Broadbill Records

BROADBILL RECORDS South Africans breaking ground in Kenya and Oman

The Du Plessis brothers — Calvin and Bobby — of Soolyman Charters have been doing incredibly well running charters in Kenya and Oman and have had some noteworthy catches of broadbill swordfish in recent months ...

By Bobby du Plessis I T has long been a burning passion of mine to catch an Arabian broadbill swordfish, with many a long dark night spent trolling and drifting off Fujairah as well as Muscat in Oman. For a long time I was left with headaches and heartache but no success.

Having seen the odd one caught by the commercial guys, I had no doubt that these fish must have come up from the rich waters further south off Muscat. After chatting to many fishermen over the years and hearing of confirmed sightings of broadbill basking on the surface, I just knew that these fish lived in our waters and that I had to catch them.

Those who know me personally will attest to the fact that I became obsessed with swordfish, living, breathing and incessantly talking about them in my quest to catch the

Richard Skinner and Bobby du Plessis with the first recreationally caught broadbill in Oman.

elusive Arabian sword.

Things started to change when I relocated my personal boat 160nm south from Fujairah UAE to Muscat, Oman. Fishing whenever I could and when mates were free and didn’t mind the scorching summer temps, we headed out night after night in search of my dream.

Trust me when I say we tried every possible method known to man in a bid to try and catch or at least see one of these mythical Muscat fish. We were most often rewarded with good size tuna on the broadbill trace at night with Richard Malyon accounting for the largest one on my boat to date weighing in at 101.3kg.

Never one to give up easily, the lack of a swordfish over the last few months just fueled my desire even more. Eventually when I got a few days free I decided I was going to find these things even if it was the last thing I did.

While out there drifting in complete darkness at stupid o’clock in the morning, one’s mind starts to run away and I started to question my sanity. I began talking to myself, singing, rigging and re-rigging in a bid to try and stay awake. It’s soul destroying to go out there night after night and fish perfect tackle and baits and not get a strike.

By 1.30am on 6 September we’d still had no strike. Disappointed, I went inside to check up on Veriza, my wife, and told myself that this quest was just a waste of time, effort and money. I was once again extemely grateful to have Veriza supporting me and my dream and always offering positive vibes to keep me going.

At 3.30am the rod bounced and went light. Wondering what had happened, I stared out into the blueness of my underwater lights and saw a big swordfish shoot into the lights, make a turn and then head back into the lights, sending flying fish and squid scattering in all directions. I saw my glow stick trailing behind the fish and I knew that it was the fish I had been looking for!

My good friend Richard Skinner did a great job on the rod, but unfortunately after two hours of back breaking work the hook pulled. Disappointed as we were, I was greatly consoled by the fact that we had finally confirmed a broadbill hook up. At 5.30am with the sky starting to turn grey as morning approached, I set up for one more drift before it was too late. The bait we used was a live horse mackerel on a single J-hook rig with 300 lb mono leader and a break away lead weight and green cylume light stick. The bait was lowered to approximately 300ft because my sounder showed all the baitfish were holding there, along with a few big marks which looked promising.

Not even ten minutes later we hooked up! Richard did a great job on the 50 lb stand-up rod and brought the fish to the boat within 45 minutes. Luckily by that time it was sufficiently light that we could see what we were doing and anticipate the fish’s next move while on the leader. With only three of us board that night we had our hands full. A special mention must go out to Veriza for taking the wheel and driving my boat really well to present the fish for me to both leader and gaff in a safe manner, and for also managing to record all the action on her phone. She is one badass woman and I’m truly lucky to have her by my side always.

There is no catch and release policy in Oman and I believe that I’m the first captain that has begun tagging billfish in the region with Billfish Foundation tags. This fish was kept due to its outstanding eating quality and I can assure you that nothing went to waste.

My sincere thanks to all who have been onboard Soolyman and were involved in this quest over the last few months. Only you guys and girls will ever know how special this fish and this moment is to me and the future of a viable Muscat swordfish sportfishery.

For further information on fishing around Oman contact Bobby on <soolymansportfishing@hotmail.com>. Calvin du Plessis with a 15kg broadbill swordfish tagged off Watamu, Kenya, and ready for release.

MEANWHILE IN KENYA ...

By Calvin du Plessis

KENYA has a much more well established broadbill sportfishery and catch-and-release as a policy is generally well supported. In 2018 I was greatly honoured to be judged top tagging captain in the Indian Ocean for broadbill swordfish for 2018 by The Billfish Foundation in Florida USA. I continue to tag and release as many swordfish as I can every season fishing on my boat Tega out of Watamu, Kenya. Recently I was involved in two recaptures of tagged broadbill which were very exciting.

On 29 January 2016 Allycat tagged an estimated 70kg broadbill off Watamu, Kenya. The same fish was then recaptured on 11 March 2019 by Esa Roivinen from Finland fishing on Tega with me. The fish was caught in exactly the same spot as it was originally tagged and was at large for a total of 1 137 days and grew an estimated 30kg.

The broadbill was caught during the daytime on the bottom in 1 500ft of water and took a dorado belly strip that was attached to 50 lb rod. Unfortunately it was hooked in the dorsal fin and came up dead.

The second recapture relates to a broadbill caught by Sheni Jacob off the North Kenya Banks on 29 November 2014 while fishing with me aboard Soolyman. It took a night time trolled softhead lure with a glow stick and squid strip. We estimated it at 15kg and tagged and released it.

The same broadbill was recaptured on 17 June 2019 by a commercial longline boat called Le Clipperton fishing off Reunion island. When it was recaptured the fish weighed 78kg after approximately five years at large. It had travelled about 1 400 nautical miles from its original tagged position.

It’s interesting to get such different results from tagged fish and gives us a lot to think about.