Nighttime Swordfish Fishing Gear
While daytime swordfishing is catching on as an extremely popular technique towards landing swordfish, targeting swords at night is the old standby. During the day, broadbill swordfish will tend to stay down deep towards the bottom and as the sun goes down they follow squid, tinker mackerel, and other sources of prey towards the thermocline and surface. This makes it easier to target swords on manual hand crank gear, and you can leave the electrics at home.
When looking for the best nighttime swordfish reels, 50W class gear will be the norm for standup, while 80W and 130lb tackle can be used when left in a swiveling rod holder out of the gunnel. The Shimano Tiagra 50WLRSA and Talica TAC50II, Penn International 50VISW, and Avet EXW 50/2 are all great options for standup tackle with a ton of line capacity and drag capability to get the job done on a sword.
Swordfish rods usually have either all wind on roller guides or open guides with a wind on roller tip. When deciding between a bent or straight butt for the rod, a straight butt is typically easier to use with standup gear due to the angle of the fight. You can also look into the Winthrop Terminator Adjusta-Butt, which will allow you to convert between straight and bent with the push of a button even in mid fight. Solid options include the Blackfin Swordfish Standup Rods, Shimano Tallus Standup Trolling Rods, and the TackleDirect Platinum Hook TDPS645080WTSIN Standup Rod.
When spooling up your new setups designated towards targeting swords overnight, it is preferred to go with a hollow core or solid Spectra backing like Jerry Brown or Power Pro Hollow Ace with a monofilament windon leader. This will dramatically increase your line capacity as opposed to straight monofilament and you will be able to jump up a line class or two if you feel it is necessary. The lack of stretch in the braid will also help drive the hook home, where mono will have much more stretch. Using a windon leader will also make handling a sword boatside easier, as you will be able to reel the leader onto the reel rather than leadering the fish next to the boat. 80lb, 100lb, and 130lb hollow core is the norm, with 200lb and higher Momoi or Lindgren Pitman monofilament leader being used for the windon.
You will also want to have a quality assortment of balloons, weights ranging from 6oz to 3lbs, LP or ErraMarine Diamond Lights, waxed rigging floss, rigging needles, rubber bands, glow beads, and long line clips to attach your weights to your lines. The best swordfishing hooks include the Owner Jobu, Lingren Pitman 9/0 J Hook, and the Mustad 7691SS. A high quality belt and standup harness will also be needed if you plan on going after these monsters standing up. All of these accessories will be needed to properly deploy a 2 to 3 rod swordfish spread that is staggered at different depths above and below the thermocline.
It is usually best to stagger your baits at around 250ft, 500ft, and 700ft to hit each level of the water column. Live baits like squid and tinker mackerel are best placed just above the thermocline to keep them lively. Below the thermocline, whole dead squid, strip baits, and whole fish are ideal. Now get ready to hook up with a monster sword on your next overnight trip, and keep calm because you have all of the gear ready to go as intended.