The Friday Night Open Boat Swordfishing trip, this past Friday night, was a blast. We only had 6 people, but everybody paid a few dollars more so the boat could go out. The seas were rough that night on the way out to fishing grounds. We got broadsided twice by a huge wave. That was what it was like for about the first half hour, and if it had continued like that, we probably would have turned back. Well, as we got out farther, the ocean started laying down and it got really nice out. The waves were only like 4′ when we stopped to fish, which isn’t bad on a boat as large as Catch My Drift. Well, we started sending out the baits and low and behold a big mahi mahi starts jumping not too far from the boat. He was jumping straight for us, so Capt. Adam quickly grabs the gaff out of the rod holder and snabs up the fish. It was about a 20 pound mahi mahi. So Capt. Adam actually got to catch the first fish that night.
Once we had all the baits out again, we get a nice bite on the tip line. Hooked up! We fight the fish up to the boat in about 10 minutes. It was a windy night and we were getting pushed away from the fish, so the fight was twice as hard. When we got him to the boat, the fish was a couple inches short so we released him. So, we set back up and after a little while we get hooked up on something really nice. Now this was a big fish. It was stripping line off the reel almost as fast as the fish last week did. We don’t usually do this, and only had a few people on the boat so it was easier to do, but we reeled everything in and chased the fish down. We got the fish up to the surface and when he came into range, we harpooned him. It was a sweet shot. Adam ran down from the wheelhouse and stuck the big flying gaff into him and brought him aboard. It was a slob of a swordfish. The fish probably weighed closed to 200 pounds.
By then, it was time to go in. We caught 2 for 2 that night on swordfish. The swordfish are biting out there. The week before this trip, we had 6 big swordfish on the line, but only managed to catch 2 of them. The bite has been red hot, so hopefully this week and next week, we’ll have a good Friday Night Swordfishing trip. Sea ya out there on the water.