Ace anglers love to live by the sword

Esperance anglers Mitch Johnson and Jethro Bonnitcha are celebrating the catch of a lifetime after they landed a 3.3m, 175kg swordfish off the coast of Bremer Bay just over a week ago.

The massive fish almost doubles the previous record of 96kg for the species and is half the size of the 6m Polycraft boat the two friends were aboard for the four-hour tug of war.

It was the first time the pair had been fishing in Bremer Bay and Mr Johnson said while they were aiming to catch a small swordfish, they were not complaining about the monster they caught.

“I think we were in lot of shock,” he said.

“I know once we got it to the side of the boat we both had a bit of a chuckle and a stare down with it, not sure if it had actually really happened.”

They spent a total of 28 hours at sea and Mr Johnson said they were exhausted after the fight.

“We were just getting towed around the ocean — we ended up about 18km from where we first hooked up,” he said.

The regular fishers have caught big sharks before but nothing quite like this off the south coast.