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Miami - Haulover to Fowey Light
Capt. Dean Panos
October 13, 2002
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
10/13/02
What an incredible week of swordfishing.
Our first night out was Tuesday evening. Weather was OK- not great, but bearable with seas around 3 –5 ft. That didn’t matter much as we caught 3 out 4 swordfish. All our fish were around 100 pounds, which is right around 56 inches measured from the fork of the tail to the lower jaw. Over all length with bill is about 8 foot. We actually had a double header going for a little while. As my angler was fighting a swordfish towards the back of the boat, the front rod goes off, and we have another swordfish on. We got the 1st fish to the leader, my angler unclipped the harness, I removed the hook and released the first swordfish, while my angler fought the second fish. The second fish was big. It stripped out about 400 yard of 80 lb test and after about 40 minutes, the hooks pulled. At this point we were 1-2. A half hour later, the middle rod gets hit, and we have a nice fish on. One thing you have to be careful about while your swordfish, is the freighters. They are A LOT bigger than you, and will not change course. Wouldn’t you know it, but we had a freighter coming straight at us while we had this swordfish on. We were able to get on top of this fish and had the freighter pass us by about 100 yards to our stern. A bit eerie seeing this huge ship at night, so close to your boat. After about a 40 minute fight, we boated a 105 pounder. We got one more fish that we released, and called it an evening.
Next night out is nothing short of PHENOMENAL. Friday night we had 15 bites. We hooked 9 swordfish out of the 15 bites , and caught 4. What is a bite? I classify a bite as when the bait comes back mangled, the rod bends over and drag is pulled, not if a bait gets clipped off the bridle or you come back with no bait. Of those 15 bites, we had 9 swordfish on. We ended up catching 4. The action was so fast and furious, I barely had enough time to set out 2 or 3 rods, as I normally fish with 5 rods. As I was setting out a rod, we had swordfish on. We had one swordfish jump clear out of the water, and jump almost over the bow. It was so close, that my angler ducked, because he thought the fish was coming into the boat. That evening we had three fish that jumped. What a sight as you see a huge broadbill with a cyalume stick on the leader jumping out of the water at night, and landing in the water, creating a swath of white foam. We lost one fish that jumped, that looked every bit of 250 pounds. This night would not be forgotten any time soon.
Back at it the next night, we caught 2 more swordfish out of 5 hook ups, with the biggest fish at 65 inches, which puts him right around 140 – 150 pounds. It was a stubborn fish, that fought hard the entire time. He never smoked out a lot of line, but every time we would get him up, he would go back down 100 ft. We had him on for close to 45 minutes. That fish ate one of the rods on the back of the boat, and as I was setting out the front rod, I looked back, and noticed the rod was not bending over with the weight of the lead sinker. The swordfish had eaten the bait and was lazily swimming up. Swordfish bites are very subtle sometimes, so you really need to pay attention and watch the rod tips. We missed some more swordfish, caught another one, and called it an evening.
This fishery is very exciting, and we must take care to protect these fish. Keeping a fish for the table every so often is OK, but to go out and kill every swordfish you catch is only going to hurt the fishery. Release most of them, keep a fish occasionally for the table, and we should be in good shape for many years to come.
If this sounds exciting to you, if you always wanted to catch a swordfish, give me a call, and lets go get one!
Tight Lines and Good Fishing,
Capt. Dean Panos
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