in Islamorada, is an Ace at it. They landed a 757lb the other day. Anyone specifically targeting them here?
Anyone doing deep drop Swordfishing in our area?
3,196 views·16 replies·by MakoMatt
I've been following all the Florida guys doing this. Would love to give it a try! Captain Nick Stanczyk, Bud n' Mary'sView attachment 4228 in Islamorada, is an Ace at it. They landed a 757lb the other day.That’s amazing! I feel like I hear that most guys when fishing the canyon usually have a deep rod out with a glow stick. I’m sure it’s nothing like south Florida though. But then again very few of our fisheries are on that level.
Anyone specifically targeting them here?
CommodoreOriginal Crew5,665 postsSince 2018
That was a beauty of a Sword !
If you ever want to fish for them local, JC30967 runs a club charter with us (Hook it Up !) each year on the Viking 5 Star in Montauk which sometimes produces a sword or two.
This pic is from last season with Rob Raw's fish.
If you ever want to fish for them local, JC30967 runs a club charter with us (Hook it Up !) each year on the Viking 5 Star in Montauk which sometimes produces a sword or two.
This pic is from last season with Rob Raw's fish.
DeckhandOriginal Crew40 postsSince 2019
don't remember the weight or the size of the sword we took - but - the captain had it taken to a local restaurant along with a boatload of Mahi we caught earlier
Mahi was done Ceviche as an appetizer & we seemed to have a never ending line of servers bringing out sword steaks on platters. We announced to the other diners when we arrived - not to order - their meal was on us. Fed the whole restaurant.
Regarding the Deep Drop:
It's been awhile (late 1990's/early 2000 so memories a bit hazy on all of the details). Not the most environmentally friendly way of going about it.
Here goes:
Mahi was done Ceviche as an appetizer & we seemed to have a never ending line of servers bringing out sword steaks on platters. We announced to the other diners when we arrived - not to order - their meal was on us. Fed the whole restaurant.
Regarding the Deep Drop:
It's been awhile (late 1990's/early 2000 so memories a bit hazy on all of the details). Not the most environmentally friendly way of going about it.
Here goes:
- Pile of small rocks on the deck.
- These were then placed into plastic shopping bags (the type you get from the supermarket).
- Light line (10 pound test?) was then tied onto the plastic shopping bag (maybe 3 feet of it?)
- That was then attached to main fishing line (80 # test?) with all of the terminal tackle including a light stick tied on about 5 feet up from the baited hook.
- Then the whole contraption was dumped overboard.
- I forget how deep we sent it down - but it was quite aways down. Seemed like it took forever to hit bottom. Once the bag of rocks hit the bottom - the mate would yank on the line until the 10# test snapped releasing the lighted & baited line to drift in the water column. Leaving the plastic bag with it's rocks on the bottom. That's environmental part I was uncomfortable with.
AdmiralOriginal Crew20,900 postsSince 2018
>
don't remember the weight or the size of the sword we took - but - the captain had it taken to a local restaurant along with a boatload of Mahi we caught earlier
Mahi was done Ceviche as an appetizer & we seemed to have a never ending line of servers bringing out sword steaks on platters. We announced to the other diners when we arrived - not to order - their meal was on us. Fed the whole restaurant.
Regarding the Deep Drop:
It's been awhile (late 1990's/early 2000 so memories a bit hazy on all of the details). Not the most environmentally friendly way of going about it.
Here goes:
[LIST]
[*]Pile of small rocks on the deck.
[*]These were then placed into plastic shopping bags (the type you get from the supermarket).
[*]Light line (10 pound test?) was then tied onto the plastic shopping bag (maybe 3 feet of it?)
[*]That was then attached to main fishing line (80 # test?) with all of the terminal tackle including a light stick tied on about 5 feet up from the baited hook.
[*]Then the whole contraption was dumped overboard.
[*]I forget how deep we sent it down - but it was quite aways down. Seemed like it took forever to hit bottom. Once the bag of rocks hit the bottom - the mate would yank on the line until the 10# test snapped releasing the lighted & baited line to drift in the water column. Leaving the plastic bag with it's rocks on the bottom. That's environmental part I was uncomfortable with.
[/LIST]
As I recall it took at least 4 of us to get the sword to the boat.
don't remember the weight or the size of the sword we took - but - the captain had it taken to a local restaurant along with a boatload of Mahi we caught earlier
Mahi was done Ceviche as an appetizer & we seemed to have a never ending line of servers bringing out sword steaks on platters. We announced to the other diners when we arrived - not to order - their meal was on us. Fed the whole restaurant.
Regarding the Deep Drop:
It's been awhile (late 1990's/early 2000 so memories a bit hazy on all of the details). Not the most environmentally friendly way of going about it.
Here goes:
[LIST]
[*]Pile of small rocks on the deck.
[*]These were then placed into plastic shopping bags (the type you get from the supermarket).
[*]Light line (10 pound test?) was then tied onto the plastic shopping bag (maybe 3 feet of it?)
[*]That was then attached to main fishing line (80 # test?) with all of the terminal tackle including a light stick tied on about 5 feet up from the baited hook.
[*]Then the whole contraption was dumped overboard.
[*]I forget how deep we sent it down - but it was quite aways down. Seemed like it took forever to hit bottom. Once the bag of rocks hit the bottom - the mate would yank on the line until the 10# test snapped releasing the lighted & baited line to drift in the water column. Leaving the plastic bag with it's rocks on the bottom. That's environmental part I was uncomfortable with.
[/LIST]
As I recall it took at least 4 of us to get the sword to the boat.
AdmiralOriginal Crew20,900 postsSince 2018
There were a half dozen 400 -700 swords caught down there this past week including that beast. Nicks been at it a while and caught his share for sure. We can only hope its signs of good things for us here in the northeast this year, If u fish for them its all in the bait rigging. Was good a few summers ago 4 sure.
DeckhandOriginal Crew16 postsSince 2019
J
My son fishes for swords out of Miami all the time during the day. It’s tricky fishing down there in 1800 feet of water because of the strong Gulf Stream current. But the fishing has been good recently.
Nick Stancyk, down in Islamorada, is the king, and his monster 750 pounder the other week is proof. Most swords we get on Miami range from about 80-150 pounds, with larger ones from time to time.
I think this fishery has a lot of pressure. The limits are way too generous.
The technique is even easier to do up in our northern canyons because our currents are much much weaker. Basically, you go to the mouth of a Canyon where it widens and you have consistent 1600-1800 foot depths.
You obviously need an electric reel, and everyone who’s anyone uses an LP. It’s $5k list, but you’ve got to be in it to win it. Besides swording, we use the LP for high speed trolling for wahoo off Bimini all winter and for deploying dredges for marlin fishing. So it is money well spent notwithstanding the cost.
In the NE, you can probably get away with 5 pounds of lead. In Miami, we use 10-15 pounds. My son uses a 100 foot leader off the mainline and two lights. Bait can be a whole squid sewn on to the hook with a skirt, or a bonito strip or mahi strip. Eels are also a good bait.
The rig is dropped to the bottom and then reeled up 100 feet, sometimes more in the Gulf Stream where we are flying over rugged bottom. Be sure to watch your charts. You DO NOT want to get hung on the bottom, especially in strong current. That will surely ruin your day and put a big dent in your wallet.
Swording is very tedious. The bite is very subtle. You must watch your soft tipped rod closely all day and be ready for the hit. You may only get one or two chances in 8 hours or more, if that, so you must be attentive. Most people can’t do this.
The fish are out there though.
Nick Stancyk, down in Islamorada, is the king, and his monster 750 pounder the other week is proof. Most swords we get on Miami range from about 80-150 pounds, with larger ones from time to time.
I think this fishery has a lot of pressure. The limits are way too generous.
The technique is even easier to do up in our northern canyons because our currents are much much weaker. Basically, you go to the mouth of a Canyon where it widens and you have consistent 1600-1800 foot depths.
You obviously need an electric reel, and everyone who’s anyone uses an LP. It’s $5k list, but you’ve got to be in it to win it. Besides swording, we use the LP for high speed trolling for wahoo off Bimini all winter and for deploying dredges for marlin fishing. So it is money well spent notwithstanding the cost.
In the NE, you can probably get away with 5 pounds of lead. In Miami, we use 10-15 pounds. My son uses a 100 foot leader off the mainline and two lights. Bait can be a whole squid sewn on to the hook with a skirt, or a bonito strip or mahi strip. Eels are also a good bait.
The rig is dropped to the bottom and then reeled up 100 feet, sometimes more in the Gulf Stream where we are flying over rugged bottom. Be sure to watch your charts. You DO NOT want to get hung on the bottom, especially in strong current. That will surely ruin your day and put a big dent in your wallet.
Swording is very tedious. The bite is very subtle. You must watch your soft tipped rod closely all day and be ready for the hit. You may only get one or two chances in 8 hours or more, if that, so you must be attentive. Most people can’t do this.
The fish are out there though.
DeckhandOriginal Crew42 postsSince 2019
What's being referred to here is daytime specific deep drop swordfishing. This is NOT the typical nighttime fishing of sending a bait down a few hundred feet while chunking for tunas. What we are talking about here is a daytime specific method, that is essentially extremely heavy bottom fishing on a drift at depths of 1500-2000 feet. On Long Island, we're definitely seeing more people that are buying setups and trying to give it a fair shot, and we've already seen several guys to our north, and in the mid-Atlantic that have had success with it. I myself first experimented with this type of deep-drop fishing on rod and reel about 20 years ago in Venezuela using an "old school" method that definitely wouldn't be considered conventional by today's standards, but it worked and we did catch fish. Using the more modern proper method, I've done it in Florida successfully, as well as in Costa Rica, and in our canyons too.
Since we're fishing depths in the 1500-2000 foot range, in order to do this properly, you really need a dedicated deep-drop rod with a fully electric reel, or at the very least a manual drive reel with an auxiliary power attachment. Some examples of these reels would be converted Penn Internationals or Shimano Tiagras from Hooker Electric Reels, the Lindgren-Pitman ("LP"), or Daiwa MP3000. The method that we've been employing here in the Northeast typically doesn't require quite as much weight, because we don't have the fast Gulf Stream current that the Florida fishery has. The start up expense to get into this kind of fishing is pretty high, which is a big part of the reason for why it's taking more time for people to get into up here where it's still being "pioneered". Here in the Northeast Canyons, for the guys who have really given it a real effort, when they try it seems to be either feast or famine. One trip they'll have 5 or 6 bites, equally split between bigeyes and swords, and on another trip they'll have nothing. There definitely is a fishery here for it, and as more people commit to doing it and "figure it out" a little more, I think it's only going to rise in popularity as time goes on.
Since we're fishing depths in the 1500-2000 foot range, in order to do this properly, you really need a dedicated deep-drop rod with a fully electric reel, or at the very least a manual drive reel with an auxiliary power attachment. Some examples of these reels would be converted Penn Internationals or Shimano Tiagras from Hooker Electric Reels, the Lindgren-Pitman ("LP"), or Daiwa MP3000. The method that we've been employing here in the Northeast typically doesn't require quite as much weight, because we don't have the fast Gulf Stream current that the Florida fishery has. The start up expense to get into this kind of fishing is pretty high, which is a big part of the reason for why it's taking more time for people to get into up here where it's still being "pioneered". Here in the Northeast Canyons, for the guys who have really given it a real effort, when they try it seems to be either feast or famine. One trip they'll have 5 or 6 bites, equally split between bigeyes and swords, and on another trip they'll have nothing. There definitely is a fishery here for it, and as more people commit to doing it and "figure it out" a little more, I think it's only going to rise in popularity as time goes on.
DeckhandOriginal Crew6 postsSince 2019
C
Atlantic Halibut caught on a Atlantic custom rod..
[ATTACH type="full"]5099[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH type="full"]5099[/ATTACH]
CaptainOriginal Crew1,185 postsSince 2019
C
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