Daytime swords up North????

[giantfan]

Capt. Buffingtons thread reminded me of a question that I have been wanting to ask but never seem to remember when I am on the computer... I just didn't want to hijack his thread so I will ask you guys here.

Is anyone trying what they are doing down south with the deep dropping for the swords during the day in the northern canyons? I know the fish are in the area as we have been getting them at night but I never hear of anyone trying to deep drop during the day up here.

I don't have the equiptment to try but would like to know if anyone here has given it a shot and if so.... what was the result???

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Capt. Buffingtons thread reminded me of a question that I have been wanting to ask but never seem to remember when I am on the computer... I just didn't want to hijack his thread so I will ask you guys here.

Is anyone trying what they are doing down south with the deep dropping for the swords during the day in the northern canyons? I know the fish are in the area as we have been getting them at night but I never hear of anyone trying to deep drop during the day up here.

I don't have the equiptment to try but would like to know if anyone here has given it a shot and if so.... what was the result???

we catch them at night but I dont know anyone who has tried during the day. I have ideas on rigs but would really like to hear a tried and true rig and method. Not trying to hi-jack your thread Giant fan

Mike

[giantfan]

we catch them at night but I dont know anyone who has tried during the day. I have ideas on rigs but would really like to hear a tried and true rig and method. Not trying to hi-jack your thread Giant fan

Mike

No worries at all. Looks like were both looking for the same info.

[clt_capt]

There was a pretty good article in BGFJ a couple issues back about the Fla Daytime crowd... Might be the place to look...

These guys were 56 for 56 in day trips...(ie: 56 fish in 56 trips)

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Captain Archer also had a great write up on his bars in there as well. They did not address the issue of fishing multiple rods although they did have a tandem bait system for one reel, but it did look like a pita to keep untangled and god forbid you hook one with two 70' sections of 400lb 40' apart. I really want to know if you really need your bait 80+ feet from yout weight. It seemed like a clusterf%ck system but I'm new at this.

Mike

[giantfan]

I also saw something in one of this months magazines... sportfishing??? saltwater sportsmen??? which I haven't read yet about daytime deep dropping... I will check it out tonight when I get home and let you know if there is anything worth passing along in there.

[algdog]

Captain Archer also had a great write up on his bars in there as well. They did not address the issue of fishing multiple rods although they did have a tandem bait system for one reel, but it did look like a pita to keep untangled and god forbid you hook one with two 70' sections of 400lb 40' apart. I really want to know if you really need your bait 80+ feet from yout weight. It seemed like a clusterf%ck system but I'm new at this.

Mike

I thought the reason they did that down in florida was because of all of the current. I would hate to have to lower that in 1knt current, in the gulf stream I would think the current would keep that line from tangling up. if they let it out slow enough

[Captain Michael Buffington]

I thought the reason they did that down in florida was because of all of the current. I would hate to have to lower that in 1knt current, in the gulf stream I would think the current would keep that line from tangling up. if they let it out slow enough

but it seems to me the stronger the current the less tangles on the way down would be an issue.

Mike

[broadminded]

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.

[Double D]

Great writeup broadminded, but I have a few questions:

1. How much weight are you using?

2. Why not lighter line to the weight so it can break away easier? Does the weight break away when fighting the fish?

3. Why not let the boat drift with the current to get down easier and try to cover some ground?

Thanks