Dear Scout,

Mat Tharpe, Mica Posey, Travis Gourley, Soda Noling, and myself went on an overnight trip out of Destin this past Friday night. We left the dock at 9 pm and ran out about 74 miles to the southwest. We started fishing at 1 am and got our 1st and only bite at 2 am. We were in about 1250 feet of water and the fish hit the bait that was down about 150 feet. He slammed the squid pretty hard then made a run to the surface. I reeled the slack out as quick as I could and the fight was on. The fish ran forward and the line got caught in the sea anchor. The guys did a good job of getting the anchor in and the line was free. He made a big jump out of the water and was taking line at will. It took me just over an hour to land the fish and my buddy Soda wired the fish up and Travis made an incredible gaff shot in the head and they got him in the boat. We got the lines back out and tried for another bite, but no luck. When the sun came up, so did the seas. We started trolling north and it took us 8 hours to get back to Destin. No bites trolling and a long ride home in 4-6 footers out of the Northeast.

When we got to the weigh dock at AJ’s for the Destin Fishing Rodeo, there were about 200 people there to watch our swordy get weighed in. The fish weighed 87 lbs. As it stands today, the fish is in 1st place in the Overnight Private Boat Swordfish Division.

Steadman Taylor