Before you can understand how moonlight affects swordfish, you must understand the moon and its phases. The moon revolves around the earth in 27 days. The first phase of the moon at the beginning of its new revolution is what we call the “New Moon”. The new moon is when the moons face is in the shadow of the earth causing the moon to reflect no light and look dark to us. A week after the “new moon” the moon will be in its first quarter, meaning that one quarter of the moons total surface is reflecting light back to earth. Since we only see 50% of the moons surface, when the moon is in its first quarter it is actually referred to as a half moon by many of us since one half of the moons face is reflecting light. One week after the first quarter the moon will be full, and the whole face of the moon which is visible to us will be reflecting light. One week after the Full Moon and again the moon will appear as half since it will be in its last quarter. One week after the last quarter the moon will have completed its lunar cycle and be a “New Moon” again.

Now, if we look back to our past swordfish trips and our catch statistics we would see patterns for a few nights when all bites were at depths greater than 200′. And we would also see a pattern for a couple nights when all bites were at depths less than 100′. These changes are a direct effect from the amounts moonlight which was present during these patterns. We know swordfish are predatory species feeding on concentrations of squid and mackerel which are both diurnal species, meaning that during the bright daylight hours they stay in the deeper darker depths of the ocean and as daylight diminishes and night falls they rise to the shallower depths. Now, moonlight plays a role in where the concentrations of the bait will be congregating. For example, during a full moon, since much of the moonlight is shining through the oceans surface, the bright moonlight will cause the bait to stay deeper in the water column. Conversely, during a new moon with virtually no moonlight breaking the oceans surface the bait will congregate in shallower depths closer to the surface.

Of course, we should always have a bait in both the deeper and shallower part of the water column no matter what moon phase we are in, just in case there is swordfish wandering. Although, the brightness of the moon is an extremely good indication of what depth the majority of the swordfish bites we will be. During nights when the moon is full and bright the majority of baits should be fished deeper in the water column.

Tightlines,

Captain Vinnie La Sorsa Swordfishing & OffShore Charters.

Once you have your tackle ready to go, let us describe a typical drift out in South Florida’s Gulf Stream. We are basing this drift using 4 lines. Some of your center console fisherman may be able to fish 5 or even 6 rods, but we believe 4 rods is sufficient and will cover the fathoms needed to catch that broadbill you have dreamed of. Swordfishing off the southeast coast of Florida has really taken a turn for the better. We are experiencing a fish size of 75-100lb on average. Although we are deemed to be the breeding grounds and anglers routinely catch “Pups”, we have our share of three-hundred pound plus fish move through. November thru January is usually some of our best months, as the water temperature is cooler. But with all good comes some bad. The seas are usually much rougher this time of year. In the summer time, we don’t see as much action, but we still get our share. This is a year-round fishery and will be around for a long time as long as we don’t abuse it. We ask that you please report you fish! Please report your catches and releases. We know you are not required to report a release, but by reporting that we are routinely catching the numbers, lessens the chances of commercial fisherman entering our waters. We cannot stress enough how important it is to report our catch.

We also want to practice safety especially while night fishing. We suggest that each angler on your boat carries a glowstick and whistle in his/her pocket. This way if they were to accidentally fall over, you would have a means of finding them. Another strong point is no sleeping! Cargo ships constantly are running through the swordfish grounds and if you are sleeping and they are on autopilot, trouble could be approaching. We have had some close calls to where we actually had to pick up and move to avoid a collision course with some freighters. Bottom line, if you want to sleep stay home.

Now lets fish!

Locating The Swordfish Grounds:

As you may know swordfishing takes place at night, as they are primarily nocturnal feeders. Leaving the dock in the late evening hours and coming back to the dock after midnight is the standard, depending on the time of the sunset. Calm seas have much to do with the decision of when to go out. Swordfish can be caught when it is rough or calm, but we must think safety first. The combination of a gps and good fishfinder is essential when finding good solid structure to start your drift. Off the South Florida coast, our sword grounds are generally between longitude 79-51W and 79-49W. This is roughly 15-18 miles off our coastline. A fishfinder that goes to at least 1500 feet is very beneficial; as you will see the canyons and structures that hold the bait, hence attract swordfish. *Tip ? If you want to find the fish, set your fish finder range to just 100ft and you will find bait such as Tinker Mackeral or Sardines. Where there is bait, there is Sword! Swordfish are known to roam these deep depths around ridges and valleys. With the two combined units you are already ahead of the game. Radar is also an important piece of equipment, but not absolutely necessary. Once you are satisfied with your location, you want to spend the next 5-20 minutes figuring out your drift. The drift is a very important aspect. If you have heard that the bite is strong along the 79-50W line, you want to make sure you are drifting on this line. A top-notch sea anchor can work to keep you in this zone. Deploy your sea anchor off the boats center cleat for the best drift. But maybe, the bite is fluctuating from the west 48 lines to the 51 lines. In this case you would want to drift over and over these grounds. Turn on your vhf or check out our reports to see where the most action is for the night you are going out. With the proper drift you can stay in the zone all night and have baits soaking for the majority of the night. Don’t be in a rush to put the baits out. Take your time and factor the wind and current and decide, “Am I going to push in shallow or out deep”. Which side of the boats are the lines going to be on? How much wait should I be using to get my baits to the desired depth? How fast will my drift be? All these factors are worth considering before you turn off the engines and decide where you are going to ride out a drift.

Tackling Broadbills:Although a live bait seems ideal when setting out to catch any gamefish, don’t rule out your dead baits! Bobby Boyle of RJ Boyle Studios came out with a shirt that says, “Live Bait Sux”. Bobby definitely has a point when it comes to swordfish. As a beginner in swordfishing, we suggest sticking to just one live bait and the rest dead baits such as squid. You ensure a much better hookset when using a dead-bait, and your strikes will definitely not suffer from not using live-bait! Your sole livebait can be fished just under the boat around 85 feet down. It will blend in with the other baits that have congregated around your boat.

Lets discuss rigging your rods. We use mostly 50 wides, but have a few 80′s that are ready for that big wintertime swordfish. A 50w is plenty sufficient for swordfish. With the invention of hollow-core braid, guys can load their 30′s with the over 700 yards and be able to fish their light tackle rods for broadbills. When spooling the reels we suggest marking the last 400 feet of your line. Mark the line using waxline half stitches. This will enable you to easily drop your baits to the desired depth without having to count every time you setup. A counter can be used to count off the desired feet. If you can leave a loop in the waxline marker on your line, this would be ideal. Later on we will teach you how to tie the balloon or jug to that loop in the waxline. It is very important to make sure the waxline does not slip! Your first knot that will be used on your mainline is the popular bimini twist (about 5 ft). The knot acts as a shock absorber and is very beneficial to the rig. Take your bimini twist right to the ball bearing snap swivel and tie an offshore knot. Have this combination on all four of your rods.

Lets discuss your rigs. We first start out by measuring 15 feet of 200lb ? 400lb mono leader. On the top end we crimp a loop using a nylon thimble so that we can attach it to our ball bearing snap swivel with ease. On the other end, crimp a 8/0 ? 11/0 hook. Make sure the hook is very sharp, if not sharpen it. You should be able to press it against your finger nail and make a nice dent. On the hook you want to place a bridle that is used to bridle your live bait. It is a loop that is about 6 inches in diameter made out of rigging floss. Attach that bridle to the hook and you are set. Attach your live bait rig to your rods ball bearing swivel. At the swivel top circle you want to also attach 1 electralume and a flasher at your discretion. This helps to make your bait visible to the swords.

Lets rig your other 3 rods for a dead bait. A swordfish favorite is the squid. There are a number of ways to rig a dead squid, but the best method is to have the hook exposed half way down the mantle. We find this much more effective that placing the hook down by the eyes of the squid. . Once you have all four rods ready to be deployed, get out your jugs and weights, along with copper/telephone wire. Have the gaff ready to be deployed as some days you may drop the baits right into swordfish territory. We don’t know how many times we seem to drop a bait right on a swordfish. Tip* If you like to take your time in setting up, that’s fine. Go ahead and put out a flatline while getting your other rods ready. This way if you have a curious sword come to the boat, you atleast have a bait in the water. We have seen them come into the light on numerous occasions. If you don’t have a bait in the water, most likely they will just leave.

Setting up your first Drift

Drifting for swordfish is very very effective. Providing that you have your baits staggered, your chances of catching a South Florida Sword are very good! Now that you have 4 rods that are ready to be deployed, lets get some lines in the water. Once you find your desired area to fish, shut off all engines. Here you will analyze your drift. You can deploy a sea anchor if you think you are going to need it. Once you are satisfied with the direction and speed of your drift, get the first line out. As a general rule of thumb, get your longest lines out first, meaning jug/balloon baits. Check out our forums and communicate with fellow swordfish anglers regarding everything mentioned here. You may even find out what depth the fish were biting out the night before. But a general rule of thumb is on a New Moon, you fish the baits shallower. And on a full bright moon, you fish them deeper. Tip* Be sure to have a bait at 100 feet and 300 feet. These 2 depths are critical. Once you get a bite on one, you can adjust your other rods accordingly.

With the first rod, attach the live bait rig, along with your electralume and flasher. Then take about 12 inches of telephone wire or a #64 rubber band and attach a 32-ounce weight to the swivels top circle. Wrap the telephone wire about 6 times and pull to ensure it breaks away. Put it back on and let your bait down to desired depth. For this exercise, we will go 300 feet on the first line. Once the 300-foot marker on the line comes up, attach your jug or balloon to the loop you left in the waxline using telephone wire. You can attach the balloon or jug using telephone wire or a small rubber band. Again, test to make sure it breaks away when pressure is applied by fish. Let the float out about 50-80 yards from the boat. Don’t forget to put a glowstick into your jug for visibility.

Do the same to the second rod, but this time go to 200ft and let it out on the jug/balloon about 30 yards. It is very important to test different depths by the 100′s. Don’t forget to attach a lightstick to the jug/balloon for visibility. Once you have the 2 lines out on the jugs, lets move to your tip rods. The tip rods are called tip rods because that is exactly what they are. You will see the tip of the rod bounce heavily when a fish is slashing the bait. These rods are being fished right at the boat at varying depths. Apply the same rigs as mentioned above and set these rods at 150 feet and 100 feet. These will be your most active rods, as they are in the direct light of the boat.

Now that you have 4 lines in the water, lets get your 4ft light out and put it on the opposite side of the boat, to avoid direct light into your eyes. Turn off all boat lights and sit back and listen to your rods. Check all lines as needed. If you don’t have any action within 30 minutes to an hour, start by checking your tip rods. If the baits have been slashed than bring in your balloon/jug rods and re-bait. The 4ft green light can be a very important piece of the puzzle when swordfishing. We have had bait by the dozens including bar jacks, flying fish, and dolphin come to the light. With the bait we have seen swordfish follow right behind them. When swordfishing you want to have your best game turned on. Without the light at the boat you might as well stay home. We deem this light very effective. Think about when you see a boats navigation lights about 10 miles away. Imagine a swordfish. Their eyes are enormous and we bet can see much better than we think. This could be the difference between a fun-filled night and a very frustrating night. Check out the forums for more information on the secrets and tips. Fish On? Now What?

Once you hear the drag being taken out or you see a fish surfacing, you want to jump on that rod fast. Each rod should have a different color light that distinguishes it from your other rods. The enables you to determine which rod the fish is on. You should of had your drag set at practically nothing, just enough to keep the bait from taking off line. Get on the rod and start cranking until you get tight on the fish. Once tight, start increasing the drag until you hit about 8-16 pounds of drag. Too much drag may cause the hook to rip from the soft mouths of these fish. The hook will automatically set and you are in for a fight of a lifetime. Have a buddy put the belt on you, so you can stand up and fight the fish properly. Do not arch forward or your back will begin to hurt very quickly. Do not rush the fish. These fish get in excess of 400lbs and have been known to keep anglers on the wind for over 8 hours! Once the fish is at the boat, it is ideal to have one guy handline the leader and another guy with the gaff. We also suggest using wind-on leaders. This will help avoid the dangers of hand-lining a big fish. A swordfish has to be at least 47 inches to keep. So before hitting it with the gaff, you want to decide if you are keeping the fish or not. We recommend not keeping a fish under 60 inches. This will help the bounce back of the swordfish industry. If you do decide to keep the fish, you want to gaff the fish right in the gill plate to avoid ruining the meat. Always wear tough leather gloves, as the bill is very sharp. *Tip ? Keep your hands together when leadering the fish. This will help avoid the dangers of hand lining the fish.Tight Lines,Swordfishing Central

Florida’s West Indiana Manatee-What is Killing Them? The top manatee story after the recent hurricanes was in Lee County where residents rescued a manatee that was the victim of Hurricane Charley’s storm surge. The stunned and tired manatee was splashed onto Pearl Street after the storm surge receded. This was one manatee that did not have to be included in the mortality numbers this year.

The manatees killed this year are divided into categories by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. 1/1/04 – 9/30/04 numbers: Watercraft-60, Flood Gates-1, Other human-4, Perinatal-65, Cold-36, Natural-20, Undetermined-43, Unrecovered-2 for a total of 231.

According to the February 2004 count of manatees in Florida by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission there were only 2568 manatees remaining in Florida.

If you see a dead or injured manatee or one that’s been harassed while in Florida, please call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s toll-free hotline at 1-888-404-FWCC.

Lastly, as a visitor to our tropical paradise, do not approach, touch, feed or water manatees. It is against the law and carries a fine as well as a possible jail term. Use your camera to make memories, not a police experience.

Dolphins – Our favorite Marine Mammal. Dolphins are not endangered at this time, but the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 requires you to stay away from them. Do not encourage them into the path of danger by boats or other human interaction. Wild dolphins have been found injured by firecrackers placed down their blow hold, beer poured over them and into their blow hold and other horror stories. These beautiful creatures think man is their friend but the next person they meet may be their enemy instead.

There are licensed facilities where you can interact safely with dolphins that have been raised in captivity or rescued.

Sea Turtles-Has the 2004 hurricane season hurt their recovery? South Florida is home to Loggerheads, Leatherbacks and Green sea turtles. Hawksbill and Kemp’s ridley have occasionally been found. These are the five species found in US waters in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. The population of loggerheads nesting along the Atlantic coast of Florida is the second largest in the world. The nesting season runs from around May to September and within approximately 60 days of nesting, the hatchlings too are in danger.

It is too soon to have counts, but the yearly numbers will reveal the losses. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will be reporting the 2004 figures early next year.

There are other dangers to our sea turtles. The turtle hospital in Marathon, Florida treats a variety of turtle ailments, such as flipper amputations caused by fishing line and trap rope entanglements, shell damage caused by boat collisions, and intestinal impactions caused by ingestion of foreign material such as plastic bags, balloons and fishing lines. Turtles love jellyfish and shrimp and ingest filters from cigarettes and plastic in error. Turtles that died from starvation were found with a stomach full of cigarette filters.

The most recent nesting totals for Florida’s turtles from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for the year 2003 is:

Loggerheads: 63,446

Green Turtles: 2262

Leatherbacks: 842

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP THE SEA TURTLES?

1. Never throw litter on the beach or in the water.

2. If pets are allowed on the beach, keep them leashed at all times.

3. Obey all beach rules and stay away from turtle nesting sites.

4. Help spread the word about sea turtles. The more people know, the more they will want to help them.

5. Watch for turtles while boating.

6. During nesting seasons, turn lights facing the beach off or have proper filters.

7. Participate in local beach and reef cleanups.

8. Do not buy sea turtle products-jewelry, oil, leather, meat or eggs.

Kathy Runk has been a volunteer exhibit guide at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, volunteer for the Save the Manatee Club in Florida, attended Dolphinlab in Marathon, Florida and adopted Elsie the manatee, dolphins Merina and her baby Calusa. Kathy is the owner of http://www.myoceantreasures.com that sells ocean themed jewelry and gifts.

Fishing Report from Nassau Bahamas (8-10-2000)(Thursday)(Air Temperature 92 degrees. Water temp. ? mid 80′s degrees). Clear skies, no wind and burning hot sun. Caught two Yellowfins in the 60-pound range that almost sent me to the hospital.

Caught 2 YFY on Thursday – fishing “solo” aboard my WellCraft Scarab that had just been repowered with two 225 Evinrude fichts (cost was $28,000 including the installation).

Both YFT went about 70#s each (83 pounds of filet). Drift fished with fresh/frozen squid to start. Began fishing at 9:30AM and quit at 2PM.

As I arrived at the US Navy’s AUTEC buoy 10 miles offshore (a practice area for the US Navy’s nuclear subs ? which show up on the surface now and then)(the AUTEC buoy is in 6,000 feet of water) Capt. Robbie New (from Trinidad) of the “Little Trick” was just starting to fish.

For the first hour all I managed was a 2 pound jack ? that I later used for bait.

Robbie was having no luck either, but we saw several 50# YFTs come high out of the water several times, so that kept us anticipating.

At around 11:00 AM my bow rod with 80 pound test line and 80# green Berkley trilene leader, with a small Mustard circle hook on the end (with a 100# test Sampo swivel in between) went off.

I had just seen a big YFT fly through the area minutes before, and I was thinking I had him or his cousin ? for sure. The line screamed out, and the fish ran deep. Everything pointed to a YFT, but after about 10 minutes I saw a 25 pound foot shark on my line, hooked right in the mouth with the circle hook.

Leaving the shark on the line in the rodholder, I sat down for a drink of water ? out of a gallon plastic jug in my cooler.

Cut him loose, I thought to myself. But, then I remembered how many YFT’s I’d caught using shark as bait, and went to take another look at him. He was a good 4 feet long. Normally too big to bother with, but the fishing was slow, and I decided to take him.

Even though I knew he would thrash about crazy-like when I gaffed him, I decided to go for it, but I missed my 5-foot long fishbox, and watched him go bonkers on my deck, as I hustled to slide him into the Scarab’s 2-1/2 foot deep fishbox.

By 12 noon I switched from “squid” to the fresh jack for bait on all three of my poles. By now, the shark was dead, so I dragged him to the stern and started to filet him ? throwing bits and pieces of shark meat overboard ? with plenty of blood being washed overboard with my saltwater thru-hull washdown pump.

I filleted one side of the shark, took the skin and cut it into 5 pieces, and through it over the side. All the time ? washing the blood and guts overboard. I cut the shark’s giant liver into small pieces, and watched them float on the surface ? as I slowly drifted along towards to AUTEC Buoy.

Within 5 minutes of cutting into this shark, the bow line went off ? “screaming”. This time I knew it was probably a YFT. The fish had hit the 80# test trilene line on a 5-1/2 foot Palm Beach tuna rod, held in a Perko side mount rodholder.

I immediately scrambled about for my harness and playmate belt. Several times the YFT would stop his run deep, and I’d reel the line in fast to make sure there was no slack in the line, and smiled when I felt his weight again on my pole.

But, it was 95 degrees in the sun, and I was about to expedience something in 8 years of YFT fishing (and over 350 caught and landed), that was going to make this no ordinary day on the water.

After picking up the rod and snapping into the harness, I began the slow process of bringing him to color. I was grateful he had picked the rod with the 80# test line, as the other two reels (Shimano graphite a Penn 30W) had 50# test Trilene (Big Game) line, and fighting a YFT on 50# test line is a completely different ball game.

Fifteen minutes into the struggle, my thumb (on the reel) got an awful cramp, and actually stuck to my palm. I couldn’t understand why this was happening, but kept going ? attempting to shake off the cramp.

A few minutes later the cramps spread to my forearm ? then up to my biceps. I’m 220 pounds, a former HS All American swimmer, and 4 time NY State gold medallist, so I’d been through tough workouts, but this was something I never dealt with.

Even my legs were cramping up. There was no wind, no cover from my bimini top, and it was 95 degrees in the shade. It all added up to one thing – “Heat Exhaustion”.

To cool off I tried stepped into a 5-gallon bucket of saltwater, but this didn’t help one iota. My feet were also too big for the bucket.

In addition, I was getting unusually tired ? FAST. HEAT EXHAUSTION had set in, and was challenging me like “The old man and the sea”.

It took me 55 minutes to land this 70-pound YFT, but I finally got him in the boat. Boy, was I relieved.

Usually I wash all the blood off my boat immediately upon landing a fish, but this time I went to the stern, turned on the saltwater pump, sat on my cooler, and just let that saltwater run over my head for 5 minutes. I finished off about 3/4 of that gallon jug of water too.

As I slowly headed back in the direction of Capt. Robbie’s “Little Trick”, the cool air hitting my Toronto Raptor NBA Jersey (#14 worn by Vince Carter) made me feel much better, but I still wasn’t 100%.

By the way, you might want to purchase one of these NBA “Jersey’s sometime. You’ll know why the NBA uses them. They are 1000 times cooler than anything cotton or other material. I have a Laker’s #34 too. My favorite.

I waved at Capt. Robbie, as I passed slowly off his stern, and he shouted ? “I thought you were fighting 2 YFT, you were gone so long.”

Anyway, I set up again to try for another (YFT).

Now I’m using white shark chunks on all my hooks, and chunking with the fresh shark ? as the lines are let out.

About 45 minutes later, the stern line goes off ? screaming. This is my Penn 30 International with no leader and 50# Trilene line ? no swivel. Christ, I said to myself, why did this fish do this to me?

The hook on this line was only a #4 Mustard live bait hook – that you can buy 50 to a package for under $10 at Wal-Mart or K-Mart.

This was going to be a whole new “ballgame”. I’m going to have to be “gentle” on the drag ? or he’ll bite through the trilene, or pull the hook.

As it turned out, I eventually got this YFT to color after over one hour. I experienced the same cramps as before, and at one point ? on this fish ? I thought about “giving up”.

It wasn’t the fact that I get $6 a pound for the fillet (from my restaurant friends) that kept me at the rail, but the thought of cutting a YFT off was out of the question.

After gaffing this 70# YFT and pulling him over the gunwale, I trolled by Robbie (who stayed until 7PM and caught not a one) and waved ? saying I’m going home.

True Story.

THE END

Capt. Solo ? aka Tom Azzara
Boat ? “the Taxman”
Nassau, Bahamas
British Commonwealth territory
(not part of the “East Coast”)

Tom’s Fishing Gallery.

http://endtaxes.com/images/gallery.html

Take a break, and check out these pictures from the 6th annual Billabong’s fishing tournament held in Nassau, in the sunny, tax free Bahamas.

click onto (or browser it) below….

http://endtaxes.com/images/gallery2.html

From: Lee Palm Long Range Sportfishers

TRIP #14; August 6th to August 11th 5-Day Trip:

The second of the three back-to-back 5-dayers in the Red Rooster III’s summer schedule once again provided outstanding fishing for her passengers. Chuck Melber of Agoura CA led the way with a 84.1 lb. bluefin tuna to take the jackpot, followed by a 79.8 lb. bigeye for Justin Christensen of Newbury Park CA and a 73 lb. bluefin for Joe
Stickles of Orange CA. “It was good consistent action throughout the trip” noted captain Andy Cates. “Some days seemed wilder than others of
course, but looking back on the trip I’d say that there was good consistent fishing the whole way through.”

The trip fished as far down as Guadalupe Island for some excellent grade yellowfin, but the albacore grounds closer to home yeilded limits of the longfins and a good take on the bigger bluefin as well. “We had some really exceptional moments,” noted co-captain Jeff DeBuys, “but none
quite as surprising as the second-place jackpot bigeye landed by Justin . When we got that puppy to color we knew we had found
some quality fishing for our guys. It was definitely a notable fish, and in the end it added nicely to our trophy bluefin count.” This,
combined with the quality-sized albacore had by all, gave the Rooster yet another in her long string of exceptional long range adventures.

FISH COUNT: LIMITS OF ALBACORE, 52 BLUEFIN TUNA, 49 YELLOWFIN TUNA, 45
YELLOWTAIL AND 1 BIGEYE.

You can’t be happier. You have finally caught the perfect fish. Do you know how to fillet your fish? Once you become an expert at fish filleting, you probably will be asked to fillet everyone else’s catch.

Firstly, get a good knife and a cutting board or hard surface and lay the fish down on it. You must cut the head of the fish off right to the rear of its gills.

Secondly, holding the fish by its tail, take the knife with the blade pointing away from your body and toward where the head was; slice the body of the fish crosswise. The backbone of the fish can be used to direct the knife through.

Thirdly, take one half of the sliced fish and place the fish piece flesh side up. Holding the fish piece by the tail, place the knife between the skin and the flesh and run the knife down the length of the fish piece to remove the skin cutting in the direction of the tail to the head area. Now there. A perfectly filleted fish.