The 4 anglers aboard the 35-foot CostaSV coronary heart console fishing boat Wound Tight left the boat dock near Biloxi, Mississippi, on Sunday at 5:45 a.m. They needed an early start to make an over two-hour, 130-mile run offshore to a specific deep-water spot that boat proprietor and captain Drew Alexander has fished sometimes.
Alexander and his crew zipped over flat seas on the blue fowl day with no wind and powered by 4 300-horsepower Mercury outboards.
“It’s my go-to spot for swordfish over the previous 4 years,” Alexander tells Exterior Life. “We acquired there a bit after 9 a.m., and there have been one other swordfishermen of their boats drifting throughout the deep trench.”
The place is well-known amongst Gulf Coast swordfishermen, he says. Nevertheless there’s a great deal of room there for everyone, because of the prime spot is about 4 miles massive. There’s 1,100 toes of water on the extreme side of the ditch, and it drops off to 1,600 toes on the deep side.
“The water was clear, and we quickly prepare two deep swordfish type out outfits and commenced drifting using rigged squid baits,” says the 40-year-old D’ieverbille native and proprietor of ALJ Maintenance agency. “I’ve almost certainly caught 100 [daytime] swordfish there over the previous for years. There’s loads of bait, and a pleasing current washing off the shallow side of the ditch that swordfish love.”
They solely drifted 10 minutes sooner than one amongst their baits acquired crushed by a giant swordfish.
“Smaller swords under about 150 kilos sometimes dally spherical with a bait and it is a should to finesse them to hit,” Alexander acknowledged. “Nevertheless this fish merely smashed a squid rigged with a ten/0 J-hook.”
Crew member Capt. Tanner Noakley acquired to the rod and began a rugged two-hour battle using stand-up type out to ship the swordfish topside. He used a custom-built heavy rod with a Shimano Talica 50 reel spooled with 65-pound test braided line. The wind-on chief was 100 toes of 300-pound test fluorocarbon line.
Rapidly after Noakley settled into stopping what they believed was an unlimited swordfish, the second baited outfit they’d out acquired struck and one different big fish was on. The anglers rapidly figured the second fish was a shark — one which precipitated loads of points as they tried to cease them from tangling. Alexander and Noakley labored feverishly to maneuver the boat and the swordfish to take care of them from fouling with the hooked shark.
Fortunately, says Alexander, the shark lastly decrease the heavy mono chief and disappeared. That allowed Alexander to utilize his boat to help Noakley get the swordfish topside.
“Nevertheless the sword saved diving as rapidly as he’d get it near the ground,” Alexander acknowledged. “I really feel he raised the sword thrice. Then it lastly drained and we acquired it close to gaff.
Eric McNally (the author’s son) gaffed the swordfish throughout the head, and crew member Shane Shepard used a second gaff to manage the tail.
“The swordfish was carried out and they also pulled it alongside our boat,” Alexander outlined. “We took a minute to relax and decide how we’d get it into the boat.”
Rapidly thereafter the crew hauled the swordfish aboard the Wound Tight, then stowed it in an insulated fish bag, filled with ice to take care of it modern.
“As rapidly as we acquired the swordfish aboard, it disgorged its stomach,” Alexander acknowledged. “There ought to have been 10 kilos or further of squid, baitfish, bones and liquid that received right here out that fish. It moreover misplaced loads of blood inside my boat from gaffing.”
The fishermen headed home to Biloxi at 2 p.m., racing to get once more to a marina to have the fish weighed sooner than 5 p.m., when most coastal corporations shut for the day.
They phoned mates and marinas throughout the area nevertheless couldn’t discover a licensed scale big enough to weigh the fish.
“I’ve a scale and one other areas did, too, nevertheless they solely went to 250 kilos,” Alexander says. “We lastly headed over to Marine Mart in Ocean Springs, which is on the water, and they also have a giant and good scale — nonetheless it was out of certification.”
In entrance of a large group of people on the marina, their swordfish weighed 305.6 kilos. It measured 135 inches prolonged complete, with a 46-inch girth.
It was merely shy of the current Mississippi report swordfish, which weighed 309 kilos 14 ounces and was caught in June 2021 by Donnie Jackson Jr.
Alexander and his crew take into account that their billfish might have been a contender for the state report correct out of the water, nevertheless with no licensed weight, they’ll not at all know. He had the swordfish inked on a cloth throughout the typical Gyotaku method.
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“It’s motive to return offshore and catch one different one,” says Alexander good-naturedly. “I’ll be certain to [line up] a licensed scale that’s big enough to weigh regardless of we catch.”