My First Barrelfish (story)

[Uncle Buck]

Hey y'all... I posted this back in October of 2006. Hope ya get a kick out of the story. I had fun catching and writing it.
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It all started out as a case of insomnia. Or rather, a rare case of me waking up at 6:30am on a Sunday for no good reason. I had no plans, so I started gathering my gear. Since I was heading out by myself, I decided to try something unconventional. I grabbed my sword rods, sword tackle, sword squid, and... what's that leaning in the corner? The electric deep-drop rod. Yep, it's time to test it out. I haven't attempted a 'real' deep-dropping adventure just because, well... it's a lot of work, I had no clue what I was doing or where to go, and it's boring to everyone else but me.

Cleared Boynton inlet (boynton beach , FL) at 9am. Seas were a little bumpy running at 25kts on my 21ft Sailfish, but tolerable. And for those of you that know me well... YES, I yelled Yee-Haw! each time I "dried the prop". (where's a camera chase-boat when you need one?) An hour later, I arrived at my destination, 20-something nautical miles SSE of Boynton inlet.

Now, if y'all had been paying attention, ya might have noticed the few times I mentioned "sword" in that first paragraph... Yep, my goal was to try to catch a daytime swordfish. [this story was written a year and a half before the daytime craze started] There's only ONE other person I know that would even consider wasting time with this optimistic endevour... and his cell phone went directly to a FULL voicemail inbox. a'hem

Before you think I'm totally wacko, I did have some ballyhoo and trolling feathers ready to deploy. But, the run out to the sword grounds was clean. Really clean. Not a speck of sargasso, debris, party balloons... nothin. The seas were still choppy enough to hide the rips too. Heard several other folks on the horn reporting only a scattered weed line out 26nm... and nothing under it. So I set up my drift. Shot a sword-squid, tri-color LP Electrolume light, and 3-1/2 pounds of lead down from my bent-butt Tiagra 50w in 1300ft. (using 130lb hollowcore braid) 3.2kt North Gulfstream current, engine at idle forward, pointed south, and 3/4 of the spool out... no bottom. Set the drag, put out a 50ft deep squid on a balloon, and a ballyhoo flatlined from a spinner, and waited 1/2 an hour. Yeah, I was hoping for a stray mahi too.



Reeled up the deep bait. (it took about a song-and-a-half on the radio to bring it up) Perfect condition. So I dropped it again, as fast as it would go, with the boat idling into the current. Still no slack in 1200ft. Let it drift for another 20 minutes. Then decided to go shallow to increase my odds of "touchdown". Went in to ft of water. Nearing noon, the seas and winds were calming down quite a bit, which meant the drift would be slower with less "jig" from boat motion.

Sent the Tiagra down, and sure enough... touchdown! Waited. More line. Touchdown. Waited. More line. Touchdown. Waited. More line. Touchdown. Waited. (kinda like ANY team -vs- the Miami Dolphins) ...okay, time to reel it up. Song and a half later, the bait was chewed! Not a sword slash, but it was definitely a snack for something down there. I happened to look at the depth reading, and it was getting shallow quick. Waited to see what it was gonna do. Sure enough, within about a quarter mile it came up about 100ft from the average, dropped 50, rose 50, then dropped 100ft and leveled out. I BLINDLY found me some ft deep structure in the middle of the dang ocean! Yee-Haaw!

I setup ahead of "Buck's Humps" and fired the Tiagra down again. Hit bottom. Felt a lot of "thumps". Since I wasn't familiar with the "feel" of deep dropping, of course I thought I had a fish. Reeled it up with a clean bait. Dropped again for the second hump. Nothing. Kept trying a few more times. Nothing... but my baits were getting chewed. Ran south and dropped again. Hit bottom. A few seconds later, bam! Hmm, was that just bottom bouncing again? Reeled quick, and holy ! Sword rod nearly doubled over! I started cranking with some drag-pull at 25lb strike! Two or three songs later (and my arm about to fall off) the 'mystery' fish is still fighting it's way to the surface.



My thoughts after 10 minutes: "don't most deep dwellers bloat and die half way up from feet? Could it actually be a small swordfish?" Nope. Not that lucky...



Grabbed the gaff... put it in the boat.



I asked myself, "what the F is it?"

I answered, "looks like a cubera snapper with big eyes and the face of a permit. It's a... um... uh..." ...I had no friggin clue, but it was big and funky lookin... so I threw it on ice and went back to try it again. (yeah, insert another "yee-haw!" here)

Started ahead of the spot this time and fired down the Tiagra with another swordfish squid. Sure enough, bounced a few times on the top of the hump, and let line out as the depth increased. BAM! Another solid hit. A few songs later I put another, larger, mystery fish on ice. By this time, I was thinking how lucky these fish were to be bathing in ice... 'cause my right arm was feeling the burn.

So... out comes the electric reel, 5lb sash weight, and a make-shift 2-hook chicken rig. Blue LP Electrrolume this time. Set up at the start of my new "Buck's Humps" numbers, and also fired down the Tiagra again. (yes, more punishment) 1/2 way down, I rocketed the electric towards the bottom. (2 rigs on the bottom) They reached dirt at about the same time. As soon as the hump dropped off, both rods bounced. With one hand on the electric reel's switch and the other cranking the Tiagra, up came 2 more fish. This time it was another 'mystery' fish on the electric, and (thankfully) a little rosie on the Tiagra. Setup again. My right arm was spent, so only the electric went down. Over the first hump. Nothing. Over the second hump. Nothing. My new-found confidence was dwindling. Dragged another 500ft across the bottom after the second hump and BAM! Another 'mystery' fish on the deck, along with another rosie on the 2-hook chicken rig.

By now it was about 5:30pm and I was still 18-something miles from the marina. To be honest, the thought of an early evening of swordfishing DID cross my mind. But I was tired, hungry, and sore from the un-Godly amount of cranking on the reel from feet down. I still had no friggin clue what I had caught. Even the "phone a friend" option yielded no results. So, I took a few self-portraits (not easy to do without a tripod on the ocean) and headed in.







The dock office was closed by now, so I called a nearby friend to ask if he could bring some ice to the marina. Luckily, his buddy had worked as a mate on charter boats, and was happy to clean all the fish in exchange for one. I was too tired to deal with it anyway. The four mystery fish yielded 4 gallon-bags of clean, snapper-looking meat.

Once I got home, I started Google-ing. It took nearly an hour for me to positively identify what I had caught. Barrelfish. I searched for another hour trying to figure out if it was good, and more importantly, SAFE to eat. No solid results. I went to bed.

Got into work Monday morning and started doing some more research. I eventually discovered that it was "fine eating". The same article from 2001 stated that the world all-tackle record at that time was 16lbs. True or not, that really got me wondering, because my largest one weighed-in at 25lbs on my Rapala 50lb spring scale. More internet searches revealed no conclusive data about the world Barrelfish record.

Fast-Forward to March 19th, 2008... I am currently in the process of capturing an IGFA all-tackle World Record Barrelfish. The 130lb braid I was using for my first fish would have over-tested the 132lb all-tackle limit. Now, I'm using a Tiagra 16 loaded with 80lb braid... and am very close to nailing the all-tackle title. (more info to come as my endeavor continues)

[Uncle Buck]

Has anyone reeled-in 1,500ft of line on a Tiagra 16 with 10lbs of lead on the end??? Trust me... it sucks donky balls. The sword I cranked up from 1800 on a Penn 70VS was much easier!

[Uncle Buck]

My head is spinning! ...I'm all the way to "gunnel hugger" from... I can't remember! It's only been a few posts homie! The conveyor has gotta break sometime!... or let me alter my own description. And see what I come up with on my own. muwahahahah

[Jer]

Great report and really good self-portraits!

So how "fine" is the "eating"?

Good luck on your chase for the world record barrefish!

I like how you have your logo on the hat and rod

[merry marlin]

Nice spread of Barrels! wish I could be in bluewater like that right now...
MM

[WAHOONBOX]

WELL WELL WELL.................WHAT WE HAVE OURSELVES HERE IS AN OUTDOORS WRITER AND A GOOD ONE.....


MY RIGHT ARM FEELS THE PAIN AND I AM ONLY READING .....

I HAVE NEVER SEEN ONE OF THESE ANIMALS.........

I CAN'T WAIT TO LEARN ABOUT THE SWORDS....HELL, I CAN'T WAIT TO LEARN EVEN ABOUT GOGGLEYES OR PINFISH!

BRING IT ON BUCK AND THANKS FOR SHARIN YOUR WORLD

[reel fishy]

Has anyone reeled-in 1,500ft of line on a Tiagra 16 with 10lbs of lead on the end??? Trust me... it sucks donky balls. The sword I cranked up from 1800 on a Penn 70VS was much easier!

First of all welcome aboard. Deep dropping is so neat because you never know what will come up next. Some of those deep water fish have amazing flavor and texture. Ever get any scombrops? Those things have sick teeth! Thanks for the story!

15 years ago when I was younger and working on a private boat we did some time in Venezuela. Being the "youngster" onboard I was the grunt that cranked in all the lines from deep dropping for swords. The owner did a lot of short drifts and our average drop was 1200' 2 rods at a time. Over the years it never got any easier.

[Uncle Buck]

I haven't caught or heard of any scombrops in my area. I did hear rumor of a very elusive concentration of Monkfish off Fort Lauderdale. There are a few zones where Blueline Tiles are found, and some others where Goldens are caught. The area I deep-drop off of Lighthouse Point, FL holds a large number of Blackbelly Rosefish... but they're not caught often just 30 minutes north or south. Those deep-dwellers sure are funny about the places they choose to call home.

[whitecaps26]

Thanks for sharing Uncle Buck, pretty work! Keep it coming.

[Uncle Buck]

As far as the daytime deep-drop swordfishing goes... we're basically fishing 1,300-1,800ft bottom in the axis of the Gulfstream off Ft. Lauderdale. With currents often over 5kts, it can be a real chore keeping a bait near the bottom, even with 15lbs of weight. The current pushes a large belly into the line. We're typically dumping 2,200-2,500ft of braid off the reel per drop. ...with no electrical assistance on the retrieve. But that's just us. Many of the other "daytimers" are using big Kristals, Lindgren-Pittman S1200s, and Daiwa MP3000s. They're able to do several more drops per trip than we can, and therefore have had more success finding and landing some real monsters.

We usually include 4-5 sword deep-drops into a day of trolling for mahi and wahoo, just to mix things up a bit. The nighttime swordfishing in SE Florida is far more practical. We normally fish 5-6 rods, from the surface down to about 300ft. (as opposed to the single bait we send down during the day.) It's usually a swordfish-specific trip, unless we stumble upon some nice debris. I often keep a butterfly jig on a large spinner loaded with 65lb PowerPro for a chance at mahi or wahoo on the run out to the sword grounds.