Swordfish Hunt --key largo

SHALLOW OR DEEP WE MAKE IT HAPPEN
Talk of a swordfish trip offshore on my open fisherman with Colby Uva and a few others on this site that showed interest developed and the possibility became reality on a day when exhaustion should of had me in bed early instead of steering through the backwaters of Key Largo to access Taverneir Creek and out to the deep blue in our search for deepwater swordfish.Were it not for the respect and admiration i have for Colby I would of cancelled this fishing trip because by mid afternoon my energy level was on the ground from work in the sun in 90 degree weather.I knew how excited Colby and Ray were about this trip and there youthful spirit pushed me to overlook my tired body in order to keep my word.Colby and Ray arrived at nightfall and we headed out of the intercoastal waterway south through shallow flat water guided by my navigational skills and ofcourse my trusty Garmin GPS chartplotter.As we carefully steered south and east from bouy to bouy all the time avoiding the dangerous shallows that could mean ruining $600 in propellers or worst $1500 lower units I kept telling the boys I must be crazy to be taking this voyage through waters I have never navigated before much less at night.The two young whipper snappers just don't understand like I do the danger of navigating in shallow water at night but there enthusiasm and youthful exuberence kept me charged and moving forward through mangroved canals & unknown waters as we cleared Tavenier Creek and headed offshore towards the calm blue water.The moon was high and a silver streak was at 12 oclock directly in front of us on a heading of 150 degrees to find 1100 feet of water.Earlier Colby bought the bait and rigs and had done his homework by picking the brain of world class Captain and angler Bouncer Smith and i trusted he would have the right stuff for this deep water fishing adventure.Sometimes the best results fall upon us when we fly by the seat of our pants and this was one of those times.The gas gauge nervously read three digital squares and i was not to happy that our late departure meant we would not be able to gas up for thye long ride offshore,,,,,,,what the heLL!!! I pushed the throttles forward to 4200 RPMs on the flat water and we raced forward to an unknown destination.At our first stop after running forty minutes the depth finder read 98 feet of water and I thought we might be in 300 feet allready but at night and exhauted reality gets warped and the horizon gets lost into the sea.I made it clear to the boys that we did not have enough gas to any further at 1100 feet and 22 miles offshore so we settled in I dozed off and Colby and Ray proceeded to set out the Shimano 50 wides and penn 12/0's to different depths.At about 4 am after a few soft hits Colby's 12/0 was on steady roll.I was in my slleping bag almost unwilling to get up for another false alarm but this hit was different ,it was the real thing.Like a real master Colby worked the the almost 7 foot sword to the side of the boat where Ray carefully grabbed its bill and swung the smallish swordfish into the boat .After a quick measurement confirmed we were legal for a harvest high fives ensued.Today I had a swordfish dinner --all I can say is WOW!!!
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!In the morning our plan was to troll home and finish the succesful trip with some dolphin and maybe some blackfin tuna but the lack of birds and very little sargassum would not make it possible.We had a great time and once again i proved to myself that sacrifice for friends is a sacred endevour with rich rewards.The first ever Swordfish on the "Shark Fever"Thanks Colby and thanks Ray for the opputunity & for trusting me to get you home safely

the bait

Colby and I with the swordfish

A proud angler and his catch

Colby and Ray all smiles


Weighing the swordfish and gassing up at Taverneir Creek marina