It has been a banner week for billfish here in the Northeast. Last Wednesday, a 1,260-pound blue marlin—the largest ever caught on the East Coast—was brought in from Atlantis Canyon to Falmouth Harbor, Massachusetts. Less than 24 hours later, Max Mourmouras of Biddeford, Maine, made headlines of his own when he returned to port with a massive, 529-pound North Atlantic swordfish that should claim the state record title. Equally as impressive as the size of the swordfish, is the fact that Mourmouras caught it by accident and landed it solo.
Mourmouras, a merchant marine who has been working on crude oil tankers on the west coast since 2021, was fishing for bluefin tuna on his 32-foot BHM, the Retreviah, when the unexpected catch unfolded.
“The boat is set up for lobstering,” he said, “but I made it comfortable for tuna fishing.” The 27-year-old learned to fish with his father, Peter, who has owned Saco Bay Tackle for over 20 years—most of his lifetime. “He’s the reason I’m still into fishing,” said Mourmouras. “We did a lot of striper and freshwater fishing together when I was growing up, but eventually he introduced me to deep sea groundfishing and shark fishing, which I really liked.”
Today, Mourmouras flies to and from the west coast every few months for work, and when he’s back home in Maine during the bluefin tuna season, he fishes them commercially. “The tuna fishing hasn’t been as good this year, but I’ve been putting in a lot of time to get on them.”
He is typically accompanied by a close friend on commercial tuna outings, but last Thursday was the first trip his partner missed. If Mourmouras hooked a giant bluefin, it would be up to him (and his tackle) to successfully land the fish.
But he didn’t hook a tuna. Roughly ten miles from shore in 200 feet of water, a fish swiped at the live squid that was suspended halfway through the column on his down rod.
“When I first hooked up, it felt kind of sharky,” Mourmouras said. “The fish wasn’t really fighting or taking line. It was just cruising around, taking short tugs along the surface rather than making a long initial run like a tuna.”
Even on his fishfinder, Mourmouras could see the fish hanging onto the bait before it committed and ate.
“I realized it wasn’t shark when it finally made a big run on top and took almost 250 yards of line.”
He had just gained some line back on the Shimano Tiagra 130—which was loaded with 200-pound-test backing, a 200-pound topshot, and a 150-pound-test leader—when it made a second big run.
“After the second run it breached close to the boat, about 70 yards out, and that’s when I realized it was a sword,” Mourmouras recalled. “I was just trying to catch up to it.”
After a 90-minute battle he had the sword boatside and successfully harpooned and tail-roped it. With the fish secured, Mourmouras made a quick call to his friend and fellow tuna fisherman, Tim O’Brien, who helped him haul the fish into the boat.
A short while later, Mourmouras pointed Retreviah’s bow toward Camp Ellis Pier at the mouth of the Saco River, where it would be weighed in by a Maine DMR Marine Patrol officer.
“The official weight registered at 529 pounds, and the fish measured 97 inches long from the tip of the lower jaw to the fork of the tail,” Mourmouras noted.
He is currently working on submitting an application that would certify his catch as the state record for North Atlantic swordfish, also known as broadbill swordfish—a vacant category in the state of Maine.
“They are sort of rare up here,” says Mourmouras. “Somebody caught one ten or fifteen years ago, and there was another one that was hooked about 6 years ago but jumped and broke free. So while they’re uncommon, it’s not unheard of for tuna fisherman to encounter one.”
Certifying a state-record fish can be a drawn-out process, but assuming all the catch details are verified by Maine DMR, Mourmouras’ 529-pound swordfish will set a high bar for future record chasers in Vacationland.
Mourmouras sold the fish to Compass Seafood, but he still has the head and tail. “I’m not entirely sure what to do with it,” he chuckled. “I might have the bill taxidermied or get the tail molded.”
For now, he has plenty of time to decide how he will commemorate the catch. A record-setting swordfish bill, we agreed, would make one hell of trophy mount above the fireplace mantel.
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