Some of you know that I’ve been after a sword for a few months now. I’ve only been able to do drops about 7 times now. Weather windows and solo fishing days needed to align perfectly.
I did some exploratory runs in July and figured out how to drop my baits without tangling then started hitting it in September when I was able to do a drift for more than 4 hours.
Very first time out I hooked up on the drop. Big heavy fish that took drag but I was only on for 2 minutes or so and I think it was a thresher. But who knows.
On my 4th trip I hooked something that made the rod load but wasn’t putting up a fight until I got it to 200ft and it started acting like a fish, pulled a little drag and then was gone.
I switched to circles after that.
Had a few “hits” the other times out and got my bait torn up which kept me pushing on to get the hookup.
When I finally did hook up I thought it was a shark. It dogged me for about 10 minutes then finally shot up and was a quarter mile away when it broke surface so I couldn’t even see it but it was definitely acting like a sword.
It breached twice next to me and looked absolutely massive. Really got the adrenaline going but if you’ve watched my videos you know that just mean I might smile a little.
I haven’t mentioned this other places but swordfish are nuts! She charged me several times and I was able to just hit the throttle and keep ahead of her and then when she was at leader she would swipe back and forth hitting the boat and prop. It was like a slow motion attack and big thuds. So I’d just let off the drag and motor away then fight her back to the boat.
My First attempt with the flying gaff I just pushed it into her and she took off, diving more than 100ft. 2nd attempt I missed and 3rd stuck right behind the pec fin, she took off and took my buoy with 50ft of rope under for 30 seconds or so. When It popped up she came up about a minute later and laid sideways for me and I was able to “secure” her and then she proceeded to beat the hell out of me.
Eventually she wore out, I cut her gills and ran a rope through them and out her mouth. My buddy Travis who was drifting not far away had pulled over to help me get her in the boat. I threw him the rope I ran through her gills and mouth and then she went ape sh!t again. We stabbed her in the head multiple times and it didn’t kill her. Eventually she calmed down and Travis lifted her head out of the water enough for me to get a hand in her gills and pull her in my boat.
Mission accomplished.
She went 215 at the scale.
Video:
https://youtu.be/DIK6hwq-XJoGotta clean up, re rig and get back to work. Winter is upon us and that means big fish!
