Baja Swordfish Rocked Round the Clock

When Gordon Davidson tried to step out of the fighting chair, his muscles were so cramped he couldn’t walk, so he crawled--straight to the head.

He had been sitting for 24 hours, at first under a broiling sun and then under the cool night sky, holding a rod bent toward the sea, engaged in a hellacious battle with a broadbill swordfish that seemed possessed.

It was one of those epic struggles you hear about every few years. And, as often happens, it was won by the swordfish--which unarguably is the most powerful game fish on earth.

Davidson’s muscle-wrenching marathon occurred last week off Baja California Sur’s prolific East Cape region, aboard a cruiser called Awesome, skippered by a man called Congo and used by guests at Hotel Palmas de Cortez.

The fish took a live bait at 11:10 a.m.

“I figured it’d take a couple or three hours,” Davidson says. “Then we drank all of our water and ate all of our food.”

What little there was of that. They had learned well into their journey that somebody back at the hotel had forgotten to pack their lunches and soft drinks. Thus, the three fishermen, the captain and mate were getting along on a few strips of jerky and a few small bottles of water.

Most of the water was given to Davidson, 60, who remains stiff and sore more than a week later, in large part, he says, because of the dehydration he endured.

“I would recommend that anyone going down there take lots of water,” the Lake Isabella resident says. “We took enough for the day, but you never know when you might have an abnormal day.”

Abnormal indeed. It’s rare enough that a swordfish takes a bait with a hook in it, but when one does, it’s never very happy about it.

The late, legendary Zane Grey once set the hook on a giant broadbill off Santa Catalina Island and it towed him around for 11 1/2 hours until breaking the line with a violent head-shake. At one point, Grey watched in awe as the hooked billfish rose to the surface and began to feed on a school of flying fish under the light of the moon.

Two years ago off nearby Santa Barbara Island, Cami Garnier, a renowned fisherman who spends most of his time piloting a boat for its wealthy owner in Cabo San Lucas, baited a 12-foot broadbill with a live mackerel at noon, and pumped and reeled for 21 hours before the fish broke the line.

The swordfish Davidson tangled with--Capt. Congo estimated it at 400 pounds or more--blew out the gears of the reel long into the fight, but the deckhand managed to splice the line onto another rod and reel before the billfish made another run.

By then, Davidson was feeling and looking a lot like Hemingway’s fisherman in “The Old Man and the Sea.” “I was able to get my second, and then third and fourth winds,” he says, but that was all the wind he could muster.

Finally, after 24 hours, he passed the rod to Brian Pierce and crawled off in a heap. Pierce then struggled with the broadbill for more than an hour before the line broke and the rod straightened, leaving the fishermen speechless.

And suddenly feeling very hungry.

SALTWATER FISHING

* The hottest spot on the local scene has been San Clemente Island, where anglers aboard overnight boats from Newport Beach to L.A. Harbor had been scoring incredible counts of yellowtail in the 12- to 18-pound range. Mother Nature sent the fleet limping home Wednesday morning on the cusp of 30-knot winds, and kept it at bay with even stronger gusts Thursday. It might take a few days before the water settles and the fish cooperate again.

* Santa Monica Bay is teeming with barracuda, with most of the action near Santa Monica Pier. The “barries” have been a boon to business. Rick Oefinger’s New Del Mar out of Del Rey Sportfishing had 40 customers on Wednesday and they littered his deck with 400 barracuda.

* Fishermen aboard San Diego overnight boats, while awaiting the impending invasion of albacore, have been posting impressive numbers of yellowtail. The fish are on the small side, running eight to 12 pounds.

FRESHWATER FISHING

If you were at Crowley Lake during the Eastern Sierra trout opener two Saturdays ago, you already know how fantastic the fishing was. But now it’s official, according to DFG biologists who were on site and determined, after reviewing their data, that the average rainbow trout caught on opening day was 14.25 inches long and weighed 1.1 pounds.

The catch rate was 1.02 fish per hour, so if you caught your limit in less than five hours, you were doing better than most.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

A new season is at hand in the Himalayas, and something strange is afoot on the crowded slopes of Everest.

Italy’s Simone Moro and Russia’s Denis Urubko, trying to reach the summits of Everest and abutting Lhotse--the world’s fourth-highest peak at 27,940 feet--without descending to base camp and without Sherpa guides or supplemental oxygen, must be feeling that somebody up there doesn’t like them.

The team last month hauled tents and cold-weather gear to Base Camp II at 21,000 feet and Base Camp III at 23,880 feet, to facilitate their non-guided climb to the 29,035-foot summit of Everest.

When they advanced to Base Camp II earlier this week, however, they could find neither their tent nor the foul-weather gear that had been packed inside it. When they reached Camp III, their shovels again turned up no tents or gear. Somebody, it seemed had removed them.

Exhausted, cold and with little choice, they descended 6,400 feet to the main base camp, where Moro discovered that his sleeping bag, camera and some computer equipment were missing.

“I don’t understand this,” he said in a dispatch filed to the Web site https://www.everest2000.com. “At base camp, I trust it is like a church. But I guess it is not true.”

The site is chronicling several expeditions underway on the world’s highest peak, among them that of a team that found its tent far from where it had been stashed at Camp II, its anchor ropes cut.

PADDLEBOARDING

It’s not the most exciting sport, but it can lead to great adventure. Six members of the Southern California Paddleboard Club, all from the South Bay, will make up one of three teams that next month will attempt to paddle their overgrown surfboards from Florida to Cuba.

“What are we going to do when we get there? We’re going to smoke cigars with Fidel, what would you do?” quips Derek Levy, a Manhattan Beach chiropractor.

Levy and his group have paddled the English Channel and Straits of Gibraltar. They also have negotiated New York’s East River-Hudson River systems, most of the California coastline and all of the Catalina coastline.

Of the 100-mile crossing to Cuba, in “sharky” waters against the Gulfstream current, Levy says, “If I was planning this, I’d go the other way with the current rather than against it. [Cuban refugees] do it all the time on Coleman coolers and stuff.”

ADVENTURE RACING

The 2000 Hi-Tec Adventure Racing Series begins May 21 with an event at Castaic Lake Recreation Area. Teams of three will compete on a course that features trail running, kayaking and mountain biking, and face several undisclosed “special tests” along the way.

To register, call (818) 707-8867 or visit https://www.mesp.com. For more information on the growing sport of adventure racing, visit https://www.usaar.net.

BOATING

The Marina del Rey Boat Show begins a four-day run Thursday at Burton Chace Park at the end of Mindanao Way. Leading manufacturers will showcase their latest models on more than 2,000 feet of floating dock space. Free sailing lessons will also be available. Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the late, legendary Jacques Cousteau, will receive the Sea Magazine World Maritime Award for his environmental efforts on May 19 at 2 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults and free for children 12 and under. Hours are 11 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Details are available on the Internet at https://www.goboatingamerica.com.

WINDING UP

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently asked Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to ban fishing for largemouth bass in an attempt to make the state a “haven for fish.”

In response, Huckabee, an avid angler and Baptist preacher, said in the local press, “Jesus said, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men,’ not members of PETA. It sure is a nice day to go fishing.”