# Pelagic pirate supermoon magic



## PELAGIC PIRATE

Well just sitting down to write this after a 60 marathon fishing trip to Panama City Fl on our boat the PELAGIC PIRATE. We departed Friday night headed south for a line that our sat report was showing some 70-80 miles out. We figured we would stop short and swordfish so we didn't over run the line that we expected to see out there. We got to the grounds around 10 pm and set up our drift by deploying the sea anchor and then the underwater lights and lastly our rigs. We deployed 3 rods at varied depths from 75 feet to 125 with a few squid and a live mullet. We had some nice squid rolling around the lights but really no action early on. We eventually hooked a shark on our mullet and had to re-rig that line setting out another live mullet in return.
Around 1 Am most of our crew was tired and soon took to the cabin and or the bean bags while I manned the deck with my buddy Ken. Somewhere around 1:30 I'm standing there on deck and hear one rod peel off a short run , so I turn and grab the handle and start cranking to come tight but I am either cut off or the fish is swimming at the boat. Well it was the later and I eventually come tight and then the fish turns and peels off 400- 500 yards in one really slow run like a big shark. So I am thinking its a shark and at this point I am looking for a rod belt as the fish is heavy and the pole is killing me. 
We get settled in clear all lines , sea anchor and lights and proceed to crank the boat and back down a tad as I was getting spooled. We get the fish to stop eventually and settle into this sulking battle where I basically couldn't gain any line unless I used low gear and pulled the line with my hand like the wicked tuna dudes....... We would pull forward and the fish would plane up a tad and we could gain a bit of line here and there. around 45 minutes in I have my spectra back and I am in my 100 yard top shot of 80 pound mono. I start really putting pressure on the fish by holding the spool and gaining by lifting whatever it was slowly up to the surface. One hour in the fish seems to be making a move to the surface and I am thinking this shark is done, and all the sudden the disco light starts streaking just under the surface and what ever is towing it is going to Jump. 
All the sudden in the bright moon light over a clear sky and calm seas jumps what looked like a 400 pound Swordfish into the super moon sky. At this point I am thinking "Oh shit , this fish isn't coming in anytime soon as it melted the reel realizing it was hooked for the very first time in the whole battle" and my mind was wondering through stories I've read of epic 7 hr battles till dawn on fish this size if you can even land them. We now bust out the real harness and I get to work despite being toast already from using a cheap ass rod belt the first hour thinking it was a shark. Now everyone is like " dude baby it " but I am thinking thats probably dumb because the longer its on the better chance it comes off. So I am working on this fish back and forth into the topshot and then back out , back and forth for ever till I decided that it was time for me to pass the rod to my boat partner who deserved a crack at this beast as much as I did, the funny thing is he didn't see the fish jump so he still thought we had a big shark.
So we harness in reggie and right away he figures out that this is a large fish cause he's having issues gaining any line at all. He starts his battle and soon its apparent we need to pray the fish dies or gets shark bit or maybe close enough to get a flyer in it cause is killing us one by one. 1 hour in reggie has gained the topshot back , only to lose it again and again over the next 30 minutes or so. Close to the 4 hour mark the fish makes a mad dash at the stern causing me to bump up quickly forward to keep the fish out of the rudder, and reggie cranks like a mad man. I freak for 1 second as the line looked slack , but it came tight and the fish shoot violently and then reggie began to actually get this think moving up.
We get the flyer ready , I glove up and wait to wire whatever is coming up ....and out of the deep dark blue I see the bill of a huge swordfish pierce the ocean surface and glimmer in the boat lights. It quickly went down a foot or two as I grabbed the leader I started to wire the fish to the stern and the fish appeared right there just a mere few hand wires away. Now I am getting tense and so is my gaff man as this thing is huge and armed with a 4 foot bill ......So I look down and see for the first time our fish is shark bit behind it pectoral fin and just about dead. At this point I scream for my gaff man to sink the flyer , and sink it he does with no reaction from our fish. I scream for another gaff in the tail as approaching our fish was 2 of the biggest tiger sharks I have ever seen with me on the platform. 
I quickly jumped back in the boat and all four of us lifted this beast into our cockpit where it was dispatched with a Louisville slugger and high fives went off !!!!!
We had finally caught a real beast swordfish after basically 10 years of trying and countless pups caught with only 3 keepers to show all that time now we have what looks like a 300 pound sword in our boat on our deck. So now we have this giant beast of a swordfish in the boat that's like 12 feet long with its bill and were scrambling to get the pictures taken and get this sucker into monster fish bag. The dang thing was so big it took up almost the entire port side deck, so much so we had to lay a bunk bed on top so we could sleep on it....
Now the sun is coming up and we switch to the high speed trolling spread so we can cover water and look for the line that should be out there another 10 miles or so. Around 8 am we hook our first fish which Ken quickly boats and its his first wahoo !!!! lures back in and we troll on and about one hour later one of the lines goes off and John was up . He gets on the rod and starts fighting the fish which seemed to be a snagged dolphin or something. When the fish comes close , I leader and I don't see till about the last second we have a small billfish ??? but I cant tell what kind till I grab the bill, and even still I am not sure what it is but its hooked in the eyeball and not happy. I try to settle it down but it rips off the hook and I let it go. The fish then swims on its back 40 yards and jumps like 5 times really fast and then took off 100 mph. It wasn't till we got home and sent my buddy wade a shot that we found out what we thought was a huge white marlin was a 80-90 pound mini blue marlin. So we are now 2-2 on billfish but cant find any line , but we troll on through rain storms and winds for a few hours to nice flat seas with tons of scattered grass but no fish. At this point we head in to bottom fish for a few minutes before heading in with our VIP catch.
As for the sharks that bit our fish "Thanks" seriously , because i think the fish wasnt going to come in any time soon had they not mortally wounded it allowing us to harvest this great beast. We only lost 5 pounds or less on each side and after fillet surgery it really wast even that bad.
We fish one wreck and boat two huge AJ's , and then fish 2 spots with butterfly jigs and landed a bunch of nice fat scamp groupers before calling it a day and headed home for a hook and cook swordfish dinner !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
enjoy the pics.


----------



## FLbeachbum

Sweet. Great read, thanks for sharing.


----------



## Caspr21

Man that is an awesome read!!! You brought back some memories talking bout that sword jumping in a full moon. I have seen one do just that and it is a cool sight! Congrats on the other bil as well!


----------



## straycat

awesome day! beautiful sword

straycat


----------



## DISANTO

Fantastic trip. Congrats!! You will remember this trip for a life time. P.S. Second billfish pic almost looks like a spearfish. We caught one a while back, and it looked like that, with the marlin-like dorsal fin and then the secondary sailfish-like fin. Either way...amazing trip.


----------



## reel sorry

Well written account. Thanks.


----------



## fish construction

congrats on the sword! sounds like a great trip


----------



## Head Kned

Great report. Were you using 50's for the sword. might make a case for 80s next time.


----------



## sniperpeeps

Freakin Awesome!


----------



## Dynamic

That is a memory that will last a lifetime!! Congratulations!!


----------



## Head Kned

I second the theory on the Spearfish. Although if you say it was around 80 lbs. i might not be one, or you had the FL State record hooked up. Here is a page with the discription. 

http://indian-river.fl.us/fishing/fish/billlong.html


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

Head Kned said:


> I second the theory on the Spearfish. Although if you say it was around 80 lbs. i might not be one, or you had the FL State record hooked up. Here is a page with the discription.
> 
> http://indian-river.fl.us/fishing/fish/billlong.html


 
I had this fish in my hand and it was way too big to be a spear fish but who knows as i havent ever caught one. At first we thought it was a large white Marlin till i emailed wade and he said blue Marlin .........I trust wade:thumbsup:

I looked online and found a bunch of small blue marlin shots and the small ones have the long dorsal fin up top , small short bill , pointed pectoral fins and pointed dorsal fin.

The main thing that throws everything off is the size and weight of the fish though i just cant say for sure

this i know :

Sailfish : No 
Swordfish : No 
Black Marlin : No
White Marlin: No 

so that leaves Blue Marlin and spearfish .....................


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

Head Kned said:


> Great report. Were you using 50's for the sword. might make a case for 80s next time.


I use shimano tiagra 50 w LRS series reels , spooled with 135 pound spectra and 100 yard 80 pound topshots.

I think 100 pound topshots are now in order as these are my trolling rigs as well and having 100 pound over 80 is always a good thing. As for using 80's , i thinks its tad over kill as a 50 wide with 80 pound drag gets it done. 

You can only put so much pressure on a fish and i dont think using a 80 would have allowed more pressure unless i used heavy line too and the deal with swords is soft mouth......So i think i good till i hook a 750 pounder :thumbsup:


----------



## Capt. Myles Colley

Thats an awesome swordfish! Im pretty sure the other fish is a spearfish. Pretty work!


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

Capt. Myles Colley said:


> Thats an awesome swordfish! Im pretty sure the other fish is a spearfish. Pretty work!


well if your right we tossed back the gulf record/ possible world record cause that sucker was at least 80 pounds.........................

We just had no clue what it was .....here is a shot from google of a fish that looks like the same size.......................


----------



## Xiphius

monster sword great catch! I usually ID your bill as a Longbill spearfish. great trip!


----------



## fishn4fun

Awesome report. Congrats on an amazing sword and a box full of other goodies to go along


----------



## my3nme

That is a NICE swordfish. Congrats, which bait did the sword eat?


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

my3nme said:


> That is a NICE swordfish. Congrats, which bait did the sword eat?


 
Live scoobie snack size mullet:thumbsup:


----------



## RollTider

Great trip. Thanks for posting


----------



## MSViking

Very very cool! Making epic memories!

Robert


----------



## Eastern Tackle

Looks like it turned out good for you. Plenty of good eats all around. Congrats on breaking the sword drought.


----------



## knot @ Work

What a fishin trip .. Reminds me of the TV show.. Makes the Marlin look small..
You might send the story and the pix into the florida sportsman magazine..
Awesome Job!!!


----------



## sail7seas

Awesome catch and story!! Congrats.


----------



## cobe killer

now that was an awsome report!!! great job on the sword and blue!!!


----------



## Lil' Ti

Lots of hard work and tough on everyone Im sure. But well worth it Id say. Thats why you go fishing rt there.


----------



## Gamefish27

that sword is bad ass!!!! nice job


----------



## macala

WOWWWWWW! Amazing works Mike. Man you put your time in for a trip like that. I always admire how hard you guys work on trips and have a blast. 10 years , I guess I have to wait 5 more years for mine. Congrats!


----------



## TCAT

Great catch! 

My vote would be a small blue marlin. I had the pleasure of recently attending an IGFA observer training course where we discussed the differences between various species of billfish. For me the clue lies with the dorsal. According to what I've recently learned (this could be dangerous) the height of the first dorsal fin of a spearfish is much larger than a blue especially when you compare the dorsal to the height of the body. The first dorsal of a blue is much smaller compared to the height of the its body (disportional) whereas spearfish has more height...Additionally look at the head of the fish and compare it to the overall proportions of the body. Blues are normally short and stalky whereas a spearfish would be long and slender. That's my two cents...Great job!


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

macala said:


> WOWWWWWW! Amazing works Mike. Man you put your time in for a trip like that. I always admire how hard you guys work on trips and have a blast. 10 years , I guess I have to wait 5 more years for mine. Congrats!


 
And here i am always admiring your trips with the swords , tuna and deep water fish ....................:thumbup:


You rock buddy , some day we should get together and fish your way since i seem to never get to the rigs anymore.


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

TCAT said:


> Great catch!
> 
> My vote would be a small blue marlin. I had the pleasure of recently attending an IGFA observer training course where we discussed the differences between various species of billfish. For me the clue lies with the dorsal. According to what I've recently learned (this could be dangerous) the height of the first dorsal fin of a spearfish is much larger than a blue especially when you compare the dorsal to the height of the body. The first dorsal of a blue is much smaller compared to the height of the its body (disportional) whereas spearfish has more height...Additionally look at the head of the fish and compare it to the overall proportions of the body. Blues are normally short and stalky whereas a spearfish would be long and slender. That's my two cents...Great job!


 


Well that makes me feel a tad better .................

Tossing back possible world record/ gulf record /florida state record spearfish made me kind of made till i found out you cant keep them in the GOM anyway ..................Being a blue makes me feel all better now / lets keep it that way :thumbsup:


----------



## Bert

Fun to read!! Great fishing trip for sure!!

Thanks for posting!


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

Thanks Guy's .........i love the swordfish dinner i have had 4 night in row !

mango and sweet onion chutney pan seared /broiled swordfish dish 

and smoked product waiting to be munched















Attached Thumbnails


----------



## DISANTO

Wirelessly posted

If your after igfa records (or fishing tournaments) make sure your line tests 130# or less. Spectra is very inconsistent in their stated vs actual breaking strength. For example, Jerry Brown line one 80# spectra breaks at over 130#. 

How did u cook ur first swordfish dinner??!! It\'s become my favorite fish.

Edit: just saw ur above recent post. Sounds delicious.


----------



## bconnally

what depth did you catch the sword in and where you near the spur or just south of pc 80 miles?


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

bconnally said:


> what depth did you catch the sword in and where you near the spur or just south of pc 80 miles?


I am pretty sure we where in 950 to 1050 feet really no special spot , just out in the middle of no where short of our intended target which was the line east of the canyon. We just stopped 5 to 10 miles short of where we thought the line might be so we didnt pass it in the dark as its moving all the time. If i had to say , maybe 70 or so miles from pc or so.


----------



## Capt. Myles Colley

Im taking back my original statement that the fish is a spearfish. After zooming in on the dorsal fin I believe its a large sailfish.


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

Capt. Myles Colley said:


> Im taking back my original statement that the fish is a spearfish. After zooming in on the dorsal fin I believe its a large sailfish.


 
Im going with mutant oil spill ninja marlin , its a cross of a spearfish-blue marlin and a sail .....:thumbup:


----------



## Crimson Tide

*Swordfishing*

Hey Pirate, how do you keep your lines from all tangling together when you are drifting for Swords? Even with a drift anchor, it seems that the boat pulling the baits would bring them together.
Thanks!


----------



## afogg

Fantastic read, every second I thought you were gonna say the sword pulled off! congrats on the catch.


----------



## PELAGIC PIRATE

Crimson Tide said:


> Hey Pirate, how do you keep your lines from all tangling together when you are drifting for Swords? Even with a drift anchor, it seems that the boat pulling the baits would bring them together.
> Thanks!


We put one line out at a time and long line clip a home made bouy on each line once set to the desired depth , then space the bouys 50 yards apart, with one bait straight down at the boat:thumbsup:


----------

