The Thrill of Daytime Swordfishing
By: Martha Spencer
The art of daytime swordfishing, is a relatively new phenomenon considering how long man has been chasing the denizens of the deep. While long-lined, commercial anglers have chased the broadbill swordfish, Xiphias Gladius, for decades, only in the last twenty-five or so years have recreational anglers been sending baits to the bottom in hopes of catching these purple predators.
Some attribute South Florida anglers as the pioneers of this fishing style. But wherever it originated, anglers around the world from New Zealand to New Hampshire now target broadbills during the day. Swordfish are considered a pelagic, or migratory species, and they typically dwell more than a thousand feet deep. Swords, like most deep-water dwellers, have large eyes for their size. They also have a rare ability to heat their eyes and brains. This ability enhances their vision, allowing them to hone in on prey in little to no light. Adult swordfish have no scales and no teeth. They swat at their prey with their large bills before inhaling it.
While anglers both recreational and commercial have been targeting swordfish in the Gulf of Mexico for over two decades now, on the west coast, daytime fishing for them has been exclusive to commercial anglers until just a few years ago. But like all things, fishing evolves to catch up to trends and perhaps create new ones. Now west coast charter guides are taking on the challenge of daytime deep dropping for swordfish
While the Gulf of Mexico has abundant areas of ditches and canyons along the continental shelf, west coast anglers must look for swords differently. They gather as much intel as they can from commercial anglers and fish temperature breaks and areas where a lot of bait is marked.
Gulf coast anglers fishing around the right moon phase might get between five and ten bites in a day of fishing, but out west, it is not so easy. Ten pounds of lead will send a squid bait zooming down to over a thousand feet, with three small lights on the line acting as somewhat of a “digital chum”.
On any coast, the bite, or “whack” of the swordfish’s bill on the squid gets weakened by the thousands of feet of water, making the rod tip bounce ever so slightly on most occasions. A swordfish nearly always swims the lead upwards, and it tends to get more violent in the fight once the lead is removed from the line. A gut hooked swordfish rarely jumps, but often fish hooked in the jaw become acrobatic like their marlin relatives.
One thing all swordfishing enthusiasts can agree on is the joy of catching “purple fever” for these monsters of the deep- continuously searching and waiting for that next big fish.
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