Southern California Swordfish! Possible?

[pg60]

Went 12 mi out of Dana last week with 5150dude. Dave hooked two on SARDINES! They just surfaced as we pulled up on separate paddies. Lasted all of 5 seconds on 30#. All hyped we went back out a couple of days later geared up to 80lb with macks on the slow troll. Didnt even see a seagull for 7 hours.

[BlueHunter]

Originally Posted by pg60

Went 12 mi out of Dana last week with 5150dude. Dave hooked two on SARDINES! They just surfaced as we pulled up on separate paddies. Lasted all of 5 seconds on 30#. All hyped we went back out a couple of days later geared up to 80lb with macks on the slow troll. Didnt even see a seagull for 7 hours.

Very cool. I guess you didn't know you can only catch them at night.

[pg60]

Oops. He did say swords didnt he. My bad. These were marlin.
Yup those new spotter planes with the infrared work good on em at night huh?

[captjeffjones]

In my experience and study, the bulk of these surface fish are hooked by slow trolling a live/dead bait after spotting it on the surface. Ted Naftzger uses this method. Every swordie I've seen hooked did a "drive by" in the first hour of the battle. Many other captains have experienced this as well. Wether or not you try to stick the fish this early is your choice. I will say that I have never landed one, and plan to stick the next "drive by". Another common tale says that hooked fish tend to stay just under the boat 50' to 75 feet down, making it hard to tire them. Putting the boat in gear and driving away from the fish increases the amount of line the fish has to drag around, tiring the fish. It will come back under the boat (you can actually see it on the sonar). Do it again and again so the fish doesn't rest. Finally, when baiting a browned out sleeper that won't budge, try putting the marling jigs out and running the fish over with the boat. Sounds nuts but I've SEEN it work. The swordie comes into the jigs all ticked off and eats a dropback sometimes. Good luck!

[TROCKWELL]

only baited one once, and damn near hit him with the mac on the cast.... the lit up color is amazing though, i do have to say that..... that got one of the other guys telling a story of when he had been aboard a boat lucky enough to hook one, and after fighting it hard for 3 hours on 50 lb, the realized it wasnt fighting them, it was still feeding. realizing they were not up for the lengthy battle necessary to win this, they cut it off. thats the story anyway.....

[temensis88]

i'm lucky to have gotten;9 out of 16 and not mentioning throwing to over 100+..got one 13miles off oceanside in 35min..gotta wrench em' in right away before they realize what's going on.but down full and crank!!!!was 389lbs and caught on a mac..plus it was on a 3/4 day boat the "Laura J"

[temensis88]

i'm lucky to have gotten;9 out of 16 and not mentioning throwing to over 100+..got one 13miles off oceanside in 35min..gotta wrench em' in right away before they realize what's going on.but down full and crank!!!!was 389lbs and caught on a mac..plus it was on a 3/4 day boat the "Laura J"

[Three Ts]

When I was a kid on my family's boat, we baited a few dozen broadbill, got a couple to bite but never landed one. Once we came across a virtually dead one floating on the 14 mile bank wtih a pectoral fin up - the line broke after it had stuck by a stick boat, and the dart was still in it with a foot of line attached. We idled up next to it, and it barely flinched, so my dad stuck it with the flying gaff thinking we'd just pull it onto the swim step. The fish lit up light 4th of July! We didn't have the tail rope out and ready, and so we were wrestling with it on the flying gaff, finally got a tail rope on, and that sucker didn't stop moving for 20-30 minutes. It was about a 300 # fish. We got the Lucky Gaff award that year from our club.

[soshark]

I actually heard of guys that -spot the swords from the sky, radio to the buddies in the water and even spear them sun bathing.

[arik lerner]

last quote is right it helps to put a green light the one you crack to light inside the squid and also go to the Japanese food mkt. they have the clearest and freshest frozen squid 1 foot long (the right size), stick the light internal wrap with thread to hook and get below the makos as said ,,hope you have your laptop out there mabey you can look at some porn its going to be a long wait

[arik lerner]

oh one other but rather important thing, look for the lights at night for the drift gilnetters will be pin pointing the best location for these guys live with the swordies often for up to 10 days longer sometimes per trip, Swordfish are very finiky on temp. breaks sometimes a tenth of a degree not like tuna although many times they are in the same area also go down to the commercial docks like Driscolls ask if there getting them close because they kind of start outside 43 butterfly etc then when the water breaks shrink up the go off at the 9 mile the 9 is your best bet very important have a 9/0 reel of if your using a 6/0 have a back up with clips ready so when you get spooled on the 6/0 you can throw it over and let your second pole ride out the fish swordies dont get efected by presure they can dive 1000 feet easy the reason one thought is that when they are on surface they are depresurizing this is a theory good luck hope this helps also use a mean leader

[CPV]

The last month I have seen 3 brought in to Catalina sold to Armstrongs, the green peir and lobster trap.... they catch them very local!