Fished on the Lucky Strike with Randy, Son Jacob, myself and two friends yesterday. After some experimenting last trip and a big sword skunk, we tried experimenting again and it was a bueatiful day for it. Takes a lot of patience and boy i wish we had the camera to capture the pictures of all five of us stairing at one rods tip, but it was a much more exciting day.

we got off to a late start and missed probably the first drop due to a heavy sleeper, but he made it. after a long cool run, drop the first bait and within 30 seconds fish on. we don't know how long for b/c that one got off. tried a slightly differnt spot on the second drop with no avail. third drop fish on within 5 minutes, but again pulls hook. fith drop not even to the zone and wacked leads to a pretty good fight for a pup of 42" for a release. Next up Randy. barely gets to the zone and bammm again. fishon. we get all the lights and such off the line in short order and then the fish goes. fight him for a while, what we believe was a decent fish and then pulled hook. have another drop and fish a tip rod at sunset, but no luck. pretty action packed day for swording. these fish will drive you crazy. they have got randy and i second guessing everything and changing hooks and leader lenghts, rig setups non-stop. we'll get it one of these days!!!!

2-3 on daytime trips for the year with 2 releases and one keeper. haven't had the window or time for an overnighter yet, but hopefully this weekend.

Casey

Casey,

Thanks for the report...does sound like a lot of action. Congrats on the release. Putting your time in will pay off...Hope you get the big one you're waiting for!!

--Don

Swordfish attack the Baits by thrashing with their bills they get foul hooked in the sides or cheek alot of times because of the frantic attack on the bait.That is why you hear alot of anglers say they have a soft mouth.Swords actually have a hard mouth and when you get a good hook set they usually stay on pretty good. You can reduce the size of the baits you are using so they hit it with their mouth rather than their bills.I have found big squid cut up like onion rings in their stomach.What sise hooks are you using ? How are you setting your drags before the take ?

KEITH,

Actually, we hooked one earlier this year right in the mouth bottom jaw and when we pulled it on board the hook split the mouth right in half at the lower jaw. I still do believe that they have very soft lower jaws. in our experience, most often when you get bites, yes they do play with it slashing and such, but i think they come up. this is why the hookup is often in the lower jaw and a light drag setting is imperative. we use between 8-15# of drag depending when we are fishing (night/day) and adjust during battle on any run.

about the hookups in the head, my person favorite place to hook them is in the eye socket, just below it or in the top jaw. these are the hardest parts to hook the fish. every time i have had to pull a hook out of these areas, it has been in solid. but as i said, i think it depends on the fish as to whether or not you get lucky with this hookup. daytime fishing is much different too than nighttime. i think fish have a tendancy to want to go up in the day and down at night. just an opinion though and it seems reasonable on account of our experience over the past two years and where the available water for them to run is. we have experimented with 9/0-12/0 hooks and some a little bigger depending on bait type.

Casey

Casey, nice job out there. I've yet to try the daytime sword thing. Unless you have a dedicated sword-aholic crew like you guys have, it is hard to find 5 guys willing to run out that far so we can all watch one rod down deep so I may be stuck with the overnighters were we fish for other fish during the day and swords at night.

I've seem to get strikes most trips at night but I also am challenged to get a solid hook-up and get the big ones to the boat. Them fish will drive you insane out there, no doubt. I do look forward to more trips. The only way to learn is like you guys are doing, learn by doing. Experiement with different rigs, colors, weights, hooks, leaders, etc. I've even thought about treble hooks but decided against it since we seem to get so many pubs that have to be released. But what about a double fang hook?

Looking for weather windows this time of year will also drive you insane. Looks like yet another weekend blowout this weekend.