2. Sew It Up
When fishing deep waters, you don't want to reel in your line except when you have to: Even electric reels take over 10 minutes to regain 1,800 feet of line, so you need a sturdy bait. Sewn belly baits work best. Although swordfish love squid, they're fragile, and easily mutilated or pulled off a hook. When fishing squid, you have to assume that your bait needs to be replaced after every strike.
Swordfish often attack a bait repeatedly before eating it, so you need something durable. We used dolphin bellies sewn together and also caught a sword on belly strips from a rainbow runner. Dobbelaer and crew have actually caught multiple swordfish on the same dolphin-belly bait.
