The plan: limit out on mahi by 10 am, deep drop up a couple of swords, maybe catch a couple of other billfish for good measure.
The reality: fished from 7-10 on a beautiful temp break in 300-400 feet and deeper with weed and flyers. 2 hits, 2 mahis, 3 hours. Time for part 2. Ran 5 miles and found a nice weedline. Another hour, no mahis! Ran out to 15 miles beyond 226, deployed the sword gear and a driftbait on a spinning rod for good measure. 5 minutes later…fish on! 20 lb bull on the driftbait. Hooked up two of his buddies on pitchbaits…misgaffed one and broke off the other. Anyway, for the next hour and a half we slow trolled ballyhoo and squid(2-3 knots to keep the sword line as vertical as possible) through a huge field of scattered sargassum with consistant action from 15-20lb mahis on spinning tackle. We lost as many as we kept which was 8, and kept all the swords we caught which was 0! All in all a beautiful day on a flat, flat ocean and we discovered a productive and less frustrating way to ‘troll’ sargassum minefields.
26’ Glacier Bay
Mistress