Skip to content
Rod & Lure Guide

What Lure For Swordfish

Tie on a rigged squid deep-drop bait and fish it deep drop style. That is the first choice for swordfish on this site: 64-160 oz on circle hooks. It is pointless on a short drift or in a hard current. The bait sweeps up off the bottom before it is ever near enough to a fish to be eaten.

Tackle for swordfish is a decision made repeatedly, not once. So it is organized by method: the way you are fishing decides the bait long before brand or color does. Each group below carries the rod requirement that method implies. A bait the rod in your hand cannot cast is not an option, however well it suits the fish.

Swordfish in side profile with a long bill, blue-gray back, silver belly, and crescent tail.

Deep Drop

Daytime swordfish hold near the bottom in deep water, and a weighted bait lowered to them is the only thing that reaches that depth.

A short, extra-heavy rod keeps the weight close to the angler and lifts against several pounds of lead and drag without the tip folding.

  • Rigged squid deep-drop bait

    Weight
    64-160 oz
    Size
    8-14"
    Hook
    circle
    Water
    clear
    Depth
    1000-2000 ft

    Rigged squid deep-drop bait is a 64-160 oz natural bait fished on circle hooks (a point curved back to catch the jaw's corner as line tightens), which suits swordfish in clear water. It works between 1000 and 2000 feet. The standard bait for daytime swordfish, where the fish are near the bottom in deep water and nothing shallower reaches them. Lower it under thumb control until it reaches bottom. Take up a set amount of line to hold it just above. Let the drift carry it, and watch the tip for a slack-line change.

    Pointless on a short drift or in a hard current. The bait sweeps up off the bottom before it is ever near enough to a fish to be eaten.

  • Deep-drop jig

    Weight
    16-48 oz
    Size
    6-12"
    Hook
    circle
    Water
    clear
    Depth
    800-1800 ft

    Deep-drop jig is a 16-48 oz jig fished on circle hooks, which suits swordfish in clear water. It works between 800 and 1800 feet. Useful when bait-stealing fish make rigged baits impractical. The drift also has to be slow enough to keep the jig near vertical. Drop to bottom. Lift the rod through a long slow arc, then reel in the slack as you lower it again. Repeat for ten or fifteen turns of the handle before dropping back.

    Wrong in a fast drift that puts the line at a steep angle. The jig never reaches the bottom it was meant to work.

Where This Decision Goes Next

  • Swordfish

    Everything else about gear for swordfish, in overview.

  • What rod for swordfish

    The rod answer for swordfish in full, ranked, with the reason for each.

  • Narrow these swordfish baits to your water

    Five questions, four of them skippable. Name the water and the rod you own, and this list shortens to the baits that rod can actually cast — which is a shorter list than the one above, and the one worth packing.