Swordfishing, round two

We headed out Saturday morning with Brendin Page, Zack Page, Johnny Gondol, Thomas Bishop, Kent Philips and myself on board to have another go around with sword fishing.

We skipped our usual trolling at the ledge and headed straight to deep water for some daytime dropping in roughly 1,700 feet of water. At these depths we can only fish one line at a time and we use about a 15 lb. weight to get the bait to the bottom. On the second drop, Brendin hooked up with something big. We strapped him in to the gimbal belt and harness and it was game on. For the first two hours it was a lot of give and take and then Brendin started to make some headway. As the battle ensued Brendin’s hands started cramping up and the next thing we know he started with the dry heaves and then was just straight up throwing up. Keep in mind he’s strapped to the rod and reel with a harness and he’s doing this all while trying to reel and fight the fish. I’m glad we have raw water wash down in the boat.

After about 4 hours, not only were his hands cramping but his legs were shaking uncontrollably and once again he started with the dry heaves. He lost his concentration and let the line slack just for a second and that’s all the fish needed to shake the hook. We all sat in disbelief that the fish was gone just like that. Brendin crumpled to the floor and asked for more water. The fight had taken us 14 miles from where we started and the sun was starting to set. We headed back to the same area to set up for some night fishing.

Things were pretty uneventful so we broke out the grill and cooked up some burgers. Brendin was the first to fall asleep and one by one everyone started to doze off until it was just Johnny and I working the lines. Around midnight I saw one of the rod tips shaking a little bit so I picked it up to check it out. It felt like something was just shaking the line until I felt a steady pull. I set the hook and it was fish on! It didn’t put up a big fight but Johnny had the gaff at the ready when the fish finally broke the water about 15 feet away. It was thrashing its head around with the bill sticking out of the water. I could see that it was a small swordfish but Johnny couldn’t quite make out what it was. As I reeled it closer to the boat I told him to get rid of the gaff and just grab his bill. In one motion he pulled the swordfish over the side into the boat. We high fived each other and started to hoot and holler, waking everyone else on the boat back up. We took a few pictures, measured it to confirm it was too small to keep and then revived it before sending it back down into the darkness.

Now everyone was wide awake and ready to go. We had three lines out when Brendin had something grab one of his baits and head straight for the bottom, peeling off probably close to 400 yards before slowing down. Unfortunately it pulled loose soon after. Not even ten minutes after resetting his line Brendin had another fish on. He fought it for about 15 minutes before he got it to the boat. In short order we had it gaffed, pictures taken, packed it in ice and got the lines back out.

About an hour later Brendin shouted out that there was a swordfish jumping near the front of the boat with a glow stick attached to the line and that everyone needed to start reeling to find out who was hooked up. Thomas came tight with the fish and set the hook. Fish on. After another 15 minute fight we had our second keeper swordfish in the boat. We set up for one last drift before it started getting light. We had one more fish on but lost him after just a few minutes. Fuel was now becoming an issue so we headed back into the ledge for a little bit of trolling before the long run in. We caught two bonita and lost a decent size mahi at boat side. Everyone was exhausted so we cleaned up the boat a little and broke out the bean bags. We had two swordfish on ice and released another. Not a bad trip. The ocean was calm so I throttled us up, cranked up the tunes and headed for the hill. No state record again but we didn’t really care because we had such a great time and it makes such a good excuse to go back again!

Sword Fishin'

We headed out last Wednesday at 6 a.m. with myself, the boys and one of their buddies in hopes of catching the state record swordfish. We caught one last year that would have made the books if our “light” man Thomas hadn’t fallen asleep when Zack had the fish boat side 3 hours into the 5 hour battle or if Zack had manned up and not passed the rod off to Zane at the end of the fight– but that’s a whole different story.

We stopped at the R3 Navy Tower and caught a bunch of bait and then we trolled the 10 or so miles to the ledge. Shortly after arriving at the ledge we had a rod go off and Brendin grabbed it as the line was screaming off the reel. Within seconds a sailfish jumped out of the water trying to shake the hook. Brendin took his time and finessed it to the boat and Zane grabbed its bill and pulled it into the boat for a few nice photos. Once released, we continued to troll the area when the rod next to me went off. I had a hard time getting it out of the rod holder because the drag was set so tight. Once I got it out we saw a “large” fish turn sideways in the spread and he pulled loose of my hook. It looked like it could have been a blue marlin as the fish appeared to be several hundred pounds but it never came out of the water for us to confirm what it was. After that it seemed like we couldn’t get away from the barracuda except for the occasional bonita.

We headed out to about 1400 feet of water and had a go at day dropping for swordfish. On the third drop, Brendin hardly had a chance to put the rod in the rod holder when the rod tip started to bounce. He picked up the rod and it doubled over and the fish on the other end started to take line. We got the gimbal belt and shoulder harness hooked up and after about ten minutes of fighting the fish (holding on) the line went slack - BIG FISH. After another ten minutes of reeling, the bait finally came to the top and apparently hadn’t been bitten. We are speculating that a sword attempted to swat at the bait and got tangled in the line for a short while.

As the sun faded we switched our tactics to night fishing under a bright ¾ moon. We could see lightning to the North and South of us but according to our radar the storms were each about 20 miles away and pretty much stationery. Brendin was working two lines and Zane was working one. Brendin had several hits but couldn’t seem to hook up until the third time. The fish wasn’t putting up much of a fight as he was bringing it to the boat and we weren’t sure what to expect. Zane then said he had a fish on as well. When Brendin’s fish came boat side we could see it was a small swordfish and Zack leaned over and grabbed its bill and brought it into the boat about the same time Zane brought a mahi into the boat. It was pretty exciting that we caught a swordfish and a mahi at the same time. Swordfish need to be 47 inches from the lower jaw to the fork of the tail and this one was a few inches shy. We took a few pictures and released it back into the dark.

After setting out the lines again we notice the wind had picked up and the storms seemed a little closer. A quick look at the satellite radar and we could see that the storms were growing in size as well as towards each other. I wanted to head deeper to try to avoid them but majority ruled and we headed back in toward the ledge figuring we would fish there once we got out of the way of the storms. Unfortunately the storms came together into one big storm and began to move in our direction. We wanted to head West and eventually we were going directly North to try and stay ahead of the storm. It was filled with lightning and the boys sat and watched the light show as we ran for about three hours until the storm slowed and I was able to pull back on the throttles.

We were now in 80 feet of water and didn’t have enough fuel to make it back to the hungry swordfish. We made the best of it and trolled around the R7 Navy Tower for a short while and picked up a nice king mackerel and a few more barracuda. We decided to call it a day and we were back to the house by noon. The only thing the boys could talk about for the next few days was planning the next trip to try for the state record, again.

And I thought my boat was big!!!!!!

Well, what would you say if someone offered you the chance to troll from Ft Lauderdale, FL to Hilton Head, SC ?

My two older sons and I had an opportunity to travel on a 68' Hatteras from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Hilton Head, SC. We skirted the Bahamas trolling the whole way and the only thing we caught were barracuda and lot's of them.. The only time we didn't troll was in the dead of night.

Once we reached the Florida Georgia border I made some suggestions to Captain Miles because we were now in the waters that we fish as Team X-TA-SEA. Just south of the South Ledge we started to pick up some mahi. We spent about two hours there and picked up 4 or 5 Mahi that were mixed in with the barracuda. We decided to high-speed troll towards the Deli before heading shallower to spend the night. Within 15 minutes we had a 32 lb wahoo and 23lb bull dolphin in the fishbox.

We then spent the night near a nearshore reef (we didn't have any of our coordinates). At 8:00 the next morning the first cobia we caught was undersized but the action picked up. I was only awake about 5 minutes when my first cobia came over the rail. We even sent up a kite and caught two cobia off the kite. There were lots of tiger sharks working the area with pods of cobia sticking close by. We managed to entice a few away from sharks using jigs. What a thrill it is to watch a cobia leave the pack and come chase down your jig!

We ended up the day with 11 keeper cobia and 5 undersized that were released. Yours truly caught the biggest cobia weighing exactly 65 lbs!

We had our lines in by 2:30 and finished our trip to Hilton Head with a loaded down fish box.

Captain Chris Page

Summers Heating Up!!!!

Dawn til Dusk Action. Big Slob Cobia with a Dolphin and Wahoo chaser.

Easter Egg Hunt, Team X-TA-SEA Style!!

The women in our lives were kind enough to let us go fishing on Easter Sunday.

We left the dock at 2:00 a.m. but the 4 to 5 footers made it a slow go and we didn't get to the ledge until 7:00. Upon arrival we found that we had the South ledge to ourselves. The water temp was 72.5 and there were numerous weed lines. We zig zagged our way along and caught dolphin as they launched there attacks on our baits from under the weed patches.

Once again we lost a wahoo lure that we were trolling sub surface with a 2lb trolling sinker. We were bit-off just above the wire leader and the fish didn't pull any drag in the process. Big wahoo?

As we trolled over the South ledge in the afternoon we managed to catch a black fin shortly before a large amberjack crashed the party and gave us a run for our money.

I noticed the temperature had risen to 79 degrees and the weed lines were no longer present. The bite had slowed so we figured we would fish the R3 navy tower for a little while on the way in.

The tower was swarming with cigar minnows, barracuda, amber jack and spade fish. I stood with a jig at the ready as we watched the fish come up and check out our boat. Suddenly I heard my son Zack shout "two cobia coming right at us". I flipped my jig in front of them and the larger cobia shot forward and slurped it in. Fish on! After a 35 minute battle of give and take and trying to keep the fish from breaking me off on the structure we were able to get a gaff in him and get him in the boat.

Still dripping with sweat I pointed the boat towards Wassaw Sound and started the long haul in as light was fading. We reached the dock around 9:30 and got back to the house around 10:00 only to find my wife had a wonderful Easter dinner waiting for everyone!

We ended up with a total of 18 dolphin (the two largest were nearly 30 lbs), 1 blackfin tuna, a large amberjack and a nearly 50 lb. cobia.

A happy Easter indeed!

WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April 10^th

The weather forecast was keeping us at the docks this Saturday with the forecast for isolated thunderstorms with damaging winds and large hail through Saturday night. We had hoped to run out and fish the ledge in the afternoon, spend the night and fish Sunday as well.

By 2:00 in the afternoon I didn’t see anything on the local forecast for Savannah that looked threatening so we left the dock at 4:00 and headed for the R8 Navy tower. We haled a sport fisher over the vhf that we saw coming in from the stream and they said the Triple ledge did well for them with two wahoo in the box.

I set a new heading for the Triple Ledge and pushed the throttles down for the 70 mile run. We had hoped to make it to the ledge in time for the evening wahoo bite but it was going to be close. We watched the sunset until it was completely gone and we were still nearly 6 miles from the ledge. I had forgotten that it would get darker earlier being so far East. The water temp was 72 degrees and Zack wanted me to stop so we could at least troll for a while before it was dark. I wanted us to be over structure at the ledge so we kept on as the light faded. The guys were more than ready to put out a spread when I finally pulled back on the throttles.

I figured we had enough time to make two passes over the ledge before it was just too dark. We had our six favorite ballyhoo rigs out as I bumped us up to about 8 knots when we made our first pass. The far outrigger on the port side sounded like a gun shot when it snapped out of the clip and the reel started screaming line. Brendin was closest and grabbed the rod out of the rod holder as we watched a sailfish grayhounding across our spread. Everyone scrambled to clear the other lines but it was too late. Three other lines went off and we had a major tangle. After the acrobatic show the sailfish was able to shake the hook. Everyone had to reel in at the same time to bring the tangle in. While all this was happening, the rod that Zane grabbed was still losing line at a quick pace. We got the tangle in the boat and I was able to turn the boat and help Zane with fighting his fish. It was now dark and we were slowly working the fish towards the boat. I grabbed the gaff while Brendin took the wheel. Zack leadered the fish while Kyle manned the spotlight. I swung with one motion and pulled a 35lb wahoo over the side as everyone started hootin’ and hollerin’. We only got one pass at the ledge but it was well worth the long run out.

We drifted over some good looking bottom as the green light hanging in the water lit up the underside of the boat. It didn’t take long for creatures of the night to show up. We first had some worm looking things swimming in the light followed by some fish that weren’t more than 2” long. Finally some squid showed up along with the flying fish. We netted a few squid and about 2 dozen flying fish for the live well. Off the bottom we caught a few vermillion and a few short big-eyes. We kept one vermillion from the cooler and stuck him in the live well also.

Running another dozen miles or so offshore Zane and Brendin prepared their swordfish rigs as we came to a stop in 1600 feet of water. As they deployed their rigs I went down below for a nap. What a nice touch to have Grateful Dead on the Sirius radio all night. I tossed and turned for a while when I heard Brendin and Zane shout “swordfish”. By the time I got top side Zack was standing at the ready with a gaff. While Brendin was slowly reeling in his vermillion they saw what they thought was a shark following the bait to the boat. Once it got into the green light they could see it was a swordfish but it wasn’t eating. It swam around for about 15 seconds and then sunk into the darkness. I went back down below to try and sleep a little more while the rest of the gang was pumped more than ever. Zane had a flying fish free lined on a light wire rig when the rod went off. They got me up again so we could chase and fight the fish that Zane had on a rod spooled with 15lb test. After an hour we had a shark boat side so we brought him in for a few pictures before releasing him back into the dark.

It was time to head back to the ledge and get ready for the morning bite. So much for my nap.

Once again we were trolling just as there was a hint of light on the horizon. I think it was our second pass of the morning when a fish hit and stripped line from the reel faster than I have ever seen. What an awesome sound! Again Brendin was first man to the rod. (I think he practices when no one is home) There were no other boats in sight but a large container ship way off in the distance. As we fought the fish, the container ship continued getting closer. After a lot of give and take we still had several hundred yards of line out when I realized the container ship was heading directly at us. I tried to turn the boat slowly and work the fish away but I ran out of time. I had to throttle up and get out of the way to keep from getting run over. As I did this more line peeled of the reel. Once we were at a safe distance Brendin feverishly fought the fish in hopes of keeping the container ship from cutting us off. Fortunately the fish was still on and we worked him to the boat for Zack’s quick gaff shot. What a hog. He was too big to fit in the fish box so we had to break out the fish bag and pack him in ice. What a great way to start the day!

Our greenhorn Chip Lewis did a great job his first trip and landed a Mahi Mahi and a wahoo. We thought the wahoo was a giant because we had a hard time working him to the boat. Once the fish got close enough we saw that after he got hooked he managed to wrap the line around his tail and was coming to the boat sideways.

Before our trip I painted a few cedar plugs and rigged them a little differently than you would find them at West Marine. I was anxious to try one out so I deployed it on the “shotgun” line about 250 yards behind the boat. I put the rod in a holder on the “tuna tower” and climbed back down to drive the boat. The nice thing about this shotgun line is that it doesn’t interfere the with the other lines that are running closer to the boat as I try to skirt along weed lines and rips. Everyone forgot about it until that wonderful sound of the clicker “screaming” at us. Kyle was quickest to climb to the tower and had the pleasure of fighting the fish that was probably 400 yards from the boat. We cleared the other lines and worked the fish to the boat. Everyone was guessing that it was another bonita until it got close enough to his colors. It was our first black fin of the day.

The fishing was hot and cold but the bonita were keeping us busy in between bites. We talked with other boats over the radio and it sounded like the black fin tuna bite was on fire about 15 miles south of us. We were low on fuel from sword fishing the night before so we couldn’t make the run south.

At the end of the day we ended up with 4 wahoo, 2 mahi, 1 black fin tuna and a few vermillion snapper in the box. We also jumped a sailfish and had a sword fish swim around our boat. The two larger wahoo bottomed out our 50lb scale and the other two were 35 and 24lbs. The larger mahi and the tuna weighed in at 14 lbs. The wind picked up in the afternoon as we started our long trip back to the hill in a choppy rolling swell. Sure wish I was able to “catch” that nap.

The Crew!!