This weeks picture of the week was submitted by forum member and local legend, Docked Wages with a 110 pound Swordfish. Make sure to read his account of the adventure below the picture.

































From left to right, Beerman, Docked Wages, and NickC.

Saturday night Plan “A” was to run out of Sailfish Marina on a 57’ Ocean yacht to target swordfish. As a chain of unfortunate events occur, Plan A gets scrubbed due to mechanical issues. Now comes Plan B, already committed to fishing in South Florida for the weekend I call up Beerman and Headfirst to see what they thought about the seas. Forecast was calling for 4’-5’ with a 10k East wind and a half moon phase. Headfirst says that we should poke our bow out of Boca Inlet and take a look. Translation means lets go fishing because once that 33’ Palmetto breaks the jetty it doesn’t turn back.

On board with Beerman, Headfirst and myself is NickC, a 16 year angler that has more experience than any kid I know at his age. As we head southeast from the inlet we realize the foul weather gear is a must. The 10 k East wind is actually 15k sustained and higher gusts with swells that are a tight 5’, but we still manage 24knots as a cruise speed. Anticipating a fast westward drift we set up our first spread in 1700’ of water, to our surprise we are drifting more Northwest than Westward. This drift pattern takes several hours to position us into the waters that we where actually targeting. The seas and the wind are pounding the Headfirst vessel broadside during this drift as occasional whitecaps breach the gunnel. Cold and wet we seek refuge from the wind by sitting on the floor with our backs to against the gunnel. Here we pass a bottle of vino, toast beers and laugh as we avoid the elements. We assign NickC, being the youngest and the only not toasting, as the lookout for the many transatlantic tankers that pass bye our spread with illuminated hyrdoglow lights in the water. We drift from 1700’ into the 950’ range and realize that it is time to set up a new drift. This time we don’t run as deep and redeploy in the 1400’ range. No sooner than we get a full spread of float lines and tight lines out, we see the long line go tight, then dives deep. For this fish I was the predesignated anlger, important to identify before the fish is hooked up so that you can coordinate a harness and fighting belt. This fish acted like no other Sword that I have seen in my short experience of targeting these species. Instead of running the surface he simply dives deep and stays down for a long time. During this battle on 80 lb test and a locked down drag Beerman assemblies his harpoon and eventually gets his chance to use it.

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