Alabama Angler Lands 550-Pound Swordfish, Set to Smash State Record
Once confirmed, the catch will break the current Alabama record by 102 pounds.
Some days, it's nothing but empty hooks. But some days, you reel in a freak, 550-pound swordfish.
That’s exactly what happened to Robert Fritze and the crew aboard the Trading Desk, a 60-foot Hatteras that left Orange Beach Marina early on August 14 for a multi-day offshore fishing trip in the Gulf of M̶e̶x̶i̶c̶o̶ America.
They were hoping for marlin. What they got was the catch of a lifetime and a pending new state record.
"We wanted marlin, but that day we caught some dolphin, blackfin tuna and a 35-pound wahoo," Fritze told Outdoor Life. "Later that afternoon, we hooked a barracuda. As we were bringing it in, a 200-pound-class blue marlin chased the hooked ‘cuda and tried to eat it, but unfortunately we didn’t hook that fish."
The crew fished throughout the afternoon before rigging a deep-drop setup for swordfish — squid bait with a light stick and heavy weight — and drifting overnight in 1,500 feet of water. Everyone was fast asleep when, around 4 a.m., the reel’s clicker started screaming.
"I really wasn’t [planning on] being the guy fighting the fish," Fritze said. "It just sort of happened that way."
The fight lasted nearly four and a half hours. At one point, the fish surfaced 40 feet behind the boat.
"Its bill and head came up out of the water, and I swear, it looked right at us," Fritze said. "That’s when the fight really started."
The swordfish ran deep, stayed at the 800-foot mark for a long stretch and then made several more punishing runs.
"I thought the fish was never going to stop running or get tired," Fritze recalled.
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Eventually, after the sun had risen, the giant fish also rose to the surface. It came in belly-up. Despite only having small gaffs, the crew pulled the animal through the transom door and onto the deck.
"We were all hooting and hollering and back-slapping after we got the fish in the boat," Fritze said. "Then we realized that we couldn’t fish any longer because it covered the whole deck."
That's a good problem to have.
They raced back to Orange Beach Marina, where the swordfish was officially weighed at 550.3 pounds on certified scales — more than 100 pounds heavier than the current state record (448 pounds), caught in 2006 by Wendell Sawyer. It measured 150 inches long with a 62-inch girth.
Fritze says the paperwork has been submitted, and once verified, the fish will become Alabama’s new state record swordfish. The angler said he wants to get his record catch mounted, but, logistically, there's a bit of a problem.
"I really don’t know where we can find the wall space to hang a mount that big."
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