# Cleaning swordfish



## Fairwinds

I was hoping to get some pointers on the best way to clean a sword. Or just your preferred way of doin it.


----------



## John B.

soap and water oke

i'm sorry, i couldn't resist.


----------



## BlackFlag

knock the horns off, wipe its ass, and put em on the plate, no wait... yeah thats defintly cows


----------



## Downtime2

I clean them like any other large fish. Cut em behind the gills, make a cut down the lateral line to the tail, cut from head to tail down the back, roll #1 fillet off. Do the same on the lower portion including cutting out the rib cage and cleaning it seperate. I skin each tenderloin thesame way, skin it and de-bloodline it. I don't put any water on it while cleaning it. I cut it into small roastsand vaccum bag it. I know it's vague, but, I do wahoo, yft and dolphin the same way....


----------



## BLKFLYZ

Wade pretty much hit it dead on. We had a couple last year that even though they were iced good whe we got back and started cleaning them they smelled kinda rank!. We started gutting them on the boat them put em on ice havent had a problem since.


----------



## Fairwinds

Thanks for the input. Also i was watching a guy gaff a sword from the get lit fishing team. When he went for the gaff shot he went to the outside shoulder, brought the hook to the inboard side of the fish and when he delivered the shot it rolled the fish upside down. What is that a better and safer gaff shot than opposed to the outboard shoulder?


----------



## Downtime2

Outside top, right back of the eyes. Deep and all the way through. Watch em' though. They like a pissed cobia with a bill......


----------



## Captain Woody Woods

i often get criticized by some (often and usually unexperienced anglers) for my gaffing techniques. i am a head shot kind of guy. i like to either hit a fish right in the damn gills, or pretty close to the head in hopes of nicking the spine with the gaff. some tournament anglers (usually king mackeral guys) like to hit their fish in the tail to minimize blood loss or some crap like that, and that's fine. to each their own. but our boat has an icemaker so our fish are near about icicles by the time they reach the dock; blood loss isn't really a concern for us. just make sure you are BEHIND your wireman (closer to stern) so you dont come across the leader and run the risk of nicking it.


----------



## Xanadu

Why would anyone want to clean a swordfish? Isn't that what deckhands are for?



Seriously, its better to field dress them on the boat and then sit back and watch Wade or Creech clean them at the dock from behind a bottle of frosty brew!


----------



## Harry Brosofsky

One tip...gut them and bleed them (including the large blood vessel that runs inside the body cavity) as soon as they hit the deck.

Harry


----------



## Fairwinds

by bleeding them do you mean, in the same manner you would bleed a tuna by making that incision under the gill plate?


----------



## brnbser

no personal experience on swords....yet, but I do pretty much all gaffing/wiring on our team and regarding gaffing,

king anglers like to hit them in the tail because as you said Woody, minimizes blood loss but that's not the only reason. we use pretty lightline/leaders/wire on them and want the gaff away from the head and that light stuff. that's one of the reason we use those 10-12' gaffs also, that and their tendancy to make a run when they get close to the boat. Blood loss in a king tourneys can be the difference between win/lose. So much so that pretty much most tournament guys immediately fill the gaff hole with a tampon before icing it.

It's only a king thing, anything large, I go for the shoulder and wahoo, I go for the eye, I want the blood:shedevil.


----------



## Captain Woody Woods

> *brnbser (4/25/2008)* So much so that pretty much most tournament guys immediately fill the gaff hole with a tampon before icing it.



good god scott that's some obsessive fishing right there.


----------



## brnbser

you should have seen Katelyn's face the first tournament I took her on and I'm in the store asking her what isle the tampons are on........I never leave for a tournament without them


----------



## Radiater

You get some pretty funny looks when 4 guys go into the store to stock up on groceries for the weekendand youhave a box of tampons in the cart. I had to be shown how to operateit the first time I tried putting one in a fish.


----------



## flyliner

back to the cleaning of a sword ......

The only thing I do different while cleaning a sword compared to most other large fish is the way to skin them. The roundness of the filet makes it hard to skin it lengthwiseso I cut them in 8 inch steaks leaving the skin on and then skin the steak from the bloodline out, kind of like taking the meat off a cantaloupe wedge. You get rid of the bloodline and skin in same cut


----------

