Best time to go??

[hunt4fish]

I fish out of MHC/Ocean Isle,NC I know most of you guys don't fish this area, but what time of yr.In your area do you fish and what is it your looking for when you go after swords?And will this play into factor where ever you are swording,or is does it play on more of a costal zone area?I hope this question makes since.

[whitey]

Structure,structure and structure. Oh did I mention bottom structure. Look for mountains in anywhere from 100 fathoms out with good water on it and you will increase your chances of catching swords.

We start seeing swords in the NE canyons in June but our best months are August to October.

[hunt4fish]

Thanks Whitey.

[Capt Jay]

Structure,structure and structure. Oh did I mention bottom structure. Look for mountains in anywhere from 100 fathoms out with good water on it and you will increase your chances of catching swords.

We start seeing swords in the NE canyons in June but our best months are August to October.

Thats all that had to be said.

[Deep C]

Down here is not mountains but rather countour along the edge. For us 900 feet is bare minimum to get serious for swords though some are caught all the way in shore by guys sailfishing in 150'.
More typical we try to get out 1300-1500 feet. Again off the edge where structure can cause some upwelling from the stream.
Our bite is basically year around but last year and this year it seems that May just isn't barfing up a whole lot of fish... My favorite time is on the rise of the moon or right at. More specific is that I really get a ton of bites either at first all dark o'clock or the absolute hottest few minutes seems to be when the moon is just breaking the horizon...

[Captain Fred Archer]

Yes, structure can be and is important, but I have found that I have the best daytime and night luck on the strongest temp/current breaks that I can find on the charts. Sometimes these relate to structure, sometimes they don't. Swords just love to chug along sharp breaks. Daytime bite time is invariably on the tide changes and that is pretty much the case for me on the night fish too.

The best part about fishing a strong temp/current break is that when it gets light, you are usually on pelagics of one kind or another.

I'm delighted to see them coming back on the east coast...great fish!

[Canyon Runner]

Up here in the Northeast while structure is of couse very very very important what you need more than anything is the right water to move into 100-500 fathoms. Down off south Florida those lucky guys always have the right water year round and therefore structure is all that matters.

Last year from late August thru the third week of September our crew fishing two boats caught 40 Swords with many nights of multi fish boated and more than three quarters were released as either small or undersized or we already had one in the boat and enough meat between all the tuna we were chunking and the sword already boated. Capt. Mark DeBlasio fought one large one for over 6 hours before losing it but other than that most of the keepers were in the 100-175 pound range.

Almost all the fish were caught at the 100-Square of the Hudson Canyon as the water and the fish hung right there. We eventually followed that water south along the edge and continued to pick swords out of it into October.

It was without a doubt our best year sword fishing in the canyons since the late 1970's when Capt. Phil Dulanie was doing trips and all they use to do at night was swordfish as chunking for tuna had not yet developed into a fishery.

[hunt4fish]

Thanks for all the replies,I really want to catch on of these this yr and al this info really helps.