Fishing Report for Ft. Lauderdale & Port Everglades
Capt. Cary Hanna
August 27, 2004
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
Swordfishing report update for Ft. Lauderdale 8/27/04
Well the August moon has shown that the bite is back on from the previus 2 months of smaller action. The 4th annual Swordlords tournament was a success as a 170.8 pounder won first place. 2nd place was a 139 pound fish and 3rd place was 129 pounds. About 30 fish were brought to the scales and most weighed over a 100 pounds. Therer were approximately 55 boats entered and most of the boats caught fish.
Last night (Thursday) we had a great time Swordfishing as Jared and his new wife were on their honeymoon visiting us from Boston and wanted to charter a swordfish trip. We set up our spread just before dark and watched a 3/4 moon sit directly over our heads. Over an hour goes by and no bites. Finally around 9:30pm the tip rod clicker starts going off in short bursts. I get tight on him and the hook pulls or so I thought. I reeled up the line to check the bait and the hook was chewed off and the leader was badly cut up. Within 10 minutes the far jug starts peeling off line, we waited our turn to get tight and we got our confirmation as the rod doubled over and line screamed off the Tiagra 80. The fish fought impressively dumping half the spool at about 12 lbs of drag. In the begining of the fight our fish was up top , we could see the blue electralume racing across the surface. Then the fish sounded pretty deep and it was 1 crank at a time to get him up. The 150 foot marker came on the reel and then came off just as quickly. We finally got to our lead weight, stripped it off and I was ready with the gaff. As I reached out to leader the fish I noticed he was on top already and not fighting. At a closer glance I noticed he was basically dead with no movement from him at all once I placed the gaff.
When we got him in the boat I noticed he was never hooked. Apparently the Swordfish took a swing at the live bait, missed it and the bait swam furiously to get away only to wrap himself up in the sword, the hook then grabbed the line and made it's own hog tie. Most likely that's why the fish was able to fight so hard.
We called it a night at 11:30 pm and headed in to the docks to clean our fish. He measured about 58 inches to the fork and had a 37 inch girth, estimated weight is 100 pounds. Jared, I hope your Swordfish catch was a good highlight of your honeymoon down hear in Ft. Lauderdale. Hope to see you guys down here again in the near future when you get tired of catching Striped bass in Boston.
Till Next Tide,
Captain Cary Hanna
New Lattitude Sportfishing
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