A New Jersey angler endured a grueling battle lasting more than five hours before bringing a huge swordfish back to shore.
Eric McDowell set out with three crew members on November 4, heading to Tom’s Canyon, roughly 85 miles off Ocean City.
The group left at about 3:30 a.m. aboard McDowell’s 37-foot powerboat, Valhalla, which is named Premium Time.
At approximately 11:30 a.m., a swordfish struck their bait, beginning an exhausting fight to bring the powerful fish to the surface.
“Those things are probably the strongest fish in the ocean,” McDowell told Ocean City Sentinel.
“I’ve been able to catch probably 1,000-pound bluefin tuna and blue marlin in excess of 500 pounds, but this is probably the strongest fish.”
The swordfish measured 14 feet from end to end, including 10 feet from its lower jaw to the fork of its tail and a 4-foot bill.
Dan Pettit, who works at McDowell’s insurance firm, described the 622.5-pound fish brought to the Ocean City Yacht Club dock as a “catch of a lifetime” in an interview with NJ.com.
Pettit said the crew, which also included Jason Olsen and Jacob Bowell, plans to submit the catch for consideration as a state record.
Eric McDowell and three crew members caught the 622.5-pound swordfish off New Jersey on November 4 after a battle lasting more than five hours
The swordfish measured 14 feet, leading the crew to submit the catch for consideration as a state record
Getting the swordfish aboard proved to be a major challenge, McDowell said.
The crew had to rely on patience and persistence throughout the fight.
“You’re only getting maybe an inch of line back at a time and it’s a constant battle. We’ll get some line and the fish will take it back,” the angler said.
McDowell said they had no idea how large the fish was until it began leaping from the water.
“Swordfish don’t tend to jump a lot out of the water. About an hour into the fight, it jumped half of its body out of the water, so we had a good idea it was a decent-sized swordfish.”
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“An hour later, that fish jumped straight up out of the water. Its entire body cleared the water, which is unique. To see a swordfish jump like that, we were pretty pumped, pretty excited,” he said.
The crew followed the fish for at least three miles during the struggle, McDowell added.
McDowell called his boat “an awesome boat,” saying it helped the crew transport the fish from water about 1,200 feet deep back to the dock.
Pettit told NJ.com that the catch was “possibly the biggest swordfish weighed in New Jersey.”
“We are submitting it for a state record,” he added.
The previous New Jersey swordfish record was a 531-pound catch, Pettit said.
New Jersey’s previous swordfish record was a catch weighing 531 pounds
McDowell recalled returning to the dock, where friends and family had gathered to celebrate the remarkable catch.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to do various fishing throughout the world,” he said.
“However, to catch that in our hometown, be able to put it up on the scale at the Yacht Club and have a lot of family and friends there was a cool experience.”
Jen Bowman, the yacht club’s services manager, told Ocean City Sentinel that the catch brought an extraordinary moment to the small town.
“At 8:30 p.m. in our normally quiet little town, there was suddenly plenty of excitement,” she said.
“As far as we know, it is the largest swordfish that’s ever been weighed in New Jersey,” McDowell said as the crew waited to learn whether the catch would become a state record.
McDowell said he gave the fish away after returning to shore.
Unable to fit the swordfish into his pickup truck, he cut it up at the yacht club and distributed it among neighbors.
“We’ve got a lot of happy friends and neighbors that we have given a lot of steaks,” he said.
