|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Latest News
|
|
Now what do we do? That is a great question for anybody swordfishing
in the Cayman Islands.
By Captain Bouncer
Traditional swordfish methods are to start fishing at sundown and expect action
to start as soon as you can see your lights on the water or in the water. Baits
would be deployed from 100 to 400 feet below the surface. Each bait would have
an electric light or chemical light about 10 to 30 feet from the bait. And the
bait of choice would be a 300 to 400 gram squid or a 1 to 2 pound bait fish.
The boat would drift with the wind and current and you hope a swordfish finds
your bait and eats it. This method works great off south Florida with it's 3
or 4 knot current, but may not be best for the Cayman Island waters with their
very slow current,.
In 1999, when I started swordfishing in round two, we also fished round one in
1977, we trolled down riggers. We rigged our two down riggers with 100 pound
braid and fished one bait 100 feet down and one bait about 150 feet down. We
added a third line with a one pound trolling lead 30 feet above the bait. With
what we know now we would also add a flat line bait. We used live frigate bonitos,
blue runners or goggle eyes as one possibility, we used split back mackerel,
small bonito, small tuna and frigate bonitos as our second option. And of course
rigged squid were always present. Today my first choice of bait would be a big
strip of mackerel, bonito or wahoo belly. Lights were used on all the lines just
like when drifting. We trolled at about 2 knots and worked from bottom structure
to bottom structure as the current swept us north. We had good luck, but we got
tired of steering all the time. In the Cayman Islands, this method would cover
a lot more area than drifting with the very slow currents.
Another method has caught on with some swordfish anglers. They are trolling at
4 to 7 knots with standard high speed marlin lures. Mold Craft all speeds seem
most popular. They are trolling two down riggers and two rigger baits and lights
must be very streamlined, so cyalume lights are the first choice. For best results
rig the lures with one hook at the very back of the skirt and one hook eighteen
inches behind the skirt. This method has been used a lot to locate concentrations
of fish and then use the slow trolling method for better hook up rates.
So we need one more methods to keep you thinking. Most of the biggest swordfish
caught off south Florida today are caught in the daytime. For years they have
been catching large numbers of swordfish off Venezuela in the daytime. Some of
the best Cayman Island swordfish have come before dark. So you need to fish for
swordfish during the day as well. Double hook any of the dead baits mentioned
in this article. Run your bait out 50 to 100 feet behind the boat and develop
a wax thread loop off your main line or 100 foot wind on leader. Tie 30 feet
of 20 pound mono to the wax thread loop and tie the other end to 10 to 12 pounds
of weight. Run this whole rig out behind the boat at 3 to 4 knots till you have
enough line out to reach the bottom in your location. Stop the boat and allow
your weight and bait to settle down to a vertical attitude. Locate the bottom
and raise your weight 10 to 30 feet above the bottom and watch for a bite as
you drift through the area. Swordfish tend to stay around 1400 to 2000 feet down
during the day. It may prove productive to fish that deep where the water is
even deeper off the Cayman Islands. If you fail ,to get any action, then you
gun the boat ahead and the weight will break off so you can retrieve your bait
a set up another attempt in a new spot.
I hope I can join you in a good conversation on how we can all catch more swordfish
when I get down to the Caymans this spring or when you pass through Miami any
time.
<< back
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
