STUART — Swordfishing along the Treasure Coast is one of those advanced-level activities when it comes to fishing methods.
It's a far cry from sitting on an overturned bucket dangling a worm for specks with a bamboo cane pole. It's not like bouncing a one-ounce flare hawk jig at the Turning Basin for snook or tripletail. It's not even like casting 150 yards into the surf for whiting and pompano.
If successful, all of these endeavors can land a filet of fish on one's dinner table. Only if you land a swordfish — especially one the size landed off Stuart Monday, estimated to weigh over 500 pounds — well, those filets will end up on a whole lot more dinner tables.
How swordfishing is like tuna fishing
Bob Perimian of Rocky Point and Jeremy Peloquin have been watching the wind blow seemingly for months this winter. The two avid offshore anglers enjoy hitting the blue water outside the St. Lucie Inlet to catch popular fish such as cobia, wahoo, tilefish, dolphin and snapper.
However, rough seas through November, December and part of January have limited the number of trips the duo can enjoy.
When they can, they take Perimian's 42-foot Duffy Marta D offshore to troll, live bait or bottom fish for various fish they can bring back and eat. Monday, the plan was to fish for swordfish, which can be one of those more elusive catches. Sometimes anglers can fish all day for swordfish and not get one bite despite their best efforts.
"Our goal is usually just to catch dinner," said Perimian, who moved to Martin County from Boston, Massachusetts in 2021.
Perimian's experience has been fishing for giant bluefin tuna in the canyons off his home state. He's boated tuna that tipped scales at 500, 600 and even 900 pounds.
"Swordfish, pound for pound, are a tough fighting fish" compared to tuna, he said.
Monday morning, Perimian and Peloquin ran out to a spot off Jupiter Inlet in about 1,500 feet of water almost 20 miles off the beach. There, the Gulf Stream chugs northward at a nearly 3 knot clip. They drift fish for swordfish by deploying a bait — in this case, a squid — deep down.
"I usually drop it down to the bottom and crank it up maybe 100 feet," Perimian said. They deployed another line closer to the surface.
What happens when the line position changes?
Before midday, Perimian noticed the line wasn't in the right place.
"Jeremy asked me if the drift (of our boat) changed the angle of the line. When I told him it couldn't have, we started reeling in the line. What we saw with the line happens usually only with bigger swordfish," Perimian said. They engaged the Lindgren-Pittman electric reel and began taking up line.
Not long after that, the big fish came to the surface and jumped the first of four jumps. They knew then they had the biggest swordfish Perimian had ever hooked.
"I had only seen two or three bigger fish in the water. Those were on fishing trips to Australia in the 1990s for black marlin," Perimian said.
Perimian said he reeled it in with 35 pounds of drag, and had the fish up four times. They took the weight off the rig and still had about 400 feet of line they had to fight the fish. Two and half hours later, the giant broadbill had begun to tire and they were ready to bring it aboard.
When it was alongside, they slid a tail rope around it. They opened the boat's tuna door in the transom and used two block and tackles to help haul it onto the deck.
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Who wants fresh swordfish?
They spent Monday afternoon dividing up their catch for a widening list of friends in Stuart.
Perimian didn't have a way to weigh the swordfish. Using the weight calculation formula, the swordfish measured 138 inches overall — 98 from the lower jaw to the fork of the tail — and had a girth of 64 inches.
"It was a fat fish, too. It had fat all the way down its body to the tail, so it may have weighed more than 500 pounds," Perimian said. He thought it yielded about 350 pounds of meat. He plans to have Lighthouse Point-based marine artist RJ Boyle decorate the nearly 4-foot-long bill with artwork.
Swordfish info
Florida record: 612.75 pounds, Stephen Stanford, May 7, 1978, Key Largo
IGFA All Tackle world record: 1,182 pounds, Louis Marron, May 7, 1953, Chile
Florida regulations: Minimum size 47.5 inches lower jaw to fork of tail; Bag limit 1 per angler not to exceed 4 per vessel; Season open year round
Ed Killer produces fish stories for TCPalm. Email yours to ed.killer@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida anglers battle giant fish. How big was the swordfish?
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