Daytime swords up North????

[Captain Michael Buffington]

I live in south Florida and do quite a bit of daytime swordfishing. I cant explain the whole rig right now simply because it would be easier with a drawing. It is not a complicated way to fish. We usually fish 3 baits on one rod. each bait is on a 50 foot branch of 400lb. Not everyone fishes multiple baits. I have actually had most of my sucess on the bottom bait, what im getting at is that the three bait rig is not necessary to catch fish. The reason for having the weight so far away from the bait is becaus snagging the bottom was a big problem when people started the whole daytime thing. We fish our mainline to a 200 ft. , 400lb. windon to a 3 way swivel. On the bottom of the swivel we attach about a 50ft. section of 60lb test. This way there is a weak link that will break rather than loosing a whole rig. Idealy, the weight would be on or close to the bottom, and the baits would be above the bottom. This way, if the weight gets caught, then the 60lb. would break and you would loose your wheight, but you would still have the rest of your rig. When fishing 3 baits we have a few hundred in tackle 2300 ft down there between bait lights hooks wheights and line. I have snagged bottom before and it is not fun. If there is not a weak link in the rig, then you cold potentially loose 3 lights 3 baits 3 hooks a weight and all of your mainline. loosing all of the mainlie is not only expensive, but usually it ends your day. We run about 18 miles to the sword grounds and it really sucks when your day of fishing ends early... I imagine you all have a much longer run wich would make a bad day feel worse.
I am not sure how much current you all fishin but we have to deal with current ranging from 3 to almost 5 kts. We do about 45 minutes to an hour per drop. Holding the boat in to the current as well as we can, it is inevitable that with the ammount of current we have we will always drift north of our spot but I personally think that fishing an area is more important than one single spot. So hold the boat in to the current and bump it in and out of gear. Slowly drop the rig down till you think you feel the bottom. It is important to drop the rig slowly because if it drops to fast the branch lines with the baits will tangle in the main line. I figure we drop about 150 ft per minute. It usualy take about 15 minutes to get down to 1850 ft. With our current we have about 2350ft of line out when we are 1800 ft down. Feeling the bottom is very hard. When you feel like your getting close to the bottom you have to drop a bit fast and stop it fast. keep doing this until you see the line go slack and the rod tip straighten out. Then pick up a bit of line, 20 ft or so, to eliminae some of the belly and get the rig off the bottom so you dont snag. Then once you are confident you are on the bottom you will be letting line out and reeling line up to try and stay as close to the bottom as you can. Now it is a waiting game. One guy holds the boat, and one guy mans the rod. Give it about 20 minutes of bottom time. While the rod is on the bottom there are 2 tell tale signs of a bite, 1) the rod tip starts bouncing ever so slightly, or 2) the whole line goes slack. In either of the 2 scenarios you must try as fast as you can to get tight on the fish. The second of the scenarios happens when the fish fights the weight and runs for the surface. Belive it or not we have been fishing and seen a fish on the surface south of us and we didnt even know we were hooekd up. It is very hard to predict where the line actually is in this situation, the fish is down current of us, the line looks as is it is up current of us because of the belly, what we do is head at a 90 degree angle away from the fish as to try and get the line out from under the wheels while still using the boat to help us get tight as fast as possible.

If I were going to go out and try this for the first time all over again I would keep it very simple. Mainline 150lb dacron to a windon leader, to a 3 way swivel. On the horizontal branch of the 3 way crimp a 40 ft. section of 400lb, with a riged squid on the end. On the downward leg of the swivel, attach a proper size lead on a 40 ft. section 60 lb. I have caught many fish on the single bait rig.

I hope this helps.

thankyou very much! I'll try it this weekend if all goes to plan.

Mike

[broadminded]

Depending on the conditions I will uce between 14 and 22 lbs of weight. More weight for more current, and less weight for less current. Most people think I go over board by using up to 20 lbs of weight but I like it. Anythign lighter than 50lb line on the weight will break of upon retrival in the current we have. Also the two types of bottom structure we fish is rock and mud. When fishing in the mud, the weight can sink in to the mud, the heavier line allows the weight to be pulled out of the mud. If the weight breaks off when your on the bottom and your holding the boat, the belly will be pushed by the current which will eventually bring the rig way off the bottom. The drifiting idea has worked for us, the problem is that it is hard to hold bottom while drifting with the diffrent currents at diffrent dephts. Some times if we have nto had a bit 20 min in to the drop, we will accelerate down current of the bait, and then once we think we are down current of where the bait is, we will drift. While drifiting, you will need to pick up line as you approach the bait from the down current side. You will notice the line geting slack as you aproach the baits aproximate location, and once you pas the point hwere youthink you are straight up and down on the bait, you will need to let out line to stay close to the bottom. This is tricky because the weight will drift slower than the boat with diffrent currents fighting eachother below. You cant drift for too long because he angle of the line will eventually allow the hooks to snag bottom which makes for a bad time. I would guess that when we try the drift, we drift off the spot for about 10 - 15 minutes.
Some times we have had the weight break off while fighting the fish but most of the time it stays on.

Im not saying this is the only way to fish because I know plenty of guys fishing similar rigs and more guys fishing much diffrent rigs, but this is the metohd I choose because I have had the most sucess with it.

Good luck this weekend let me know how you guys do, and if you have any more questions I will do my best to answer.

[giantfan]

Great info Broadminded.... thank you very much.

I don't have the equipment to do this just yet but I plan on getting a couple of new outfits this winter and this is one set-up that I am toying with.... What are you using for rod and reel?

[broadminded]

Penn international II 80w with an electramate motor. I love the setup.

[bigg09]

Myself along with Randy Morton and his son have been fishing for them in the Norfolk Canyon and south of the Cigar off Virginia Beach since 2006. Along with Vic Gaspeny and David Peck (captain of the Skiligal out of Oregon Inlet who is now offering daytime swordfishing charters). David and Vic fish with the guys out of Bud 'n Mary's. Prior to fishing with thes two guys, we landed a double header and since then we have landed approximately 8 more fish and hooked dozens more. We have landed about 10 fish during the daytime and had some days with up to 7-8 bites and several fish jumping on the surface. We have had success approximately 50-70% of the trips we have tried and more consistent in the fall and early winter off of the virginia coast. late summer and early spring seems to have been inconsistent if we don't have any water or breaks around. If the fish are around you can catch them in the daytime. It works up here. the season is a little different than down south but i am sure they are here pretty much year round with better numbers depending on the bait and eddies out of the stream. We were the boat that had two articles online in sportfishing magazine. Casey

BTW, there is no need for an electric reel if the rig is done right with a concrete breakaway and does not take any longer to fish or reel in. We have caught all of our fish with tiagra 80w manual reels. there is a video on youtube of the rig that Bud 'N mary's uses that will give you a great start.

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Myself along with Randy Morton and his son have been fishing for them in the Norfolk Canyon and south of the Cigar off Virginia Beach since 2006. Along with Vic Gaspeny and David Peck (captain of the Skiligal out of Oregon Inlet who is now offering daytime swordfishing charters). David and Vic fish with the guys out of Bud 'n Mary's. Prior to fishing with thes two guys, we landed a double header and since then we have landed approximately 8 more fish and hooked dozens more. We have landed about 10 fish during the daytime and had some days with up to 7-8 bites and several fish jumping on the surface. We have had success approximately 50-70% of the trips we have tried and more consistent in the fall and early winter off of the virginia coast. late summer and early spring seems to have been inconsistent if we don't have any water or breaks around. If the fish are around you can catch them in the daytime. It works up here. the season is a little different than down south but i am sure they are here pretty much year round with better numbers depending on the bait and eddies out of the stream. We were the boat that had two articles online in sportfishing magazine. Casey

BTW, there is no need for an electric reel if the rig is done right with a concrete breakaway and does not take any longer to fish or reel in. We have caught all of our fish with tiagra 80w manual reels. there is a video on youtube of the rig that Bud 'N mary's uses that will give you a great start.

and haven't found it. Could someone please post a link to it?

Mike

[sportfishingusa]

HERE IT IS BRO...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDJqc...ayer_embedded.

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Vinnie...