MR Swordie & some humble pie

?? fisherman · Aug-23-2003, 10:05 PM

Just got home and a bit tired but here goes, Myself and my two buddies Vinnie and Ryon left SI at about 9:00pm last night 8/22 and headed to South Island to spend the night. With the various info I had recieved from some friends out the day before and also various reports plus some info from John WG, I decided to stay somewhat local and do some looking in some areas S/ SW of South Island and then proceed on to the 371 and about 10-12 S/ SW of there, well thats what we did for nada, hell we couldnt even roust up a paddie, it was by far one of the most frustrating days on the water for me in quite some time, kinda hard to swallow when you hear these bust open frothing tuna reports just days before, but thats fishing and I know that is how it goes sometime. We did end up getting a couple of peanut Yellowtail late in the day, and the most action we saw was vinnie on the night we spent at SI baiting up squid and battling 3 bat ray's (pretty hallarious stuff), plus he also ended up getting 10 calicos and one funky white eel (his words as I was asleep when this happened).

Well by now you are probably wondering where this MR Swordie comes in to play, well I had to save the best for last, and trust me this is good, the MR stands for Midnight Rambler, and they hooked into a Swordie at about 9:30 am saturday morning 8/23, and I was about 5 miles from their #s so I decided to see if they needed anything, which they did want a flying gaff so we checked down below in the front stateroom and the flying gaff was gone (it must have been taken off and stored on one of the previous trips) but we do have about 5 gaffs on board so I pull up and watch the fun for a while and then slide up and pass off a gaff and tell them they are in for a very long battle (which Im sure they were well aware of), we ended up keeping in contact for quite a while and getting 1/2 hour to hour updates, and last I heard thru my own contact was that they were still hooked up at 2:30pm, then latter I could no longer reach them but heard Shelly "THE SHARK" talking to them and she would relay back to me what was happening, which at one point they had the fish to color but it ended up sounding again. I later ran into shelly at the Marlin Club where I was checking on the tourney standings (not good so far) and she said belived that she heard they were still on the fish. Thats it for now, im tired, lets give them boys on the Midnight Rambler some good vibe and hope they land that bad boy!!! That is trully a fish of a lifetime and you do not get many if any shots at one period. It is very likely that they are still on that fish and will continue to be throughout the night, they hooked the fish on 60# and a 6/0 hook with a sardine and they had what appeared to be a good fighting belt and harness. Good luck to the boys on the Midnight rambler, youll be rambling for sure this coming midnight if you are still on that beast, Getem!!!

The unknown fisherman :p

?? fisherman · Aug-23-2003, 10:10 PM

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byeye · Aug-23-2003, 10:13 PM

http://www.bloodydecks.com/forums/sh...&threadid=2949 (450-500lb Swordfish at the 371)

**Surfdoc** · Aug-23-2003, 10:14 PM

WOW, Thanks for the report, and can't wait for this outcome!
Man your right about fish of a lifetime! Too cool, hope they got it in!
Sorry for the long run for 2 runts, but like you said thats fishin..gunz fishering

So where is Shelly's report???

**Saluki** · Aug-23-2003, 10:16 PM

Cool, very cool, I hope they got him in !!!!!!

?? fisherman · Aug-23-2003, 10:20 PM

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?? fisherman · Aug-23-2003, 10:25 PM

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?? fisherman · Aug-23-2003, 10:30 PM

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?? fisherman · Aug-23-2003, 10:37 PM

Aw man Byeye, you just killed me with that!!!! Totally bumming for them, man I wanted them to get that fish. By the way, the humble pie in my report was refering to my terrible day.

Now the Question is, how do I go about getting my gaff back

??

Sorry to hear the news MidnightRambler and crew, you guys gave it one hell of an effort!!

The unknown fisherman:p

Katana · Aug-24-2003, 12:26 PM

cant figure how to log on with my password im so sore and tired right now it hurts to even type. unknown fisherman send me a pm (to midnightrambler) and i'll return your gaff. thanks for the use, well almost use of it. this is what makes this website one of the best people working together.

heres my report on the events. headed out friday night to do a little tuna fishing, was fishing the triangle area catching small skipjack when my buddy steve says look at that shark. thats not a shark thats a mola waving to you. a couple of minutes later he says theres a big ass shark, thats no shark thats a broadbill had to be 7 to 8 ft long we pull in the trollers i grab a tld 30 spooled with fresh 60lb pline and a big circle hook pin on a dine and the swordie turns away, reel it in, pin on the biggest dine in the tank. put in right in front of its nose it lites up like a neon lite. hookup. time 10:30 in the morning. well i played tug of war on this monster for 4 hours. unknow fisherman shows up with a big gaff. cant fight any longer hand off to my buddy Wayne he fights it for a hour and half. this swordie never ran very far took me down to the spectra a couple of times but mostly stayed 50 yards under the boat. steve pulled on the fish for a while. i'm starting to get feeling back in my arms and legs, im ready to go the distance. i strap in and start pulling on him as Wayne runs the boat, keeping the fish on the port side almost the entire fight. finally we try to plane him up its working, we finally get a look 25 yards off your port bow looks to be 8ft, the girth on this thing is incredible then he rolls and sinks out its now 2:30 i take the battle to bow of the boat and sit on an icechest and then on the rod butt, put the rod on the rail and reel when the boat dips into the swell. looking at the 60lb line i see it starting to fray with alot of knicks in it i make a decision at 3:30 that if we dont make some headway by 5 were going to lock down the drags and pull him up with the boat. at 4:30 the line seperates. what would i do different ? have an elephant gun on board (my 50 wide 1oo lb test) fight and fish of a life time. i really need to get a big game harness the braid one is all right for 100 lb tuna. just want to finish up by thanking Wayne for the great job he did running the boat, Steve sorry we didnt get your bluefin, unknow fisherman thanks for the loan on the gaff you have one awsome ride. shelly thanks for the ecouragement. got to go put something on my blistered hands now.

TheShark · Aug-24-2003, 12:33 PM

Mike - ?? fisherman

Thanks for reporting this with the pic's! Sorry the day sucked out there for you guys- You looked tired yesterday - hope you got some rest-

Mike - byeye

thanks for the follow up call

Brian- You did damn good buddy! What a great experience to have!

Wayne - great talking to you on the radio for the updates!

This is working together - this is a good thing - this is what it is all about- saftey in numbers

Time Off · Aug-24-2003, 01:07 PM

Sorry that beast got away especially
with all your time and effort.
It's hard to believe that people have
fought those fish for two & three times
that long only to lose them.I can't even
imagine.