Daytime swording in Miami mixed with Tarpon and Largemouth Bass

On this episode of Bass to Billfish, fishing buddies Rob and Mark travel from the Northeast to beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Welcome to Florida. Host Peter Miller takes them on a fishing trip of a lifetime in search of daytime swordfish. Coming right at us, coming right at us. As well as a few other surprises. What is that? Florida, the fishing capital of the world, with over 2,000 miles of pristine shoreline. Join three-time World Sailfish Championship winner and pro angler Peter Miller as he takes these lucky winners on a once-in-a-lifetime fishing adventure. From freshwater to saltwater, ocean to Everglades, come join us for a fishing experience like no other. This is Florida's Bass to Billfish, presented by Yellowfin. These two guys that sent their videos in from New York and New Jersey, fishing buddies, we're gonna be the perfect guys for the show. Callin' the guys now, they just landed. These two guys had a lot of fishing experience. Okay, here we are, downstairs in my fishing room. I call it my fishing room, but my wife sort of refers to it as Mark's Tackle Shop. To get out of this city for a little bit of time and be able to catch a couple of fish, fantastic. They kind of fit the bill, they knew what they were doing and we really needed people that were skilled at fishing because if you get on a big fish, you need a little technique. Hey Rob, it's Peter. Welcome to Fort Lauderdale. Every time I go to pick someone up at the airport, whether it's a relative, a friend, especially people that you've never met before, you get nervous. Hey, here's my superstar celebrities. What's going on guys? Welcome man, welcome to Florida. Peter is a friendly guy, he's outgoing and very easy to connect with. We talked on the phone a few times, so I felt like I got to know him a little bit. We might have to get you out there for a little hardcore mission before you get on your flight to go back. I didn't know exactly what we'd be doing, but as long as you can wet a line and bend a rod and meet good people, that was what I was hoping for. We're going to try to catch you some fish while we're here. I don't know what we're going to catch. We're going to go right now though. We're going to drive somewhere and hopefully we'll catch some fish. Good, right on. Once we got in the car at the airport, I still hadn't told them where we were going to fish, so we were running south, running along a lot of lakes and ponds and canals and they looked down, I had a couple of freshwater setups in the car and I claimed that they weren't mine. That would be a good idea. It was a little awkward at first. These aren't even my rods. So they were looking at the lures going, oh, it looks like a bass lure. Yeah, it is. It's definitely bass material. I wanted to kind of leave it as a mystery and I was kind of fishing around to see if they'd ever done anything like that and they hadn't. I've never caught a bass before. Really? Holy ****. Never caught a bass. Are you kidding? Guy's like 35 years old, he's never caught a bass yet. He's been fishing his entire life. Found that kind of wild, you know. Tell him he's never caught a bass. I've never been a guy to look at a pond and say, oh, there's probably bass in there and when I sprung the idea of going to the Everglades on them, they were both pretty surprised. We're going to head out in the Everglades to a spot that a lot of people don't know how to get there. We're going CSI Miami style. And yes, these are my rods and we're going to do a little bass fishing while we're there. Peter said that we were going to target freshwater bass, so I was up for it. I think I'm like the guys on TV where I'm like... Yeah, yeah. Got our drinks, we're going to pick up some sandwiches. When you go down this one stretch, last stop, it's called Dade Corners. I knew they had a subway in there and we all started ordering our lunches. Hey guys, I'm buying today. Yeah? Yeah, so that worked out okay. We all opened up the back hatch of the F-250. We like to dine out like this. Like really, we dine out. Like out in the parking lot. We pulled up, they were excited and when they saw the airboats waiting for them, they were ready to go. There they are. The ride out was an amazing experience. I'd never been on an airboat before and then the other thing that was great was the alligators. I'd never assumed that there would be that many alligators in such a confined area. So we're going along and the guys are all calm and casual and I decided to take them for a little slide in this really calm water and took a little water in the back and throttled forward and they both looked at me like, I thought we were going to die. Stopped my heart a couple times in the beginning. I was a little bit leery about it. It's a controlled turn, I called it. Coming up next on Bass to Billfish. Typically when you bass fish, you're going to have an electric motor. With an airboat, you kind of spin around, you have no control and you have to push off the rudder and the branches. All right, guys, a little push up. Oh, no, we went wrong, we caught the bass fish. Bass to Billfish with Peter Miller is brought to you by Visit Florida. Unleash your Florida side. Go to visitflorida.com. Yellowfin, choice of champions. Pet Boys, does everything for less. Bass Pro Shops. Your adventure starts here. Ray Marine, world leaders in marine electronics. Fishing buddies Rob and Mark have traveled to Fort Lauderdale for a Florida fishing getaway. After a quick bite on the run. We like to dine out like this. Like, really, we dine out. They hop on an airboat in search of largemouth bass. It's just a neat ride out. I mean, we were just out in the wilderness. It felt like, you know, nobody around, no people, no sound, just fish and alligators and birds, it seemed. We came into this main canal where I've been bass fishing before. Not a lot of big bass there, but just lots of opportunities for small bass just to have fun. And this particular canal is so loaded with alligators. We came down that canal, literally the entire canal for about 1,000 feet with a line with well over 200 gators to the point where you could walk on top of them like in a cartoon, I mean, it was remarkable. Typically, when you bass fish, you're going to have an electric motor to work the way down the canal, stay in the area so you're not going to distract bass. With an airboat, unfortunately, you kind of spin around. You have no control, and you have to push off branches. So everywhere we come into, we go to push off a branch. It'd be like three or four gators. I mean, literally, you could have touched them on the head. All right, guys, a little push off. That's the way we like it. You guys get acquainted with the iguano on the tree, please. My boy, Rob, he's paddling down the canal. He started humming these songs. When I was in Rome. It's like old Italian songs like la, la, la, la, like he's a gondolier. We caught the bass fish. It's going to give me a moment to cast here. Take a moment. You cast on the left side, Mark. At first, it was a learning curve, and for me, too. It was tough to figure out the spin, and you'd get stuck in the bushes. You'd push yourself out, and then you'd spin again. This is not working. I don't know what to tell you guys. And then you'd have a great stretch by the envoy. These guys had to figure it out. Looks like you're getting a bite. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Look at the size of this little guy. Yeah. Wow, it's huge. Look at that guy, huh? Congrats, man. That's cool. First bass. Knock it off the list. Nice. Hey, guys, after we finish here, we're going to go down the canal just to the left a little bit. Some of the fish are bigger than that canal. It's usually like one to two pounds, three pounds. Here's a better one. Got him on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Oh, my God. My boys from New York are bass fishing professionals. I love it. Now I know what I've been missing all these years. We'd been there fishing for about three hours. I think that's like a soup commercial. A buddy of mine has a fish camp out there. It's kind of been set up in the middle of nowhere, 17 miles off the beaten path. I had some beers on ice, and we went up there and made a little toast. Congratulations. Nice work on your first bass. Welcome to the Everglades, man. Welcome to Florida. Coming up next on Bass to Billfish. So I decided to take him tarpon fishing in government cut. We're going under the boat. We're going to have to go around the back. We've got a pro here, folks. I can't do anything. No, no. Folly fish. Come on, baby. Stay on. After a unique airboat ride into the Florida Everglades, Peter puts Rob onto his first largemouth bass. Look at that guy, huh? Now the group heads to another South Florida fishing destination. Rob mentioned the fact that he's always wanted to go to the IGFA museum. So I thought it was a perfect opportunity on this rainy following day to go in there and explore that place. In the IGFA museum, they have a lot of unique things, and one of which is a fishing simulator. You got a big one. The fishing simulator was great. Rob was really eager to get in there. Look at him. He's getting serious, dude. He's tied it tight. He's ready for battle. Almost too eager to the point where it got a little strange because he was actually stretching. It was a little weird. He's letting me bite. He's letting me eat. I just remember thinking, I'm going to lose this simulated fish and look like an awful head. Seventy pounds. Seventy. Seventy. That was great. While we were in the IGFA museum, it was pouring outside. The great thing about Florida is that within a matter of hours, you can have a cloudy condition to an absolutely gorgeous condition. So I decided to take up tarpon fishing and government cut. In a fishery that you can do six different types of fishing within an hour of each other. It's amazing. It's a great place. I called my good friends Madison and Clark. They had the boat ready, waiting. So we got the drop off right there in about 10 feet, and then it slides off to about 40 feet. It slides off 17 and then drops to 40. What we're going to do is go up here, get on the edge, and do a nice slow drift. You know, Florida is an amazing place because the diversity of the species, you just never know what you're going to catch. It's coming right at us. It's coming right at us. Come at us. Keep on it. Keep on it. Yeah, baby. Hey, you caught a big... What is that? Wow. I don't think anybody ahead of time would have said that would have been on a list of fish that we would have been looking to catch. Nice. Congratulations. Skunk is off. Now it's time for a tarpon. Yes, sir. Who's going to be the guy that catches a tarpon? The plan we had was only to fish for about a couple hours. Oh, came off right there. But that wasn't the case for us. We were struggling. We got a couple of bites, lost a couple of fish. We jumped a few tarpon off. Easy. That's it. We started running out of bait, and all of a sudden, shrimp started popping up. The tarpon were eating the shrimp, and we realized that we needed to get these shrimp. That's going to be the difference right there. It got to the point we were so desperate for bait that the camera crew actually had to jump in. God, that's a huge one. He's dipping shrimp left and right, throwing them in the boat. It was like a commercial shrimp, but he got so serious. Oh, you got him. Way to do the smack down on the shrimp. Slowly but surely, we get one or two shrimp. We put them on the hooks. Miraculously, we start getting bites. Yeah, well, what? You got a bite? Come on, baby. Stay on. I just want to set this up. All right. Proud of you, man. Is this your first tarpon? Yes, sir. Come on, baby. We're going to get this one. Leader. All right, watch out. That was a weight right there. He's close. He's pulling some drag. Let's not go too crazy on him. Very good fish. Clark, he's going under the boat. We're going to have to go around the back. Dig deep. Nice dip. We got a pro here, folks. You know it's a pro deep dip when you got water dripping off the bottom, guys. Under the boat. Come forward. Up. Forward. Back down on him a little. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'd be great. Here he comes. Here he comes. Nice. There he is. I can't do anything. No, no. Follow your fish. The fish is totally green alongside the boat, and he yells to me, get it. You can't grab him? You can't really grab a green fish. You can't grab his mouth? Dude, he's hot. It's not like, hey. It's a flourish, man. I can't. It's all right. It's all right. Backwards. Back it up. It's a tough fish, man. This fish has got a lot of energy. You're good. You're good. You're good. Here's the double line. Here's the leader. Okay, well, we got an official touch. He's caught his first tarpon. Congratulations. Here's the fish right at the boat. Here's the lead. Here it is. Just keep it pumping forward. He's on his side. Got it up to the surface, and I went to get him with a bogey grip. I realized that the bogey grip was not big enough. Hang on. Take this out of my hand. I can't use this. So I had to regroup and go for the double-fisted grab. We call it the double mudfish. There we go. Yeah, yeah. Held him there for a minute. Rob was able to look at him. He petted him a little bit, and he was staring at him. He couldn't get over the size of the scales and how shiny it was. It was, you know, the Silver King name really true. I mean, it looks like it's made out of tinfoil. My first tarpon. Leadering a fish is a caught fish, but having it under control and, you know, I wanted to touch it, that was great. We nursed him back to health, pulled the hook out, and let him go. Mission completed. Coming up next on Bass to Billfish. Fish on. Walk up. Don't rub it on the side of the boat. No way you could turn that fish or move it. Got a screamer here, guys. Back up and go this way. All these things is a recipe for disaster. I think we're just going to have to continue to inch him up. Get to a point where he can't reel anymore. I'm locked up here a little. I got a lot of slack here. Bass to Billfish with Peter Miller is brought to you by Visit Florida. Your Florida side is calling. Go to visitflorida.com. Pet Boys does everything for less. Ray Marine, world leaders in marine electronics. FWC, there's only one season in Florida, fishing season. Also by Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty, Buff, and the Florida Sports Foundation. Fishing buddies Rob and Mark have been in the depths of the Florida Everglades catching largemouth bass. Rob, Rennie's first bass. And battling huge tarpon in the shadows of Miami Beach. Now, Peter prepares to take them on a new challenge. So day three comes. We're very excited. This is our day to go sword fishing. The weather is absolutely perfect. So I pick up the guys and we go to one of our favorite restaurants. It's called the Blue Moon Fish Company. We had a fantastic lunch there. Thank you. As we're just finishing up, a good friend of mine pulls up. What's up, Keith? How you doing? This is a 42-foot yellowfin boat with quad mercuries. 42. And the guys were blown away by this variety. Man, the boat's looking great. We hopped on with him, we exchanged pleasantries, and it was on. Sometimes up in New Jersey where we fish, it's very rare that somebody actually goes on a trip specifically to target swordfish. And just this notion that we could be out on a daytime trip fishing down in about 1,700, 1,800 feet of water was something that I thought was pretty neat. The tackle used for daytime dropping is very different than what we use at night. In the day, we drop so deep with so much weight that if you don't use an electric reel to get down and up, you won't be a very productive sword fisherman. What we've done is we've gone to these where you can fight them manually, and if you don't get a bite, you're able to hit the button, bring it in, change your bait, and you can actually get a good day's worth of fishing in. You got the best of both worlds. So now we just hit the bottom, and we wait. It's a little waiting game. We hope they come through, you know? So we're about a half an hour into it, and being on the water, you always get hungry. The ham and mayo, dude. Extravaganza mayo blitzes. As soon as you break into food, something usually happens. Heavy on the mayo, heavy on the ham. Then all of a sudden, that was him. The rod starts to go, and Froggy's like, there he is. We're getting a bite. Fish on. Get the harness on you set up. I just remember when I first got settled and got my hand on the rod, just feeling the power and the strength of that fish. I mean, there was just no way you could turn that fish or move it. Steady gain, Frog, keep going. We had a couple issues getting the line over the bow of the boat. You're going to go off to the left, or what? Go to the front, go to the front. Walk up, don't rub it on the side of the boat. And watch the front, watch our front. With a harness on, you don't quite have the flexibility to maneuver the way you would otherwise, so that became an issue. No, it's not all right. Got to back up, tell him. Back up and go this way. Got a screamer here, guys. You all right? You're doing great. He was doing a great job. Going from a cold start to battling a swordfish is not that easy. It's a good fish, man. He really rose to the occasion. He did a great job. He got into a little rhythm. It's a little different than bass fishing, huh? Yeah, you get a little bigger. Then all of a sudden, we noticed that the line was bunching up on one side. Are you bunching up? Yeah, but not enough to prevent it from coming in. OK, there's a wine on coming on. All of a sudden, it was locked on the far right side. Froggy, I think we're going to have to start helping him with a hand line and have him finger it over as he winds it with his hands and take the pressure off. I'm thinking if there's no pressure there, you can roll it down. I can't roll it downhill when there's pressure. I took the pressure off. You can roll it down the hill. Let's see. OK, start to wind. Start to wind. Froggy starts hand lining the line. I start running my fingers and trying to smooth it out over the back of the reel, spread the line out. All these things put together is a recipe for disaster. I think we're just going to have to continue to inch him up. I'm pulling it over. He's trying to wind on the reel, and we're getting it. It's coming in, and we get to a point where he can't reel anymore. I'm locked up here, although I've got a lot of slack here. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw sort of a flash of what looked like silver. Got color. We got a nice story here, guys. We had a lot of mishaps in a row. And every five minutes, I felt fortunate that we still had the fish on. Nice fish, dude. Nice fish. Woo! Fortunately, it was daytime, so you could really see the coloration on the swordfish and the sort of browns and silvers and a little bit of purple on the back. And just seeing the length of the bill was something really spectacular to see. Guys, we're going to release this fish, right? You did a great job. It's about 200. 200 pounder. For me, it was really part of the excitement was to be able to release it and to be able to see it swim away. OK, now. Come on. Roll over, baby. Here he comes. There you go. Let's go. Come on. Do it. There he goes. The fish dove straight down, almost as if it was heading right down to 2,000 feet of water again. It was just neat to see it take off and swim straight down below the boat. That was exciting to see. Nice work. Nice job. Taking someone out on an adventure like this to experience the trip of a lifetime, to me, it's priceless. Now, a daytime sword, that is the pinnacle of fishing to me. I think the one thing about this trip that will stand out in my mind was just the fun I had with the people I was around. I mean, part of fishing and learning new places and having different experiences is the people that you share those experiences with. And I think that, to me, was even more than the fishing was just the camaraderie of sharing the experience with a great group of people. It's about the people that you fished with, the friends that you make, and the fun that you have with the people that you're around. And that, to me, was what I'll take away from this and what I'll remember for the rest of my life. I have the opportunity with this show to bring people from out of the state into Florida so they can experience one of the most phenomenal fisheries truly in the world, I believe. Bring them down to Florida and show them a good time because we really, we have a lot to offer. Go to Versus.com and find out how you can audition to be the next guest on Bass to Billfish.