was finished cleaning fish and eating dinner with the family at 5:30pm. Saturday I had Hunt Odem and his son Hunter. They were in it for the experience and said the fish would just be a bonus. They got their bonus…2 yellowfin, 1 blackfin, 1 bull dolphin and 8 wahoo by noon. After that they were ready for the house and we were back at the dock for 3:30. They were really a pleasure to fish with and I respect the fact that they did not want to kill any more fish than we had. The wahoo especially were thick and we could have caught a hundred of them. Their next trip is going to be for swords and I am already looking forward to it. Sunday, father's day, was possibly the best trip of my life. I finally got to take my two little red headed girls to see the blue water. But that will be a report for another day…. I still have some days in July and August and would love to take you fishing. Give me a call. God bless, good fish! Capt. Peace Marvel 504-858-TUNA ( 8862 )