Broadbill Swordfish — Daniel Paull

xiphias gladius THE MIGHTY BROADBILL SWORDFISH

Daniel Paull tells of the quest with his father Mason .....

Some say that the pen is mightier than the sword. The evolution of resolving conflict through communication and literature is a trait that mankind has developed exceedingly well since the beginning of our existence on Earth. In the much more primitive animal kingdom however, survival is determined by those biologically equipped with weapons to attack, defend and more importantly, to feed. The ocean, perhaps the most harsh and unforgiving of all environments on the planet, is the domain of many fearsome predators. Below the surface and lurking in the deep, dark abyss lives a creature with one of the greatest weapons of all, xiphias gladius, the broadbill swordfish.

Adequately named due to the massive broadsword like bill protruding from the upper jaw of the animal, the swordfish is a fine example of evolution in the natural world. Throughout history, this mysterious fish has captured the imaginations of anglers around the globe.

To many, including myself, the swordfish is rightfully regarded as the mightiest of all pelagic fish. Since the beginning of the year Dad and I have managed to catch, tag and release a further three of these majestic creatures, two of which have probably been our biggest swordfish to date.

Friday 19 April 2019

After six full days of deep dropping spanning back to early March without a single bite from an elusive broadbill, we became connected to something living in the deep during the early hours of Friday morning while fishing the Easter tournament held annually by the Gamefishing Club of Northern Tasmania. While bobbing around out off St. Helens, our brand new Shimano ‘Hyper’ game rod bent over in the gunwale and we were finally on! Following a very brief tussle, www.tasfish.com - Get the knowledge - Get the fish.

the 130lb monofilament line extending from the Talica 50 went slack and it was suddenly all over. We were devastated! You don’t get too many chances at catching a swordfish these days so you’ve got to make sure they remain connected!

Soon after sending our second bait into the abyss on the Talica/Hyper combination, we found ourselves once again hooked up after only a few minutes. This time it was a solid hook-up, or so we thought. Half an hour passed and the fish, of a substantional size, managed to dislodge the circle hook no more than thirty metres under the boat. What was going on? Had we become complacent and rusty with our technique? The mind certainly wonders about such things but confidence is The mightiest of all about to be released.

king in any form of fishing and it was important for us to keep plugging away at it. Surely we wouldn’t lose a third fish? That was our last bite for the day.

Saturday 20 April 2019

Saturday, the last day of the competition, brought with it uncomfortable conditions. With only two 130lb outfits onboard, we’d restricted ourselves from pursuing any other species of fish, it was swordfish or bust! On our fourth drop for the day, the Hyper buckled over once again. This time we were officially tight to something big! The circle hook, pinned perfectly in the corner of the jaw, was never going to let go.

After strapping into the harness and fighting the beast for a little over two hours in some fairly inclement conditions, we finally had a beautiful big swordfish beside the boat and ready for release. A magnificent fish it was too, lit up in pearlescent blue in the afternoon sunlight. At that point in time it was one of our biggest swordfish to date. As usual, a few quick photographs were taken and the fish was soon released back into the blue. Little did we know our season was about to get even more interesting with a much bigger fish set to cross our path later on in May! www.tasfish.com - Get the knowledge - Get the fish.

Wednesday 8 May 2019

With a tiny window of weather finally opening up in early May, we snuck out off St. Helens once again in search of our third swordfish for the year. Driving out to St. Helens Point with the boat in tow, we were greeted with some beautiful weather. There isn’t a better sight for keen sword fishermen and fisherwomen than the views of calm weather and cloudless skies! Upon launching the boat from the Burns Bay ramp, anticipation levels were high and we were expecting a productive day on the water.

After a quick ride out to the continental shelf, our first bait was dropped over the side and into the deep. During its descent to the sea floor, the bait was struck and we were suddenly connected to a fish of some description. After feeling a little bit of drag pressure from the Talica however, the fish shot straight to the surface, jumped and spat the hook. Could it have been a swordfish? Or was it a shark of some sort? It was too far away to get a positive identification. It was certainly an interesting start to the day though!

While we finished off eating a box of biccies during our third drop for the day, the Talica/Hyper combination once again folded over in the gunwale and we’d become tight with something massive! Line began to slowly creep off the Talica. We calmly and effectively prepared for battle like the late Robert Shaw and his portrayal of ‘Quint’ from the iconic movie Jaws. Clipping the harness to the lugs on the reel was reminiscent of the scene where Shaw prepares to do battle with the mighty shark. Who hasn’t seen Jaws, right? You know what I mean! After slowly pushing the drag lever up to strike, allowing the circle hook to roll right into the sweet spot, the fight had begun. The denizen of the deep felt the pressure of the diminutive yet powerful Talica and began swimming up the water column to toward the surface.

The great fish reached the surface fairly casually but never jumped or showed itself in any shape or form. Inching closer to the leader, the animal decided to return downstairs and that’s where it stayed for the next few hours! Swordfish are notoriously stubborn. This beast wasn’t going to give up without breaking the angler first! A gruelling and exhausting battle lasting well over four hours followed. After finally gaining those all important last few meters of line back onto the reel, we soon had our biggest ever broadbill beside the boat.

As we removed our trusty circle hook from the fish, once again perfectly pinned in the scissor of the jaw, we discovered a commercial longline hook firmly imbedded in the opposing side of the jaw with a heap of heavy line trailing behind it. It was a fair indication that this mighty animal had come into human contact once before! After we cut and removed all the line trailing underneath the fish, we set it free back into the deep. While catching our breath and preparing to head for home, the massive fish appeared on the depth sounder, powering back into the deep to continue plundering longlines and destroying gear! As predicted, it was a great day on the water and after such an epic battle it was time to return to St. Helens for a beer or two!

Chasing the elusive swordfish is a game of of dedication, patience and sacrifice. With so many great species of fish to chase here in Tasmania, it can become pretty frustrating spending so much time and effort into targeting the one beast. Through time and effort however comes great reward. There aren’t too many things better than watching that impressive bill pierce through the surface for the first time.

So, some say the pen is mightier than the sword. In the deep and unforgiving oceans around the world, none come any mightier than the elusive broadbill swordfish. Daniel Paull

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Adrain Webb tells his story about - hard to get to streams.

Iwas sitting quietly, going through some photos that I have taken over the years I’ve spent trout fishing rivers, streams and creeks around Tasmania. They number around 22,000 since moving here back in March 2000. I know that most trout fishers who fish rivers normally go to the more open accessible areas and rarely try the more difficult hard to get to little rivers,streams and creeks that are quite plentiful in Tasmania. The majority of these little waters run into the larger rivers and all contain trout of various sizes, the water colour varies from light tannin to something that looks like black coffee.

As for the fishing tackle used, well it’s either the 5’6’’ or 6’ Ultra Light 1-3kg trout rod that I use coupled up with a small 1000/2000 spinning reel spooled with thin Platypus Super-100 clear 4 lb mono line. The lures I use in these little streams/creeks are the Mepps #00 inline blade spinners such as the Black Fury, Aglia’s (assorted models, gold/copper/black blades), Bug Spinners (Stonefly/White Miller). The reason I use the smallest spinners in these waters is because they only weigh 1.5 grams, in such narrow shallow waters you don’t need to be lobbing a heavy lure into them and spooking any trout that may be there. The slightest noise or even a shadow will send the trout darting off so one must fish as light as possible. I have from time to time also used a small Tight, but enough room for a well placed cast or two.

around it. So one has to go and unwrap the lure from the twig/branch, all that does is scare off any fish that were in the area. It may even be the heavy foliage along both sides of these small streams that will bring you unstuck with a poor cast or a wind gust. Most of the foliage along these or any waters are very unforgiving once a lure lobs in them. Nine times out of ten you always have to go and retrieve it, they rarely fall back into the water. The majority of the time I’m casting directly up the stream because of the narrowness of them. The width of these streams/creeks do vary from a narrow 1.2 metres out to a wide 4.0 metres at times, most streams I’ve fished would average around 2.1 metres in width 80% of the time.

It’s never easy getting through the dense foliage to get to one of these streams and keeping a lookout for snakes as well. It can take up to an hour of bush bashing just to reach a stream only to find out there’s not enough water in it or there’s no fish there even though it has plenty of flowing water.. That’s just one of the minor downfalls with this type of fishing, then there’s the times when the effort is well worth it and you find one that’s holding trout. Most of them I have fished are are usually small dark tannin coloured streams/creeks that have held browns of various sizes. While going through my photos today I didn’t realise how many of them I have fished and the amount of fallen trees, log jams etc in them. Now when I look back on what I have put the body through to get to then fish these little streams, I feel the effort put into it was rewarded by some of the beautifully coloured wild brown trout caught and released in them..

Yes, it’s hard work and there were plenty of Might have to scramble around this one..............

disappointing trips too, but that’s what this type of fishing is all about isn’t it. These small streams/creeks that flow through heavily bushed areas eventually reach a larger rivers that have trout in them so that’s why these out of the way small creeks/streams are worth checking out. Once the warm weather arrives then I normally stay away from them due to low water levels and snakes, not only that the trout tend to shut down, they also stress very easily. I’ve stepped on several snakes and been struck once by a tiger snake thankfully it didn’t penetrate my waders, so remember to keep an eye out for them at all times. It’s never been the snakes fault at all, it’s been mine for not looking where I’m going. So there you have it, get onto Google Earth as I’ve done and check out where you may like to take up the challenge in chasing down a few trout in those little out of the way streams and creeks.. I always print out a copy of the areas I’m heading to as well, that way you know exactly

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Yes! I managed to winkle a small brownie from the midst of this.

where you are. It’s quite easy to lose your bearings in the bush, I also carry a PLB (personal location beacon) with GPS with me at all times too. They’re not cheap but well worth the money as you just never know when you may have to use it.

Here’s a short fishing report from a trip to a small out of the way stream.

After having some decent rainfall over the past couple of days I thought I would try a small out of the way tannin stream. After twenty five minutes of making my way through some heavy scrub I was at the stream, it was flowing quite nice and well worth trying out to see if there were any trout in it.. I was using the gold Aglia today as it always works well in most of the tannin waters I fish. It was a little on the quite side over the first fifty metres or so before I had a small brown take the lure only to see it toss it once it leapt from the river. A little further on I had my first brown hooked and after a good tussle over a couple of minutes I had it in the net. It was a solid 380 gram brown that was in very good condition. These little tannin streams & creeks hold some nice trout in them from time to time and are always worth flicking a lure into once there’s good flow in them. Early and late season is always the best times to fish them, once the warmer weather arrives and water levels drop the trout vanish. They head back into the main rivers that these little streams and creeks flow into. A lot of trout fishos don’t bother to check out these small tannin waters mainly because it’s very tight fishing and can be tough work because of some very rocky bottoms and lots of thick foliage along both sides of the water. I love giving them a go because you never know if there’s trout in them or not, it’s always rewarding when one does catch a few trout in them. There’s plenty I’ve had a go at that have given up nothing, but then again it may have just been one of those days too. Now back to my spin session in this little tannin stream. After releasing that 380 gram brown I continued to battle my way upstream flicking the gold Aglia into small runs where possible without a lot of success. I did have two hook ups in a small narrow stretch of water but lost both fish, they were only little trout any way. A little further up I came to a section of water that was around 2.4 metres wide and around 40 cms deep, it was here I caught and released my second brown of the session. It was good to see I had made the decision to give this small tannin water a go today and if we have more good rains before the season ends I’m sure there will more more trout to be caught here as well. There were several areas here I couldn’t get a cast in due to the thick overhanging foliage along both sides of the stream.. Over the next hour I fished what open water I could and caught and released another three browns from five hook ups with the best one going 420 grams. I called it a day after being in and out (getting around log jams) of this water for just on two and a half hours. With just the five trout caught and released it was still a good spin session and one area I will have another crack at later on before the trout season ends providing we get a little more rain to keep the water flowing at a reasonable level.. Adrian (meppstas)