Man, I'm starting to backlog on some trips and need to catch up.
So I get a text from my buddy Matt inviting me out swordfishing. When he invites you, it's all on him and I know swordfishing on paper, but only a few trips out there to actually try it. I was thinking this was the trip!
Stopped to get bait in the morning. Single scoop and Matt gives the guys a hundo. One of the kids says "Do you want change?".... Our faces went to disbelief followed by a big laugh.
These hooker reels were bad ass!
Hell, the Steiger Craft was an insanely beautiful boat and built like a tank!
We get out to the grounds and were prepared for BFT that have been going off locally. 50-120 pounder, but none this day.
Being up in the tower with a set of Gyros and I could seriously see Catalina! lol
Set out the sword baits. One on a buoy and the other straight up and down with 9# weights.
Their buddies are also commercial guys and had flags set up all over the place. Everyone caught the day before, but this day everything was quiet.
Then we saw a few Humbacks coming our way.... Then they were under the boat... Then they stayed and gave aus a show.
Pushing the boat around...
Blowing Rainbows...
Plucking barnacles....
Pushing the boat back and forth....
20 minutes and they wouldn't leave us alone.
Their breath was NASTY! Like made you want to vomit nasty and they were purposely blasting us!
They would roll onto their backs and just drift with the current along the boat. We had motors off but the sword lines were still deployed as we didn't want to accidentally hook them. They seemed very playful with each other and our guess was a male and female. Then the male (I think) drifted into one of the lines, barely touching it and it exploded out of the water! HOLY CRAP! We were videoing every moment of it at 4 different angles since we all were amazed what was happening!
Once it realized we just spooked it, two more whales rolled in and now the big one was grunting and being aggressive trying to chase the new arrivals away while the smaller one literally hid under and next to our boat.
I have a ton of video, but I'm trying to edit it to share with the guys, so soon as I figure out the new program, I'll share with you guys.
We finally after 40 minutes fired up the engines and got out of there. The humbacks were being very aggressive to each other and we didn't want to be collateral damage.
We resumed setting drifts and actually has a sword bite! Unfortunately, it never came back, but we even saw it on sonar!
We kept talking about the whales though since it was just an unreal chance encounter that none of us remotely have ever seen before.
We fished until almost sunset before heading back to the barn with nothing to show for it.
It was a full fun day with friends....
The guys decided to go again the next day, but I couldn't swing it. They didn't get a sword, but found the other quarry we were looking for. Good for Matt though! Really cool dude.
Well that was that. Thanks for reading and I'll get the video posted soon as I can!
