BY MERIT MCREA
SAN DIEGO– The first report in the hopper came in from Josh Billauer – second largest swordfish landed in the state, just a few pounds shy of the standing state record 520 pounder landed by Mason Karafa last October. Billauer’s fish weighs in at an astounding 492 pounds. Then a few days later Luc Ofield, proprietor of Angler’s Choice tackle in San Diego, lands a broadbill that would pull the scale down to a whopping 663.8 – eclipsing both by more than 100 pounds! All three fish came from the 9-Mile area in the final days of October.
Here’s Luc’s story. First he prefaces it with a basic battle description of previous swordfish captures he’s been a part of. Basically it’s days of relaxed drifting hoping for a bite, but he’s had surprising luck in the past. For example his first kill came after a bite just 10 minutes after his first drop on his first day’s effort.
And while he’s heard plenty of tails of epic battles, what he’d experienced so far was fish biting the bait, charging the surface carrying the 8- to 10-pound deep-drop weight to the top. This was followed by an hour or so tussling a fish on top and if fortunate, a dead fish through the gate.
He described a relaxed effort, kind of spur-of-the-moment, lazy start leaving the dock around 9 AM with gear deployed around 10. He and buddy Dave set out a pair of buoy rods, one drifting way out there and the second way, way out there, plus a pair of “tip rods” one bow and one stern. These tip-rods are usually the hot ones, Dave’s boat, his two – Luc gets the buoy rods.
A sea anchor is set out to slow the drift. Time to relax and plan what the heck they’re going to do if a bait gets bit – 2 guys, 4 rods, lines down a thousand feet with 8-pound leads and a sea anchor.
This leaves one of them to deal with whatever biter they get and the other to deal with hauling all that gear in and running the boat. So now they’re hanging out, kicking back on calm seas a few miles from shore – for hours – likely all day for nada but relaxation on the water with good company and hope in the heart. That’s the usual.
It’s about 2:20 when Dave screams out “Your buoy’s gone!” The game is afoot!
But this time it’s different, fish is dogging down under for a while as Dave does the gear dash pulling all that stuff in. By the time that’s done the fish has pealed like 1,000 yards. Luc’s down to his last 100 or 200 yards of line on his Tiagra 50W, previously filled with 130 Spectra and 300-pound fluoro with 11/0 Super Motu circle hooks.
The fish has popped to the surface and is way out west. Luc is strapped into stand-up gear. He says it’s the harness gear he’s fished the longest and it allows the angler to pull hardest of any other set-up short of a fighting chair. Luc’s tucked into the bow pulpit, Dave’s topsides on the wheel. They spend the first hour and a half getting line back on the reel.
At about 3 hours in the fish decides to charge the boat, they get that 8-pound weight off the line and the fish swims under the pulpit, then takes off for a huge run. So now it’s threatening to last into the dark and Luc bumps the drag to full. When that’s not enough, he has to pull the leaver back and twist on the drag setting before going back to full, first time he’s had to do that on a sword, but he has to do that a few more times.
The fish charges the boat a couple more times. Luc says the last 100 feet and leader was the hardest. The fish finally begins to circle. Gear is maxed, but he’s getting a foot or so per circle – better than 6 inches and giving that back each lap.
Well, they’ve got a pair of small make-shift flying gaffs and one hefty standard calcutta. Dave gets a flying gaff in the belly, that’s the way you do it, roll the fish over and it relaxes – hopefully. Now it’s after 7. They get a tail rope over huge fish’s massive tail. Guesses are like about 400 pounds at this point – big! But they have no idea.
It’s well after 8 when they finally give up ever getting it aboard the boat and end up tying it alongside – Old Man And The Sea style.
They have to haul it to the commercial hoist to get it into a truck, then over to the Marlin Club to weigh it. There the scale reads 442 but the fish’s head is still in the bed. They have to tie its bill to its tail because the fish is too long to get completely off the ground otherwise – 663.8.
