Rare opah catch only half the story: anglers also snared a swordfish

MARK SAMPSON

DELMARVANOW CORRESPONDENT

I’m guessing that there are a lot of folks who, even though they aren’t usually inclined to keep up with local fishing news, took interest of a catch that was made off Ocean City a couple weeks ago.

Swordfish, once believed to be caught best during the night off the Treasure Coast and South Florida, are now a daytime target.

While most fishermen usually grasp the public’s eye by pulling off an exceptional catch of a fish of gargantuan proportions, in this case, the “wow” factor came from the uniqueness of the species caught.

Most people have never even heard the word “opah,” let alone seen a picture of one or knew that there was such a beast. But low and behold, early this month Austin Ensor and his crew member friends on the Primary Search managed to hook and land a 105-pounder just 50-some miles off our coast.

The landing of this particular fish was indeed a big deal, and everyone involved in the catch deserves a hearty congratulations even though I’m sure the anglers will admit that hooking the fish was totally by chance.

I’m sure they didn’t start their morning by stopping by a local tackle shop, picking up a pack of opah bait, and then run offshore to some secret opah fishing spot, bait their hook, drop it in the water and catch their prize.

No, the gang on the Primary Search had a different quarry in mind when they left the dock that day, which came in the shape of a swordfish.

Austin Ensor and members of the Primary Search stand with a 105-pound opah.

So the opah was actually caught by accident on a swordfish bait. And while, as noted, it was indeed an exceptional catch, it was only half the story for the guys that day because they also managed to hook and land a swordfish. Which is remarkable in itself because as anyone who knows a thing or two about offshore fishing will tell you — catching a swordfish is a big deal, they don’t just come a long every day.

In fact, most offshore anglers will fish their entire lives and never catch one, and suddenly we hear that four guys just hop on a boat out of Ocean City and zip offshore and catch one, just like that — as if it was no big deal. What’s going on here?

What’s going on is a relatively new fishery that been developing along the coast known as “daytime swordfishing.”

Historically anglers who wanted to target swordfish would fish through the night out in the very deep waters beyond the edge of the Continental Shelf and hope to hook swords that have risen up from the depths to feed on squid and other natural bait closer to the surface.

As you might expect, “daytime” swordfishing targets the same fish, but it happens during the day when the swords are still close to the bottom, which requires anglers to accurately drop their lines down more than 100 fathoms to get to the fish.

Such deep water fishing has only become somewhat practicable in recent years with the advent of very thin braided fishing lines that allow anglers to pack more line on a reel and use less weight to pull their line down to such great depths.

While daytime swordfishing has been going on for years off the Florida coast, it’s only recently that we’ve been hearing much about it up here in the mid-Atlantic.

But there have been enough success stories coming from the few anglers who have been giving it a try off Delmarva that it’s looking as though the fishery is probably going to blossom into something really great in a very short time.

In fact, I’m sure there are more than just few anglers who are already getting their thoughts together and deep-drop gear rigged for next year’s daytime swordfish assault.

And who knows? Maybe when more fishermen start deep dropping for swordfish it will reveal that there are a whole lot more of those crazy opah fish swimming off our coast than anyone ever expected and local tackle shops will be inclined to actually start selling opah bait — whatever that is!