NO WAY! |
| Written by Capt. Mike Genoun | |||
It was a flat calm Tuesday night as we headed offshore in search of the almighty swordfish. Recent reports indicated a solid bite of quality size fish in the 100 to 300 lb range with most hits occurring in 1200-1500 of water. We had all been planning this trip for quite some time and after numerous cancellations due to poor weather or having to work late, we finally hit it off. What made this trip so special was that Capt. Joey T, a life long friend, was able to fly down from the snow ridden northeast and join us for the trip. An excursion he has wanted to do for the last two seasons. You could feel the excitement level build as we pulled back the throttles and settled in for our first drift of the night. Conditions were ideal with a 5 to 10 knot warm breeze and just a small swell. We set the usual 4 bait spread with different baits deployed at different depths covering the entire upper 400 of the water column. Conditions were perfect, we read a number of bait schools on the color scope, and we were ready. About an hour or so into our adventure we jumped to attention as one of the 50 two speeds began to scream. This was not a questionable bite or a maybe hit, this was the real deal! Fifty pound mono melted from the reel as the beefy stand up rod completely doubled over. We were in, and in big! Joey, the lucky angler strapped to the stand up outfit, was now into his third hour with this bruiser. Now, Joey is kind of a big guy at 250 lbs and has caught many and I mean many, large swords and tuna. He currently runs a 55 charter boat from Manasquan Inlet N.J. and has spent more time in the northeast canyons chasing tuna and billfish then just about anyone I know. On numerous occasions I have stood by and watched as he whipped hundred pound yellowfins in very short order. On one particular occasion, I witnessed him boat 13 bluefin tuna all over 150lbs and one 276lb broadbill in less than 4 hours of fishing. A feat of that caliber requires a tremendous amount of strength, stamina, and technique. I have never seen Joey fight a fish for over an hour regardless of its size, which is what made this situation seem so unique. We have all had that one particular trip that just stands out above the rest. The day the 10 pound bones were so thick you couldnt not catch them. The afternoon you pulled up to that weed line and forty huge dolphin were just waiting for you to drop a bait over the side. Or the morning you bought a dozen goggle eyes and released a dozen sailfish before noon. This had to be one of those days. I already had visions of a gargantuan 500 pound swordfish laying across the deck of my 36 center console. Wow, what a picture that would make! As the battle ensued into its fourth hour the weary angler, now near exhaustion, just would not give up the rod and was committed to landing this fish on his own. We were already 19 miles from where we had hooked the beast and still had approx. 300 yards of line out. How long can this go on, I thought, something has to give. The fisherman, the fish, or the tackle, but something has to give. As the minutes ticked away into hours Joey was able to gain momentum on the monster and managed to gain back most of the line a few feet at a time. By the time we hit hour number 6, we were close. So close that I actually caught a glimpse of the 6 inch green cyalume light stick which was attached 25 away from the bait. But the fish was still a mystery. Looking back now I have to say…well read on. As sweat poured off Joeys body we prepared ourselves for the encounter with Godzilla. This fish had to be huge. It had to be at least 500 pounds maybe even bigger. Maybe 700 or even 800. Wow! I stood by silently with the big gaff in my hand nervously anticipating what was about to happen next. Just as the words ‘I think I see something rolled off my tongue, the incredibly powerful denizen of the deep shot off again, this time taking five to six hundred feet of line and heading straight down. We all watched in amazement as line continued to peel off the shiny reel. How could a fish that has been engaged in such a drawn out tug of war still have enough energy to run like that? We all agreed that in all of our years combined neither of us have ever seen a tuna, shark, or billfish with so much brute power. Remember, we were using top quality tackle with a socked down drag. It was clear who was in control here, and it wasnt us. This fish was toying with us and it took us 5 hours to realize it. During the ongoing battle I had continued to update the entire fleet as to our progress. We even managed to attract an audience. A small fleet of 8-10 boats kept their distance but watched the encounter first hand. So witnesses to this already remarkable story, are something we have plenty of. Luckily for us we were well prepared for the trip, plenty of fuel, refreshments, and tons of top quality equipment. What happened next is absolutely unbelievable... ...to be continued in the next edition of the South Florida Sport Fishing Magazine. Trust me when I tell you, you wont believe how this story ends up.
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