Another Great Day For Art West

Art West had been fishing on the L&H for as long or longer than I have and it seems that we always have a great day. The last time he fished with us on the L&H we caught four swordfish, so he wanted to give that a try. The mahi fishing had been good lately so our plan was to try for the mahi first and then maybe a sword. After loading up on bait we headed offshore to look for the seaweed that had been in close all week. It wasn't there today and before long we were twenty miles out and nothing. Finally we saw a Frigate bird and as I steered toward it another boat was racing to beat us there. When we got to the bird, the other boat went to the north and I went south. A few minutes later we found a big school of dolphin that were biting like mad. I smiled as I looked down and saw our team pulling in fish like crazy and then looked over and saw the other boat trolling out of site. Then, from the deep, a three hundred pound blue marlin came up and jumped nearly all of the way out of the water to grab a ten pound mahi that Art was fighting just fifteen feet behind the L&H! The marlin took Art's mahi about twenty feet down and just sat there. Finally it swallowed the mahi and took off until nearly stripping the reel and finally breaking the leader. From there we continued south until Jim found some birds over a big patch of weed. As I got closer, dolphin started swimming at the boat from all directions and they were nice sized fish. We stayed there and caught dolphin until we had our limit and the box was filled to the top. At this point there were more fish behind the L&H than when we started. Enough!!!! I said from the tower, we have to leave them, there is no more room! It was still early so we tried a drop for a sword. We had one right away, but it was tangled in the leader and pulled off. The next drop we hooked a nice fish and it was fighting hard! After a good battle we had the fish to the top and I could see that it was a big one. Everyone worked together. Jim handled the leader and our friend Abie hit the fish with the harpoon. After placing a couple gaffs, our team slid the three hundred pound swordfish into the L&H!! It was still early, but we had a lot of fish to clean so we decided to head in. It was another great day for Art West, his gang, and the L&H!!

**of the two photos, the four fish was then and the other is now