It’s Quite a Twinbill: 1 Fish, 2 Fish; Small Fish Helps Catch Big Fish

By Steve Waters, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Jan. 23–As if hooking a swordfish tripleheader wasn’t cool enough, T.J. Putrino and Sean Dunn ended up with an even better fish story.

Putrino, of Deerfield Beach, and Dunn, of Orlando, were fishing Thursday in 1,500 feet a little south of Port Everglades on Killer Buzz, Putrino’s 31-foot Yellowfin. They arrived at 6 p.m. and put out Bionic squid on five rods and put two Swordlights in the water, a blue and a green/white.

“We were sitting there about 5, 10 minutes when my 200 jug starts pulling a little line,” Putrino said. “I tell Sean, ‘You get on that line, you fight it.’ I start clearing the other lines and another line goes, so I get on that. Sean’s fish is a good one and I told him to just focus on that. Then another rod goes off.”

Dunn fought his big fish while Putrino took turns fighting the other two swordies, which he said were 80-90 pounds and which he had close to the boat. About 20 minutes into the fight, Dunn said his fish was gone. He reeled in the line and it was cleanly cut about 100 feet up from the hook.

Putrino told Dunn to grab one of the other rods and fight that fish. Putrino caught and released his fish, and then went to see how Dunn’s fish was doing.

“I see a big one and a little one together,” Putrino said. “When he was reeling in, Sean said, ‘There’s another free swimmer there.’”

Putrino harpooned the big fish and Dunn gaffed the smaller sword. When they brought the fish into the boat, they realized that the fish were stuck together.

The smaller fish’s sword had pierced the bigger swordfish under the gill plate and gone into its brain, and broke the smaller fish’s sword. Somehow, the fish remained attached.

“This 90-pounder cut my 300-pounder loose and speared it in the head,” Putrino said. “The smaller one must’ve kamikazed into the other one and killed it.

“You go out there a lot, you see some incredible stuff.”

Catches

Brothers Robert Shane of New York and Harvey Shane of Lake Worth had two great days of fishing out of Marathon on Blue Waters with Capt. Danny Strub. Fishing around patch reefs in 25 feet with live pinfish, pilchards and shrimp, they caught gag grouper 10-12 pounds, goliath grouper 20-25 pounds, mutton snapper 8-15 pounds, mangrove snapper 2-4 pounds, Spanish mackerel 5-8 pounds and kingfish 15-20 pounds.

Michelle Sawyer, 15, and her father, Mike, caught both ends of a dolphin doubleheader Sunday on their boat Trophy Hunter.

Jim Dooley and the Dan Shalloway party caught a 28-pound bull dolphin Sunday kite-fishing off Palm Beach on Reel Magic with Capt. Jim Muhs.

Vincent Montella, 12, of Lighthouse Point caught a 67-inch, 150-pound swordfish on a dead squid down 250 feet fishing on Sea-Tech Fishing Team. That same night, Stuart Wood of Hallandale Beach caught an 80-pound swordfish and two other swordies were lost.

Steff Swart caught a 68-pound wahoo trolling in 360 feet off Hollywood on Pipe Dream with Capt. Anthony Catapano and John Lipka.

Hunter Petrillo caught a 30-pound wahoo Saturday trolling in 700 feet on Cloud XI.

Pete Kutscher caught and released a 31-inch snook using live shiners in the Griffin Road canal.

Mike Lendl caught 15.84 pounds of fish, including the big bass of 6.53, to win the season-opening tournament of the Bottom Line Mike’s Trail Sunday out of Everglades Holiday Park. Ron Ackerman and Mike Harris were second at 12.77, followed by Mike Allgair and Wayne Fellows at 12.54, Terry McCartha at 9.56 and George Woods and Mike Stricklen at 9.22.

Tom Williams caught 10.24 pounds of fish, including the big bass of 3.93, to win the South Florida Bass Pros? January club tournament in the C-16 Canal system. Ryan Day was second at 9.31. Bill Runde was third at 9.25.

Pete Henderson caught 16.08 pounds of fish to win the Everglades Bassmasters of South Florida January club tournament on Lake Ida. Ray Borlie was second at 15.75 and had the big bass of 5.64, followed by Jon Farmer at 15, Dan Potts at 13.24 and Andrew Iversen at 11.56.

Miles Cleeper and Warren Geiclar of New York caught 19 peacock bass up to 4 pounds and 22 largemouth bass up to 6 pounds, mainly on live shiners, in the Lake Ida chain of lakes Sunday.

Brittani Lancaster, 9, and Corbin Lancaster, 11, fishing with their stepfather, Greg Swinea, caught 16 bass up to 3 pounds in the canals along Alligator Alley.

Jack Phillips caught 8.58 pounds of fish, including the big bass of 5.39, to win the South Florida Bass Rattlers January club tournament on Lake Okeechobee out of Clewiston.

Sean McGregor and Joe McCormack of Texas caught 37 largemouth bass Saturday.

John Cravey caught three fish weighing 12.51 pounds, including the big bass of 5.48, to win the Bass’n Fools Classic Sunday at Lake Istokpoga.

Matthew Ruggiano, 7, of Coral Springs caught bass of 4 and 2.5 pounds fishing at Weston.

Tournaments, etc.

The Yamaha Contender Miami Billfish Tournament and Florida Sea Grant have a circle hook seminar from 7-9 p.m. today in the auditorium at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences campus in Miami. Speakers are Capt. Bouncer Smith, Eric Prince of the National Marine Fisheries Service and Russell Dunn, a NOAA fisheries management specialist. Call 305-421-4017. … Allen Winchel of Blackfin Rods discusses fishing for yellowfin tuna off Lucaya in the Bahamas at the West Palm Beach Fishing Club offshore meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the clubhouse at 201 Fifth St., West Palm Beach. Call 561-832-6780 or visit www.westpalmbeachfishingclub.org. … The second event in the Bottom Line Mike’s King of the Glades 2 trail is safe light-3 p.m. Feb. 4 out of Everglades Holiday Park. Entry fee is $70 per boat. Sign-in starts at 4 a.m. at the ramp. Call 954-972-1473 or visit www.bottomlinemike.com.

Steve Waters can be reached at swaters@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4648.

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Copyright (c) 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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