lots of broadbills no bites

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Carlos,

Here is my favorite swordfish bait. In this case, it's a giant calamar (squid) tentacle - not too big, so the fish don't slash at them to cut them up, which they will do to a bigger bait. That's how too many swords are missed or foul hooked and lost. I'm sure that pulpo (octopus) would work just as well. Give it a good try. Es muy bueno, amigo.

Buenas Suerte!

Website www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com

are you pitching that bait at fish you see or deep dropping that bait Fred? Do you always use the circle. I have missed fish the few times I have tried circle hooks for swordfish and most of my friends use j hooks. Why do you fish circles? Thanks!

Mike

[Captain Fred Archer]

Mike,

That's a night or deep drop bait and a very, very good one. We use a DEAD caballito (goggleye) or Pacific mackerel hooked and rigged very securely for the daytime fish. Put as simply as possible, we don't pitch to daytime fish, like a lot of people do and I used to and like most of them, I never caught one that way. When I went down to Cabo I had the wonderful good luck of becoming very good friends with two captains from Mazatlan, where there is a long and very successful tradition of catching daytime swords. They were Captains Thomas Duran and Jose Lopez. They taught me the secrets of what I came to call "The Mazatlan technique" and we started having a very good hookup and catch ratio on Elvis, starting the first time that Thomas and I fished together, when we caught two of them on one tide, right in front of Cabo a few miles!

It's too much to go into here, but there is a very precise system of tracking, watching, and "reading" the fish before presenting the bait to him the right way. PM me with an email addy and I'll send you a daytime swordy book with my compliments. It's all in there.

One last thing...anywhere where there used to be a stickboat fishery before the swords basically got wiped out is a good candidate for daytime swords now that they are on the comeback trail. But one thing is for sure, if you don't expect to see a finner and you aren't looking hard for one, you'll drive by a hundred of them without noticing a one of them. They usually don't "fin" in a big show. It's usually a subtle show and often what looks like a little guy or a small shark to the naked eye turns out to be a big, old she fish. As much as I did it, to me at least, just about every one I ever spotted and then we caught looked like it was maybe fifty pounds when it was finning, but the average Cabo fish was about two hundred on up to one unimaginably huge, 3 1/2 hour fish on 130 that we busted off dead at the boat. I baited that fish and both me and Captain Bobby Dobson, who was driving, knew that it was a monster because it looked like a monster, right from the get-go. A very sad day. We killed her, then wasted her because of a slip at the wheel. I have regretted that last part ever since that day and wished that she hadn't bitten or that I missed her.

Daytime swordfish are a blast and a half. All kinds of time and pent-up excitement as you virtually stalk the fish; they swim in a tight circle when they first come up because their pupils are dilated and they are virtually blind until they adjust to the light and that way their sword is ready for a mako attack if one comes. You'll only snag one if you toss a bait inside that circle and most snagged swordfish pull off. Makos are their greatest natural enemy, so nature has that sword ready in case one tries to jump one at that time. Then you stalk her and watch for the signs that she's getting ready to go back down (that's when they bite), you present the bait and if you do it right, you get to watch her light up, charge, and wolf it down.

This reminds me of watching a huge whitetail buck taking his time coming within shooting range of your tree from a long ways off. To me, fighting buck fever and forcing myself to stay calm while my mind is screaming, "Jezzum! Looka the size of that sucker! PULLEEZE, keep coming! Oh, Jezzum, breath, but quietly." And the time crawls slowly by and the world stops while I wait for the right shot at the right time is the same sort of thing emotionally. When it finally happens and you can let the emotions flow, it's hoopin' and hollerin' time!

Goodgoshamighty, I gotta go lay down! Purple Fever Strikes Again!

Oh, the circle hooks. I used them for the simplest and most logical reason - I had far more success at both mouth hooking, a key to actually catching swords as opposed to snagging them on J's, and landing them with the circles - far more. Big, non-offset, longliner circles bridled to quite small, tough baits, like giant squid mantle fillets cut down to 8-10" and the tentacle bait that started this off. I learned the small bait thing from one of the greatest swordfish captains of them all, Skip Smith. He gets the credit for that trick. (One thing that I am not guilty of is not listening to my peers and not trying what they tried to teach me. That has been a huge help to me and they are among the things that I try to pass on to others.) I usually run the fillets and tentacles under cut down hollow squid skirts.

Hope this helps you beat up on Elvis, but I warn you, if you or anyone else reading this hasn't caught his first one yet, beware of Purple Fever, 'cause it's addictive as hell and you'll catch it sure as all get out!

(Take a good look at the drawing on the book cover, especially the bait. That's a "Cabby" and that's how we rig them. It looks alive, but it is fresh dead.)

OH LORD, HERE SHE COMES!

Website www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com