Swordfish - Both Day and Night

Report Date: September 14, 2009

A couple of things have happened since my last report 2 weeks ago. The swords have shown up and the charters are back. I have been quite busy fishing almost everyday last week and quite a few days the week before. We have had a variety of trips ranging from fishing the edge to daytime and nighttime swordfishing. The majority of the trips have definitely been daytime swords trips and that has been quite rewarding as we have caught at least one daytime sword for each one of our charters. To go out and target a swordfish during the day is a great privilege. To be able to go out and catch one for all our clients these past two weeks has been awesome! We did not catch any of the really big swords, but most were in the 100 to 150 pound class. Daytime swordfishing is very technique driven and very rewarding when you actually get one up from the bottom in over 1600 feet of water. It is exhilarating when you finally see the silhouette and the bright brilliance of purple, blue and silver of the sword as you are battling her up for the last 100 feet. Although these fish have been brought up from a great depth, they are full of energy when you have them on the surface. We did get a few jumps out of one fish last week and that was totally cool to watch.

The night bite for swords has definitely picked up as well. We did well on our trip at night and caught a fish over 300 pounds and another one around 250 pounds. We also had free swimmers in the light and fish that followed baits back to the boat while we were reeling them in. For the past two years the night bite has been slow, but this night reminded me of how good and how much fun it can be. The great news is that quite a few other boats have been catching a fish or two at night as well. I truly think that we are going to have a great year for nighttime swordfishing.

The trips we had fishing on the edge have been rewarding as well. Most were half day trips and although we didn’t catch any sailfish we did catch plenty of kingfish and bonitos. The dolphin fishing offshore has still remained slow, but our very last trip we caught a dozen or so schoolies on the way back from the sword grounds, so hopefully the mahis are making there way into our waters.

These next few months are the best months for swordfishing both day and night. My calendar has filled up considerably but I do have a few days open. If you really want a full dose of swordfishing, you can try our combo trip which starts at noon and ends at midnight. We target swords in the day and at night so you get to see both techniques as they are radically different. It is a real sense of accomplishment for me if I can get a customer to catch one in the day and another at night using two different methods.

As a final note, there is a daytime swordfish tournament this upcoming Saturday (9/19).It is called the Burnt Out Sunburned Swordfish Tournament. It is not very expensive and I would love to fish it. If anyone is interested, please give me a call and we will have a great time and possibly win some money as well.

Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos

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