[rastamon]

One of you guys had a great shot of a harpoon being tossed from a pulpit. I've seen tuna and swordfish stick boats and its a wonder,ent. Must be the most exciting kind of fishing.
Been meaning to ask, can you give me the 30 second tutorial on how you run the fish down and stick them.
It's really a fascinating thing to think about. Why the fish stay up and how you can get on top of them for a shot.

Bill

 

[Habjo]

It was along time ago when I did my swordfishing but I do remember when coming on a fish the most important thing was to maintain speed if you slowed up or sped up they were gone in a flash.And alot of the fish were deep the airplanes would drop die markers so you could find them.

The few tuna that we would stick were fish that came up close enough in a big pile of them and you picked whatever one you could hit.


habjo

 

[rastamon]

Thanks for the color. Wish someone would do a documentary on that like they did for dory fishing. Would be one **** of a show

 

[Frigate]

There are three reasons that swordfish are on the surface. First they are sunning themselves to warm their bodies up after hunting in deep cold water. Second to digest their food. Third to take a dump (with the pressure you know how hard it is to take a dump in 100 fathom or 200 fathoms). If you ever talk to an old swordfish harpooner ask him how many times they followed the brown trail to the fish.

As said above keep a constant speed and never approach the fish from directly behind. If you do the fish will think you are going to bite its tail off and the fish will be out of there. Always approach the fish so the fish can see you.

Swordfish have a very bad attitude. The harpooners would stick a few fish and put a man over in a dory to tend the stuck fish while the boat went on to stick more fish. It didn't take long before they had to put steel plates in the bottom of the dory's to stop the fish from attacking the dorys and sticking their bills through the bottom of the dorys. As larger swordfish come back in the northeast, it will be interesting to see how many boats get stuck by hooked swordfish.

 

[rastamon]

I worked on a headboat in the 60's & the captain told me he did it one season. They used to icepick the fish between the eyes as soon as it hit the deck. They missed one and it wound up in the cabin and tore the place apart. He said they were dangerous

 

[MakoMike]

One of the guys that hyangs out in the fisheries management section, screen name Twofinbluna is a commercial tuna stick boat guy.

 

[Habjo]

We very rarely saw to many fish up sunning with the sickle fin out of the water most were down 6-10 feet so without a plane you were not gonna do much business.

We were into a marathon fishing day had alot of gear in the water
it took till the wee hours to get all the fish back because the one thing we had on Georges was a **** lot a fog.And finding all the gear took alot longer. Well anyway I had left the last fish that we brought in still lying on the deck ungutted when another crew member came by and asked if he should gut and take care of this fish I said yes but be careful he's still alive and following us around with his eye.Well as soon as the guy went to kneel next to the fish the sword
swung his sword around and cut the guy a good one to the head right above the eye.He was really lucky it hadn't done more damage then it did. But even harpooning swordfish was a pretty dangerous game that year, there were two deaths in the fleet of people I knew. One skipper was killed when a green crew member put on a sash weight on a harpoon line that wasn't clear of the pulpit yet and the weight came around and hit the skipper in the temple and he died within a couple of days. The other was a pilot who was tracking a fish for his boat and flew into the sun and I guess he was blinded long enough to drive his plane right in the water the only things we found was a big dye mark and his checklist.A very sad sight indeed watching a young guy lose his life so quickly.We all called it an early day and all the planes went home after a lengthy search.So if being out for nearly a month and 360 miles from our dock didn't make you depressed that sure did.

habjo

 

[Brenainn]

Interesting,.. thanks for sharing!

 

[WaterAye]

Yes very interesting. Great thread.

 

[hauler]

I bought a video in Martha's Vineyard of a Swordfishing family out of Menemsha. The Mayhew's are the family and I believe the video is called, Striker's Pass.

To my knowledge they were the last swordfishing boat on the island who threw the stick. The video is more from a historical background and does not show any instructional but it's an interesting watch maybe a half hour or so. You probably can order it through you local library.

Here's an interesting link covering a story where they sticked 31 swordies on a trip:

http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2001/07/20/swordfish_landings.php

 

[ihavegills]

Check out Bluefin IV, charter here. Capt. Mike Potts as a kid flew with his mom to spot swords for his father and grand father. He could probably add some great info.