Nearly 7-Hours

   NEW ENGLANDERS LAND

   167 POUND SWORDFISH

             When Bob Preble and Michael Reeve, a couple of saltwater fly-rodders from New Hampshire, visited Buena Vista Beach Resort on Baja’s East Cape, the last thing they were thinking about was a nearly 7-hour fight with a large swordfish.  But that’s just what they got.

            On May 22, fishing with Capt. Ramon Tamaya and mate Teodoro Araiza aboard the hotel’s cruiser Tres Hermanos, the guests were looking for striped marlin, dorado (mahi mahi), tuna, and other flyrod-friendly fish.  That’s when they spotted the swordfish slowly finning on the surface of the calm Sea of Cortez.

            With discretion being the better part of valor, they stowed their flyrods and “baited” the swordy on conventional gear.

            The basking behemoth took the bait and the game of tug-o-war was on! 

            The fish was hooked at 12:23 and finally gaffed and brought over the boat’s gunwale at 7:14 p.m.  It weighed 167 pounds.

            Preble, from Hampstead and Reeve, from Exeter, New Hampshire shared the chore of fighting the fish on striped marlin-size rod and 40-pound test line, so there was no world record possibility; but what a story of aching backs, pulled muscles and dogged determination by two New Englanders.

            “This was the third swordfish hooked and landed at the hotel in 2007,” said Buena Beach Resort sales and marketing director Axel Valdez.   

            “Sometimes we get one sword, some years two or three and sometimes we don’t get any.  But this is definitely the earliest in the summer season we have landed three.  Who knows . . . maybe there are three more out there?”

            For Reeve, a retiree, and Preble, a software engineer, this was their first trip to Mexico, although they had fished all over the U.S. and as far as Costa Rica for sailfish on a flyrod previously.  “I can’t give enough credit to Ramon and Teodoro.  A number of times the mate held the rod straight down to avoid the prop . . . and Capt. Ramon eventually lashed a boat hook to the gaff to make it long enough to get beneath the fish,” he said.

            The billfish was brought near the boat, but rested some 4-feet below the surface and couldn’t be budged on the relatively light gear.  “It was just too deep to gaff and too strong for us to get any closer.  The fish was definitely in control,” said Reeve. 

            In a show of gratitude, the anglers gave half the fish to the captain and mate, about one-fourth to the hotel and shipped one-fourth home on ice. 

            Prior to their swordfish experience the duo had taken roosterfish, yellowfin tuna and other species on a fly.

            “The swordfish was,” said Reeve, “an unforgettable experience.”

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