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Giant Swordfish w/Capt. Mike 954.522.4773
Capt. Mike Johnson
March 20, 2012
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fort Lauderdale Swordfishing is normally done 12-17 miles offshore but as we all know there are no fences in the ocean and Ft Lauderdale fishing is always full of surprises! My best friend Chris that I've known since I was 4 chartered the boat on St. Patricks Day with his brother Bill, his cousin Scott, good friend Craig and good friend Jim. Since Scott and Craig are from West Virginia and have never been sport fishing on the ocean before we started trolling. We caught a couple small blackfin tunas, a bullet bonita and lost a couple small blackfins to start the day. We decided to try and move up food chain and try for some big groupers or amberjacks on the wrecks, so after catching a couple more bullet bonitas we sent them down 267 feet on one of my favorite artificcial reefs but with little or no current we got no bites. It was at this point we decided to go big or go home! We popped the kite baits up in 350 feet of water and put out the shark baits and thats when it happened! My deckhand Brendan just touched bottom with big penn international 80 wide loaded with 100# test and took about 5 cranks with the reel and it bent over WE WERE CONNECTED!!! Line began to peel effortlessly from the big reel and angle toward the surface, I knew we had a big shark on, probably a hammerhead. Then the line went slack as I got that horrible feeling we lost it, just moments later a huge swordfish erupted from the water in the middle of our kite baits!! Scott our first of three anglers on this fish finally got tight with the fish again and the battle was on. We got the other lines cleared, set up the harpoon and got to work. Scott did a great job staying with the fish but began to burn out on the sea monster, so Craig jumped in for a turn. By now the fish was very close within a 100 feet. The battle i thought was almost over and thats when the swordfish became one of the most difficult and unpredictable fish I have ever dealt with. The fish would run away from the boat 50 feet do a 360 and then charge it almost going in the wheels twice, this fish did this a dozen times, each time brendan getting a hold of the leader and getting the fish almost in reach with the harpoon that Jim had clutched ready to fire. Jim threw the Harpoon twice just missing as the eratic fish continued to air it out behind the boat. Craig then hit his limit and Chris brother Bill jumped in to polish it off as he got the fish up one last time Bredan grabbed the leader, Jim harpooned the fish and Chris gaffed it!!! I came down and put a head rope on it and we all slid the 300-350 pound sword through the transom door!!!! What an incredible day!!! Way to go guys!!
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