Locating Local Swords
By Steve Lassley
Ever since I first began fishing swordfish in the mid to late ’70s, I always heard, “ For every sword you see on top, there are ten more below.” I don’t know how they came up with this figure, but I have to believe it misses the mark. Significantly!
The last seven or eight years that I was fishing the Mirage, I was relying more and more on my Fathometer to locate where the real volumes of fish were. You could find them the bulk of the time; they just wouldn’t always show. Conditions just weren’t right. When this happened we kept going back and checking on them until we got them or they were gone.
There was nothing worse than seeing the sign on your machine and big oily slicks floating on the surface where Willy just went poop – but no finning fish. Many times you will see slicks about 30 to 50 feet in diameter floating on the surface. If you drive downwind you can smell the unmistakable scent of swordfish. This makes you somewhat of a fart sniffer.
How can this help you catch a daytime sword? I don’t know, but this is what I am going to do:
I am going to start by fishing just like I did with the harpoon, looking for them where they live: edges of banks, drop-offs, and flats with structure around them – you know, structure. Another thing I am going to key on is where I see finning fish or jumpers. Good news is that the water may not need to be just perfect to get them to bite, as is the case when looking for finners. I’m going to look at all sides of the 14-Mile Bank, especially the east and north sides (Dave Denholm on the Espadon tried daytime here one time and hooked a fish, but pulled the hook after a couple hours); The 152 down to the 277, both the north and south sides – especially just east of the 152; the 209 and 312 just east of the 209; the 43, east, north and northwest just to name a few. Lastly, (not Lassley) a guy wouldn’t want to pass up that Mackerel Bank.
If you only have one Fathometer, take off the top 30 fathoms and look from there to the bottom. My Fathometers (I use two) will be set up like this: the 28 kHz 2 kW machine will be set to read the bottom. It would be on the 0- to 40-fathom range. Then I would run the shift down until the bottom of the ocean was on the bottom of the screen. This will give a blown-up picture 40 fathoms high just off the sea floor. I would throw as much gain at it as I could;
a little clutter never hurts. I have been told that guys on the East Coast mark them on the bottom, and they look like worms. My second machine, a 50 kHz 1 kW unit, I would set up, taking the top 30 fathoms off with my shift button. I don’t care what’s up there for this type of fishing. I would look from 30 fathoms down to whatever the top of the first Fathometer is looking at. This will give me the best way to look for the hake and squid the swords will be feeding on. I can’t tell you how often I would see these schools of fish compress at that depth and know the swords were there feeding but not coming up. Cowards!
Rigging Up
By Cory Burlew
When fishing for swordfish, the first thing to do is locate good bottom. Look for drop-offs, ledges, and peaks. This type of bottom gives the elusive swordfish hiding spots to ambush its prey. Check out the local charts in the area you will be fishing, and have a decent depth-finder. While dropping for these fish, you want to make sure you are fishing in the sandy part of the ledge. Even though their bills are sharp and long, they prefer to root around the soft bottom, stirring up of their favorite meals, which include crabs, shrimp, and eels.
Once you have located your spot, the next step is to have your tackle ready to go. Daytime rigs can be constructed in many ways, depending on your location. In California waters where there is not a lot of current, the rig consists of a three-way swivel, leader material, hook, light, and a four to ten pounds of weight, depending on current.
Coming off the rod tip, the main line (500-pound test) runs about 15 feet in length, connected to a three-way swivel. Connect 75 feet of 300-pound mono to the three-way swivel, and the mono to your hook. I prefer J-hooks ranging in sizes from 8/0 to 10/0. On the bottom of the three-way swivel, your four- to ten-pound weight is connected with lightweight mono (10- to 12-pound test). If you want the weight to break off with ease, I suggest 10-pound mono. Note: You could use a mesh bag and river rock for weight since you’ll be abandoning the weight at the bottom.
Once you get your bait to the depth you want, break the weight off, allowing the bait to slowly come to the top. Keep it tight as it ascends upward. This allows it to cover the whole water column. Only problem with this is that you do not know what depth the bite was in, but at the same time, if you leave it at one depth, you aren’t covering the water column. It depends on location. Sometimes you don’t want the weight to break off so easily. Using 12- to 15-pound mono will help solve this problem, but when a fish is on, it will break the weight off for you. Attaching these weights to your rig with this lightweight mono usually runs about 8 to 12 feet in length. The shorter it is, the closer to the bottom your bait will be. The longer it is, the harder it is to break. Remember, we are fishing in depths between 1,200 feet and 1,800 feet of water, so you don’t want the weight to break off prematurely.
As to the light as part of the rigging – simply put – a water-activated light or a Lingren Pitman light are the best. They can withstand the pressure up to 2,200 feet of water. Cylume sticks will not be good because they implode under pressure. You can place the light on the snap swivel coming off the rod or on the three-way swivel on the rig itself. To connect the light you would use a double-ended snap. Color of the light is your personal choice.
Baits used for this adventure are very basic: squid about 18 inches long or mackerel about 12 inches long. Rigging the traditional way is the best, as this allows it to go up and down without spinning up the rig. To rig squid requires the leader hook and a piece of monel (soft wire). Placing the hook towards the head, use the soft wire (about eight to ten inches) to thread the leader securely to the body. Done properly, the bait should not ball up when it is pulled through the water. Rigging the mackerel is about the same. Place the hook through the gill plate, coming out the bottom of the bait. Take the piece of soft wire and secure the hook and leader to the head of the mackerel. It is just like rigging a ballyhoo that’s used in trolling for big-game fish.
Once location is found, the bait is rigged, and rods are set, you are ready to go. Dropping this down is a little tricky sometimes. First, throw the bait in and slowly drive the boat away. Since your leader is very long (75 feet), you need to stretch it out to ensure it goes down without tangling. You can use shorter leaders if you want, but I have found that you pull hooks more often. A longer leader enables the fish to strike the bait with its bill and then come back around to eat it. Once you get to the end of the bait, place the weight, which is connected to the three-way swivel, along with the leader, into the water gently. With the weight in the water, and the rod in free-spool, slowly drop it down to 1,800 feet. It is best to mark the line at increments of 500 feet with a black sharpie pen so you know where you are. Keep going in and out of gear with the boat as you are dropping the rig. This will help keep the rig from tangling and help drop it down faster.
Using spectra is going to be the best choice because mono floats and stretches too much, where Spectra does not and cuts through the water better. How you use the boat and do the fishing depends on what setup you use. If you do the break away lead (using 10-pound mono), then you simply get the rig to the bottom and break the lead off, gradually winding to keep the rig tight, letting it float up slowly. Repeat these steps until you get a fish or you become bored.
If you want to fish the bottom, you would be using 12- to 15-pound mono on the rig for your weight. Repeat dropping procedures. Once on the bottom, about every five minutes, re-drop to find the bottom. If you do snag bottom, the light mono would enable you to break the weight off and retrieve your rig.
Some people use electric reels, while others prefer hand-crank rod and reel. Whatever you prefer, it is still fun and adventurous. The bite itself is interesting as well. Sometimes it will simply bend the rod over and pull drag, and other times, the fish will swat at the bait, bouncing the rod violently. No matter what – once they get hooked – the battle is on!
Science Behind Swordfish
Studies on the vertical movements of swordfish in Southern California
By Chugey Sepulveda, PhD
Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research
Where do swordfish spend most of their time? Why do they go there? How can I optimize my gear to target them? These are all common questions that enter into the minds of both fisherman (commercial and recreational) and researchers alike. What follows are the findings from recent movement studies performed by the Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research (PIER).
Tom Pfleger and the Pfleger Family have long recognized the importance of swordfish to California commercial and recreational fisherman. As such, PIER has focused past and ongoing research efforts on investigating the movements and physiology of this mysterious gladiator of the deep.
From a scientific perspective, the swordfish represents a unique pelagic predator that has successfully bridged the gap from the warm surface waters to the rich food sources of the deep ocean (800 to 2,000 feet deep). We know, from our tagging work and earlier movement studies, that swordfish typically spend most of the daytime hours at depth below the thermocline, while the night is mainly spent near the surface. This movement pattern strategically places the swordfish in prime foraging habitat during all hours of the day.
At night the upper water column holds most of the available prey, with even the deep-dwelling species like jumbo squid and hake (two favored prey items of the swordfish) rising up from the depths to exploit the nutritional benefits of the upper mixed layer. At sunrise much of this prey retreats to the cold, dimly lit waters below the thermocline to reduce the risk of predation.
Deep ocean offers a place of refuge from most pelagic predators, as many species cannot tolerate the harsh environmental conditions experienced at depth (i.e., low oxygen concentrations and reduced water temperatures). For swordfish in Southern California, these depths range from 600 to over 2,000 feet, with water temperatures ranging from 42 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit and oxygen concentrations of less than 25 percent of that of the surface. The swordfish is one of the few large pelagic predators well adapted for this environment, able to withstand the entire day under these not-so-ideal conditions.
So, why do Southern California anglers often encounter swordfish basking at the surface? Surface basking is a behavior that is not well understood. From our tagging data, as well as conversations with knowledgeable sword fisherman, it seems that surface basking is likely related to two issues: digestion and internal body temperature.
Like most biological processes, digestion rates increase with increasing temperature. For example, a swordfish at 1,200 feet (42 degrees Fahrenheit) deep has a digestion rate that is approximately three-fold slower than that at the surface (68 degrees Fahrenheit). One hypothesis is that once a swordfish feeding at depth has filled its stomach, it moves towards the warm surface waters to bask and consequently speed up digestion. This would enable swordfish to process food faster and return to feeding sooner rather than later.
Similarly, we feel that reductions in core body temperature may also stimulate surface basking. The ingestion of cold prey at depth most likely decreases core body temperature, and, just like the digestive processes, this slows muscle con- tractions considerably. This is likely why swordfish just surfacing from the depths are often sluggish and uninterested in well-presented baits, yet very susceptible to harpooners.
These are working hypotheses that we are currently testing through the deployment of modified pop-off satellite transmitters that record internal body temperature. To read more about the swordfish and other PIER studies go to www.pier.org.
PIER is a non-profit 501(c)3 research institute dedicated to scientific research and the sustainable management of the marine environment. Special thanks are offered to Mr. Thomas Pfleger and the George T. Pfleger Foundation, Darryl Lewis and the Harris Foundation and all of the commercial fishermen that have helped us with this project.
