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(Originally published November/December 2022)
By Bob Hoose
Late afternoon in early November, we were aboard my boat the Prospector deep-dropping for swordfish. We were fishing the edge of a canyon only four miles off Newport Harbor. Since the late 1970s, this canyon had always been a hot spot for the commercial harpoon fleet. Growing up in Newport Beach, we would regularly take our skiff out here and troll for Pacific bonito. In our travels, almost every trip we would spot a basking swordfish and call one of the stick boats over to harpoon the swordfish.
RIGHT: Grant Garrett wired to a deep drop swordfish. The AFTCO
harness helps put the pressure on the fish until the end game.
By late afternoon, my crew was starting to get bored drifting along watching our set of deep-drop buoys out on the windward side of the boat. Suddenly, I looked out and the short buoy was on its side – sitting motionless in the water. With 7 pounds of lead on the main line, the buoy sitting on its side can only mean one thing – swordfish bite!
I started winding in the 50-pound outfit and just felt a slow but steady pull as the line angle went from a 45 degrees to way out on the surface. That’s when all hell broke loose: An angry swordfish came flying out of the water slashing his sword back and forth in the air. We were tight to
