# Water Depth for Swordfish



## Naby (Jan 18, 2009)

What water depth range is good for targeting swordfish? I'd like to try it once or twice this summer but I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable going out far enough to have a change at catching them.

Thanks


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## Naby (Jan 18, 2009)

Bueller?


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

I have caught swords in water as shallow as 400ft and as deep as 3000ft. The most important factor in swordfishing is structure, and then whether or not that structure is holding bait. If there isn't a sufficient enough presence of squid, mackeral and other forage the fishing is going to be slow. Last season we did 8 trips dedicated to swords and mostly targeted areas in 500-800ft. the reason we hit these areas was because of the huge schools of squid we were marking there during the day while deep dropping, trolling, etc. We only got skunked 1 out of the 8 trips and noticed on the fruitless trip that there was an absence of bait in the area. Best thing to do in planning a sword trip is keeping up with reports and watching for bait throughout the day in any areas past the shelf. Log your trips and formulate a seasonal pattern. Bait patterns are usually consistent year after year.


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## Naby (Jan 18, 2009)

Thanks for all the info! I typically don't go deeper than 200 feet or so but the range you mentioned isn't too much farther out of Destin. It would have to be really calm for me to spend the night out there in my 25 footer and even then I would prefer to know another boat in the general area. I'm just trying to get an idea if it is worth my time to try it.

Thanks again.


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## xyzzy (Oct 26, 2008)

From Destin you want to run to the East side of the Spurr for swordies...


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