Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikey Mike
Re Soft Mouth Swordfish
Swords have no teeth and therefor swallow fast. Marlin have teeth and can bite and hold prey with them.
No teeth = soft mouth
Marlin can bite prey in half or strip enough scales from the tails of prey they can no longer swim to escape. No problem to spit it out and pick it back up.
Swords are gulpers.
Swords use their flat sword more than roundbill marlin to slash prey, then return and gulp.
Re Sword diet:
I understand they feed on humbolts where yer at. but consider they allso are very adapted to eat bottom dwellers. Since swords congregate near humbolts why not try a crab. Or find somthing humbolts dont eat? Small enough to gulp. Just think sword diet not humbolt diet. Maybe crabs or eels? I dunno.
Attack tactics. If yer fishing 1000 ft of water and humbolts are at 400ft then I bet swords attach from below. I would try my bait depth below the humbolts. I am not crazy about the free lined humbolt yer planning, with so much line out a belly could evolve and a strike missed. I bet yer hooked humbolt is too scared to swim close to other humbolts. I picture it swimmming down then back up,,not staying down.
Bait set wit heavy drag. I dont like it. prefer angler continues to hold rod or line in hand and continue to feed it out. Sword may slash,,let it,, when it is solid then up drag to strike, no need to set j hook or c hook with rod unless sword attacks close to boat....This method takes more concentration by angle but is way more productive when live baiting
Around Micronesia the longlinners use a purple glow stick. They say they still get swords but not a swarm of bait steeling bait fish that steels bait then draws swords away from hook when they scatter. They solved their problem by experimenting.
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I do not belive there is any difference in gulping marlin verses swordfish as they do not have any hands per say to grab and pull when chewing.
The marlin can head shake but the much larger billed and sharper swordfish bill can easily slash baits like humboldts as humboldts are very large up to 100 pounds.
Sword 50 mph humboldts 15 mph in schools of 1200 in congregations in the millions.
Check out this swordfish with humboldt out of it on the swords back.
You can see the bill whacks and head removed on the humboldt.
http://www.allcoast.com/discussion/postImages/16533.jpg
I am targeting the initial strike of the bill just like the very successful thresher shark tail whack also potentially resulting in being swallowed by swordfish.
The swords primary diet is humboldts here and where I fish them (usually 850') there is a wall of humboldts in the thousands if not millions at a certain depth (scattering layer)detictible on sonar so I match the hatch and fish the humboldts above the others so they will continually strive to join the others.
I have not seen a slack line yet but if I do they will get the lead but I like to give them the room to act as natural as possible
As far as bait selection I can tell you something I learned on accident long lining .
I set out all mackerel with 30 flying fish on long line set.
Every mackerel was gone with mostly makos and blues on the line and not one of the flying fish was touched.
As far as baiting swords on top basking there are remote control electric boats just large enough to keep a live mackerel in with water inside then hit the switch and deploy the bait right next to the sword and have an attached release clip to continue leading the bait but I have little interest in catching swords rather learning to catch many.
The humboldts are usually right at 900' and the water around that area usually falls much deeper.
So far they swim really hard and there has been no slack line yet as they school and know the best advantage they have is in the school not on the out side where they can easily get picked off.
The humboldts are where they are at depth(900') for a reason in the oxygen zone in the arms race to keep predators at bay.
The satellite tracking of swords & humboldts mirror each other at depth associated with the scattering layer.
When I looked at the super deep waters here and tracking of species and their affiliation with structure it clearly narrowed down the target zone when deep dropping for swords especially understanding swords main diet.
It really can not get much better than this as we can see where commercials fish and what swords are eating here and where they eating at.
Apply this to most other species we currently successfully hunt target and catch.
There is only so many things that have to be known to successfully catch other species and i belive i have clearly show those things(diet behavior and prey behavior associated with how to catch the prey and deploy it live in the target zone as well as where the target zone is and the research I have done is based in facts as far as the tracking is concerned and diet they are not a guess.
I will post two links late in another post that refer to the association of predator & prey at depth regarding swordfish I found i was not aware there was research in that area even though it's just a mention that is actually a fact as a result of the research regarding swordfish diet.
All the dots are connected here it's a matter of proving it now in my opinion.
Proving it locally regarding the century old effort to do this sport fishing in the largest swordfish pond.
The 4, rod & reels I usually deploy are monster AFTCO rollers UB-2 bent butts ATD80W set in the rod holders.
Just like all the Florida swords we leave them in the rod holders and reel for the fences the second we see any movement
and do not stop till the hook is deep in the bill from the bill whack to kill the bait usually results in the hook caught on the bill like a cork screw
then they run away when they feel the pressure freaking out and the hook slides down the bill and sets in front of the eyes in deep meat & bone.
They have a very similar bone structure to marlin a large bone structure in the head.
Check this link out.
http://static.newworldencyclopedia.o..._gladiusZZ.jpg
About that purple light stick.
I belive I understand the reason it does not congregate bait.
I have two 1500 watt quarts halogens I point straight down and one back when targeting makos at night to attract their attention with the generator noise and light.
I found the light till day break will generate plankton in mass starting the food chain bringing in tonnage of bait fish from anchovies to mackerel squid etc.
The purple chem light could be a very low watt rating resulting in poor visibility to smaller prey as there is a difference in predator & prey in light levels especially in how quickly predators can adjust to light changes compared to prey.
Re: So Cal Swordfishing
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