Keith: Fancies hooking a billfish

A significant percentage of fish sold as 'swordfish' is at best mako shark and at worst blue shark! And, worldwide, 212,250 tonnes of farmed salmon were sold as 'wild'. Makes you wonder about 'organic', doesn't it?

Keith Arthur
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I was surprised to read of a swordfish being washed up on a Welsh beach recently, maybe even more so as it was at Barry Island, quite a way up the entrance to the Bristol Channel.

Swordfish can tolerate quite temperate water; indeed the longliners of the Grand Banks, on which the book and film The Perfect Storm and Linda Greenlaw's superb book The Hungry Ocean were based, catch them from water often under 60ºF, 15ºC.

There have also been other, albeit extremely infrequent, reports of xiphius gladius, to use his 'Sunday name', washed up on Welsh beaches in the past. Indeed one was washed up on a Gower Peninsular beach in 2003 still alive, although efforts to save it were in vain.

Swords have been seen around Britain on several occasions and have been landed by commercial netsmen from the south west. Even Northumbria has seen a capture and a swordfish was recently spotted off Sweden so, although you wouldn't want to hold your breath until you saw one, there are the odd-uns about.

Different kettle...

Marlin, on the other hand, are a distinctly different kettle of fish. These are the true billfish (swordfish are not part of the marlin family but sort of hitch a ride as billfish because they have, well, a bill!) and to see a sample being held on the wet sand of a Welsh beach beggars belief.

Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire, where the fish turned up, is not even on the 'open ocean', being some distance east of Milford Haven - the port in the UK if you are interested in catching sharks and plenty of them.

It isn't that far from the Gulf Stream so I suppose there is a possibility that the fish, described as a blue marlin (although it is extremely difficult to tell blue from black marlin in a photo), died, then floated to the surface and was taken by tidal forces and the prevailing south-west winds into its final destination. If it is a black marlin, it would have needed to have floated at least 2,000 miles further!

Blue marlin are being caught along the Algarve coast, the thinking being that they swim from the Atlantic through Gibraltar's straits to the Mediterranean following the dorado and white marlin. Prime time is late July to September, when the water is at its warmest, which means around 20ºC, something that we don't often see offshore in the UK.

The pictures I saw of the fish, published by the Daily Telegraph, indicate that the fish hasn't been dead long: they eye is clear and there is no sign of decomposition or scavenging. It also doesn't look like it's been frozen and dumped as some bizarre publicity stunt - anyway, who would dump 450lb of dead marlin that has some intrinsic value?

The bill alone, when mounted, would fetch a few bob, although marlin flesh is relatively cheap, when compared to bass or even swordfish. Incidentally, you may not be aware that a significant percentage of fish sold as 'swordfish' is at best mako shark and at worst blue shark! And, worldwide, 212,250 tonnes of farmed salmon were sold as 'wild'. Makes you wonder about 'organic', doesn't it?

Needle in a haystack

So, is Zyg Gregorek, of Anglers' Paradise fame, or notoriety, likely to succeed in catching the first billfish (I'll allow him swordfish too) from UK waters on rod and line? Well, once again I won't be holding my breath.

While we have mackerel and herring shoals big enough to feed tuna, so albacore - regularly targeted 25-50 miles off the south-west coast of Ireland - may be about somewhere west of the Scillies, there is a faint chance that marlin will follow those.

Swordfish tend to be night feeders, eating squid as they make their nightly migration to the upper layers of the ocean. I've been invited to try my hand at catching squid off Weymouth later this year, where they are in sufficient numbers for charter boats to target them.

I suppose I am sounding more optimistic than I should be because, in reality, it would be easier to find the tiniest of needles in a haystack the size of Wembley Stadium than to hook a billfish within a day's sailing from a UK port. The days of charter boats setting their outriggers as they leave the harbour and wiping dry the dew from the fighting chair are some way in the future, even allowing for current climate trends.

Mind you, I wouldn't mind having a bit of a go...

Do you want some tips or advice from Keith Arthur? To send him a question, please click here: skysportsclub@bskyb.com

Keith answers your questions

Hi Keith. Love the show, no matter what the topic, so I hope you'll keep 'em coming! The particular problem that I would like to solve is based on my age, 70th year, and the fact 'Old Mortality' has shaken his rattle at me a couple of times in the last few years. I used to spend a lot of time thigh deep in Blagdon and Chew ressers chasing rainbows etc but found the sheer physical exertion all a bit much. So I switched to the brooks and streams in the Bath area but found the walking to likely swims very difficult plus the height (5-8ft)and steepness (up to vertical) of the banks made satisfactory presentation tricky, if not impossible. With so few small trout stillwaters - and I am not a lover of over-large fish - still operating, I think my best bet would be to find a river fishery with easy access attached to a hostelry within a 50 or 60-mile radius of my home that I could visit on a two or three-day basis and that wouldn't break the bank in the process. I was wondering whether you might have some recommendations? I hope you can help.
Steve Davies

KEITH REPLIES:Hello Steve, I am not sure that what you are looking for is available. The big problem with river trout fishing is that demand massively outstrips supply, even for pretty mediocre fare. I don't know anywhere I can recommend personally but I did a bit of 'googling' and came up with a couple of places. Rather than name them, could I suggest you do the same? Have a look down the pages too because there are plenty in the early stages that seem to offer 'guided' fishing and that is going to be expensive when you are paying wages as well as for the fishing. Unfortunately it would seem that many of the beats are taken by guides. The Bristol Avon and its tributaries (the 'rivers around Bath' you mention are all 'spate' rivers with high banks, unlike the chalk stream further east that draw their water from the surrounding porous limestone) rarely flood or become very coloured and to fish them requires a LARGE amount of money. I'm sorry I can't help more but, with some diligent internet research, you may unearth somewhere that meets your needs. The alternative may be to consider taking a boat on those big reservoirs? Tight lines, Keith Arthur.

Hello Keith. The two gravel pits I fish, one eighteen acres, the other six acres, have a lot of small pieces of green algae in the water at all depths.

Will this clear on its own and will it affect the fish feeding? Species are carp, bream and tench. Cheers.
Don

KEITH REPLIES: Don, this seems symptomatic of summer (alleged summer, that should say) 2008. My local club gravel pit is suffering similarly, eventually producing huge 'blooms' of daphnia, which means the fish can simply swim around with their mouths open and fill their bellies. The algae you describe does affect feeding but you may find there are some areas of the pit not affected: if you can, fish there, if not then very early mornings are usually the best time as the lack of light causes the algae to die, unfortunately using oxygen as it does so. Extended spells of cloud cover and rain could help the situation as algae depends on light for life. May was wetter than average and wet Mays can lead to more fertilisers entering the water table, as it is 'spraying time' and that, in turn, leads to 'richer' water more likely to produce algae. Sunshine is the catalyst and (unbelievably) this has been quite a sunny year apparently, although you could have fooled me! You may find using any available cover, especially overhanging trees, an advantage although that's not usually much help with bream. If you have any shallows on the wider areas of the pits, especially at longish range, look there for the slabs. Keith Arthur