Fishing for swordfish is a feast-or-famine endeavor. You might make an hours-long run and end up floating around all day with zero action, or you might make one epic catch after the next. All bets are off, but the lure of potentially battling a gladiatorial beast—and grilling swordfish steaks for the next month straight—is impossible for any serious offshore angler to resist.
Naturally, we want to stack the deck in our favor as much as possible. Days in advance we’ll rig up baits and piece together a plan. And one thing you can do to boost your odds of success is setting up a buoy line.
Deploying a daytime sword bait 1200’ or 1500’ below the boat is tough enough (see Daytime Swordfish Deep Dropping to get the scoop on how it works), and trying to set more than one at a time is a fool’s errand. Unless you’re a true pro you’re far more likely to end up with an epic tangle than an epic catch. Setting a buoy line is the answer to getting down that second bait.
Rigging a Swordfish Buoy Line
Like most offshore endeavors, being prepared to drop a buoy line requires some specific prep work. Step number one is getting a buoy. The key elements are having a large buoy float with a high-visibility flag on the top and a longline clip at the bottom; some anglers prefer a couple-few feet of 300-pound leader between the float and the clip while others rig the clip just a few inches beneath the float. There are plenty of commercially made floats available and some crafty anglers construct their own using fenders or large foam oval buoys, but most regular crab pot floats aren’t quite large enough. You’ll be setting that buoy a couple hundred feet from the boat and it needs to be easily visible, so size matters.
The second bit of prep work is adding floss loops to your mainline to clip on the buoy’s longline clip. Most anglers will set up a couple of loops on a dedicated buoy rod to account for different depth ranges, with the first at 1200’ or so and the second at 1400’ or 1500’. Some others will set three at various depths. You can do this yourself, or again, swordfish “buoy spools” of line with pre-rigged loops can be purchased. Either way, the business end of the rig and the weight is the same as for your regular “tip” rod (the one you fish straight from the rod tip).
Deploying a Swordfish Buoy Line
Ready to get that buoy line in position? You’ll want to set it prior to messing with the tip rod, and set it using the same process we detailed in “Daytime Swordfish Deep Dropping” referenced above. When you reach the floss loop set at the depth appropriate for the spot (ideally 100’ to 300’ off bottom), clip the longline float over the mainline and inside the loop.
Once the line is set idle away with the reel in freespool until the buoy is a safe distance from the boat (figure on at least 100’ to be safe and 200’ to be safer). Now you can start setting the tip rod, still leaving the buoy line in freespool as you drive away from the buoy. When you make your turn back towards it someone will need to mind the rod to take up the slack and cross from one side of the boat to the other. The captain will also have to remain mindful of where the buoy is when heading back towards it, and maintain a buffer zone. When all is said and done and the tip rod is fully deployed, if the buoy is too close for comfort leave the reel in freespool and let the current and wind create a bit more distance.
Fishing the Swordfish Buoy Line
Minding a tip rod requires nonstop staring at the tip to detect bites, so with two lines out you’ll need two sets of eyes dedicated to watching. Naturally, that second set of eyes will be focused on the buoy as opposed to the rod. On occasion you’ll see the buoy do a funny dance and maybe get pulled under, but when a fish takes this bait the weight is no longer pulling straight down on the buoy holding it upright, so it’s more common for the buoy to lay over on its side.
Either way, when a hit is detected you need to apply a hook-setting tug asap. Depending on the type of reel you have and how rapidly you can take in line you may want to start ripping it back as fast as possible, or you may want to shift the engines into gear, give them a burst of power, and use the boat to stretch the line tight. If the rod doubles over and a fish is on, as one crewmember straps in for battle another should get the tip rod’s line up and out of the water asap.
Note: It’s not unusual for the buoy line to produce bigeye bites, which are not exactly unwelcome no matter how laser-focused your desire to catch a swordfish may be.
In case you didn’t guess at this point, a minimum crew of three is necessary to effectively run this show on a recreational boat. You may be able to deploy with just two people (if everything goes like clockwork) but you’ll still need someone at the wheel and a dedicated crewmember for each of the rods when a fish is on the line. It’s also best to have three when attempting to land a swordfish: one for the wheel, one for the harpoon and gaff, and one for the rod.
Is setting out a buoy line a risky play? Youbetcha, especially if you haven’t seen it done a time or two. In fact, we’d strongly encourage watching the process before trying it yourself. But getting that second line over the side can lead to memory-making rewards—and a month’s supply of swordfish steaks.