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Getting a good sword captain isn't easy. I used to belong to a fishermen's group on Yahoo Groups called REALFISHERMEN. GREAT place to find and hook up with fishing buds and captains, until Randy, the founder of the group, passed away from cancer about 10-12 years ago. Including Randy, there were some guys in that group who really knew the sword game.


PS- Successful swordfishing, at least in coastal FL waters, is a mostly nocturnal exercise. Water depth is a big consideration and part of that game.

Damn, I drove right by you guys......Had I known,

And flying aint fun these days, but 1600 miles?

Hell no.

That used to be the case (night fishing for swords). Not anymore. Daytime sword fishing is the game these days for most people. Check the guy's page below. He's something of a pioneer of the daytime sword fishery. A member here knows Nick Stanczyk well, as I understand it.

https://www.youtube.com/c/StanzFam/videos

The guy we hired is a professional and very successful sword killer. He's taken more than 40 swords over 250 lbs. over the last year alone and many smaller fish. We just struck out the one day we were able to fish for them. And yes on depth. We were fishing Floyd's Wall deep slow trolling in 1500-1800 feet of water. Roughly 30 NM SE of Islamorada.

South End:
24 27.617
80 25.173

North End
24 40.598
80 13.565

How deep were you running baits/lures fishing over that wall?

Hi Geno. I mention depth in the post above yours but we were running baits from 1500 down to almost 2000 feet.

Have bunch of pics I'd post but sick of fuggin around with PB.

Yes. Daytime is possible.

1. Better Swordfishing north of the Keys
2. Guys/captains doing daytime, because it's easier.

Glad you guys had a good time.

Me and my buddies sword fight all the time.

Never done it while fishing though.

I mistook your meaning then.

I saw this:



and took that as water depth, not trolling depth.


That scheidt takes a big reel just to hold that much line!!

My Mitchell 300 likely wouldn't cut it.

When you fish....................










do you bring the correct size hooks?

Not just possible, sir. Productive (for many, us not included this time around). I'd agree that it's in some ways easier, as you said. Like most things when dealing with a daylight vs night environment, I suppose. Swords as I understand it mostly stay deep, in the twilight/dysphotic zone (200-1000 meters below surface) in daylight. At night they come much closer to the surface. Which explains why commercial long-line sword fishermen locally catch their swords with baits only 30-50 feet down. Also on the plus side, with daytime sword fishing there's no need to play the dodge-the-cargo-ships-in-the-dark game.

But thanks for the sentiment. Even though we got skunked on swords the only day we were able to fish for them, we did have lots of fun, brought some other fish over the rails and enjoyed just fooling around in general. And I *will* have my big swordfish one day, that I do know.

Deep slow trolling is a tricky game and sort of a misnomer. Unlike standard trolling offshore, where you might get on a heading and stay on it for ten miles at a set or slightly varied speed, what these guys do is use the engines to keep moving but in a relatively small and specific area. They bump the boat around in gear covering maybe a half a mile square, keeping the bait just off the bottom around where they know the swordfish like to be. The bottom comes up and falls away as the boat moves around, so you must constantly adjust where you are relative to the bottom, as much as maybe 150 feet. It requires a lot of attention and some very serious gear. The reels we were using were these:

https://www.connleyfishing.com/shop/lindgren-pittman-s1200-commercial-electric-reel/

Each rod and reel combo runs about $8500. So one can see, just in gear alone, a serious swordfisherman with a pair of rod/reel combos and line is approaching 20 large as investment. Boat not included in that price. Which is why so few are set up to fish for them, as well as very few willing to pay the steep price tag to chase them. The average cost of a S FL full day sword charter is almost 3 grand...

Interesting, thanks for that info.

Deep slow trolling in some places is 100'-200' over that depth of water. As opposed to shallow trolling at 35'-0' .

But, I've never had the resources to pursue them swords, that's for sure.

I'm sure you had fun, swordfishless or not. How could you not have fun with Roger along, right?

KG, Everybody gets skunked sometimes. On my last trip to Cabo, I was there hunting marlin. Got skunked on them, but knocked the crap out of tuna, + 1 decent rooster behind Playa Grande resort (where you can cast for them from the beach; Didn't know that until I got there.), and one dorado in Sea of Cortez. Lost several other nice roosters behind PG resort. 3 charters in all.

OK, said eff it and downloaded from PB, then uploaded again to imgur. I hate PB. A few pics from day of arrival..

Chillin' out back next to the canal in the Tiki hut.



Ribeyes and boudain sausage brought from Texas and Lousiana by the lads. Brian must've been fixing himself another drink and got a bit carried away with the char, but I don't mind a little crunch on the outside and the meat was terrific. Before this meat we had a nice appetizer of chowdah. I brought about a gallon of it with an extra half pound of clams dug local to me and cooked, then frozen. The chowdah was frozen the night before and jammed in my carry on. I even brought oyster cracker for the authentic experience. The boys loved it.



Married couple in the Tiki hut rafters. They didn't seem bothered at all by us, and viced versa.



Brian with a good glow out back the rental.



Roger pretending to be awake again.

Headed out from port on the 38' Luhrs Sporty with the skipper in the flybridge. This is NOT the rig I booked to fish off of. Long story here.



About 30 miles out in the haze. Check the numbers on the LP. At least you're not gonna' run aground out there.



Kind of hard to make out, but does anyone recognize what's out there forming in that cloud bank? Hint: you don't ever want to be around if it makes it to the surface...



The lads listening for whale or manatee hits on the hull.



While those two--and the captain-- were passed out I decided to fish. We lost an engine 25 miles out so a one and a half hour ride back in became a 3 hour plus one. After about 30 minutes when everyone was asleep it occurred to me that our limping speed was perfect for the troll. I told the mate to show me where the tackle was and five minutes later I had my first blackfin tuna in hand. A real mini but no legal size limit on them. I was told the state record is like 50 pounds but we didn't even come close. I think Roger caught the largest and was around a 8 pounder, I''d say.



My first mahi ever. Pretty much a peanut as far as dorado go, but I was damned pleased. I told the boys I was hooking fish but for some reason they wanted to keep sleeping. Something about a 1600 mile long 25 hour drive or something...

The captain just this minute texted me pics. They're headed in after a good day. Today they hooked 3 and landed two. Biggest estimated @ 190. Sometimes you get 'em, sometimes they get you. That's fishing!

Sounds like a great time! Love the pics.

Hey, a bad day fishing beats goin to work!! Enjoyed the pics......

Great pics.

I was wondering about what you guys were getting for weather down that way. It's been blowing and raining here on the central gulf coast ever since you guys got to the Keys.

Next you'll tell us you lost your virginity.