When I was told that I was going to Florida, I started looking into what fishing was happening. I could not believe what I learned. I didn't make sense. Catching nighttime swordies out there is like catching albacore in the summertime, you just go out there and do it, no problem. The limit is 3 per boat, and its not uncommon for guys to get limits. We only fished from 6:45 to about 11:15, and got two. And, we got out there late. The bite started about half an hour before our arrival. The few guys I talked to back there could not believe my skepticism about actually getting a shot a one, much less two in a night.
Both came to the boat fairly easy, compared to what I expected. We were using big gear, just in case we hooked the right one. I was on a 21 foot Mako center console, and the guy I was fishing with has caught 150 swords over the last four years, includnig one about 550 and a 420. The night we were out, most fish were just below 100 pounds, but one guy got a 200 that he fought for four hours.
I am not sure if you could do the same thing here because the fish are not as concentrated. These guys get swords basically year round, fishing on the edge of the gulfstream. There were probably 25 boats fishing within a couple of miles of us, and almost all of them had their shots, some had five or six bites. I heard that one boat has caught 106 this year alone. In any event, the zone we were in had lots of small swordies, some as small as 20 or 30 pounds, which are below the legal size. They have to be 47 inches from the bottom of the jaw to the fork to keep. I don't think that we have the massive concentration of fish here that they have back east, but the ones around here are much bigger on average. On the other hand, they don't have anywhere near the numbers of makos that we have, but the one's they get are monsters. If you could find the fish in concentration, then I am sure that they can be caught here, but be prepared to spend a lot of nights trying for nothing. And, along the way, you just might catch a couple.
Take a look at
www.swordfishingcentral.com and the south florida forum page on
www.floridasportsman.com.
congrats Bro ............... 
,, oh man you got some niiiiice steaks.
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