We headed for 10 miles south of the Squiggles where the blue water was supposed to be.  70 miles later from Destin we found it.  Flat seas, cobalt blue water, flying fish everywhere. It was hot with no wind.  We trolled south with no activity.  We finally managed to find a faint weed line and a few floating bushes that were good for one Wahoo and a

Tripple Tail.

We headed toward the Spur around 5:00pm to get ready for Swords and try to find the big weed lines we had heard about on the VHF.  About that time, the bottom finder stopped working and the Raymarine started giving the most annoying buzzer every 30 seconds.  That lasted 30 minutes before I turned all the electronics off and went to the Spur old style with the compass.  Later that night we dug into the menu and found something that seemed to work for a few hours at a time.

We set up for the Sword drift at 8:00pm and got baits in the water after a few steaks on the grill.  I drop my Hydroglow and it works for about 5 minutes.  All my cigarette lighter plugs now don't work.  I find a blown fuse and replace.  It still doesn't work and I give up.  About that time, one of the Raymarine screens starts turning off and on.  Thankfully, I had one working good.

We drifted right over the deepest spot and reset at 11:00pm.  At that point, I went to sleep and put Hudson on watch.  Every hour or so I woke up and thought about resetting, but drifted back off.  By 4:00am, I thought I needed to get up to get ready for trolling - another Sword trip without a bite.  Then, I heard Hudson jumping into the cockpit and grap a rod.  Whit and I manage to jump up and clear the lines.  I was convinced it was a shark.  It did not fight like I thought a sword should fight.  It took line very slow - only a few short runs.  It hit the deepest line (400 feet) long after drifting over the deep part of the Spur.  We were in about 1,700 ft on the NE side (but not sure due to the bottom finder).  I kept preaching the only thing I know about swords - take your time and keep the drag light - as Hudson sweated.

One and a half hours later, the sword reaches the boat and he is done.  Once in the boat I go to dehook.  To my suprise, the J hook was not set!!!!!!!.  I gave a hard pull on the leader, and the red dyed squid came right out.  It was a miracle!!!!  We packed it in ice, placed it on the bow, and headed for the weed line.

There was a nice weed line running north/south about 7 miles to the east of the Spur.  We trolled it all day.  It produced several small Dolphin and a Wahoo.  We saw several YFT free jumping (one right on the bow), but could not get any to bite.

Even though we did not have a bottom finder, Whit insisted on bottm fishing the way in.  As you can guess, it sucked.  One undersized AJ was it.

Even though we burned 236 gallons of pricey gas, it was a great trip.  Our first swordfish. Can't wait to get back out.         

Jenny's Tonic
Destin, Florida

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Jeff

68ft Viking "Green Machine"

30ft Donzi "Hot Stuff"

23ft Mako "Midnight Run"

   Sir Reel