Southeast Swordfish Club Meeting Recap
September 28, 2004

What a great meeting! Bobby and Skip have been putting a lot of effort into these meetings to make them as entertaining as they are. For everyone that renewed their membership, we had t-shirts, coffee mugs, and stickers with the club logo on it.

Although the seas finally calmed, I thought we had a descent attendance with a few of the big names present such as Captain Bouncer and Captain Ron Schatman.

Drew spoke of his tournament coming up on October 25, the Darkside of the Moon Leg II.

Our guest speaker of the night was Captain Ron Schatman. The captain brings a vault of knowledge to the table regarding broadbills and wahoo! First he discussed chasing big swordfish. The world record broadbill caught in Chile was caught using heavy tackle (13/0 Double Hook Rig) and a big bonita. Ron explained if you want to catch big fish, you have to fish for big fish. The 400-pound plus fish are out there; we just need to tweak our tackle up a notch.

Captain Ron next went on to talk about Wahoo fishing mainly in the Bahamas. He explained what a great fishery we have over there. He went over rigs, amount of weight, speed, and more. I'm sure we are all anxious to get out and troll the edge sometime soon!

Captain Bouncer briefly told us how he used to troll for swords. This was just to keep him on the bottom he wanted. Don't try this without an autopilot!

Captain Bouncer is doing a Swordfishing Seminar at Dusky Sportcenter on October 14th.

Club Member Captain Dean Panos took a trip up to New York in search of some Tuna, Makos, and Swords. The captain rigged a squid South Florida Style and not too long after had a nice sword in the boat that went over 300lbs! Bobby pointed out to us the features of the fish that make it different than out Native fish here. The fish was very stout, proportioned throughout the whole body and packed some muscle. For the complete story click here.

Bobby and Skip plan to post news of a club tournament sometime after the Darkside Tournament.

The club is also looking for Donations to purchase Satellite Tags to track Swordfish. Once we raise enough money, we will have a few boats go out and put the tags on some of the bigger fish. The data will be priceless.

We are also planning to have one of our meetings in Miami where they have the world record swordfish hanging. Keep checking the website for the latest news.

We now have our own forums where you can post whatever you would like. The password for the forums is the same as that of the reporting. Give us a call if you need help.

Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to put in your fishing reports. We have over 250 fish/reports on the website. With the fishing being slow, these reports are very important!

We look forward to seeing you at the next meeting!

Sincerely,

RJ Boyle and Skip Smith
Southeast Swordfish Club