MINIMUM SIZE
None
Species · Billfish
Swordfish fishing in Southern California
Xiphias gladius
The broadbill: a deep-water billfish that a small number of Southern California boats now go after on purpose.
TYPE
Swordfish (broadbill)
SCIENTIFIC NAME
Xiphias gladius
TYPICAL SIZE
100–300 lb
LIVES
Deep by day, shallower at night
FISHED BY
Deep-drop, often 1,000–1,800 ft
BEST MONTHS
Aug – Nov
swordfish regulations
DAILY BAG
2
OPEN SEASON
Year round
14 CCR 28.40, as read on October 9, 2026. Limits, seasons and marine protected area boundaries change, so the CDFW ocean sport fishing regulations are the authority, not this page. Check them before you keep anything.
Meet the broadbill
A true billfish, but not like a marlin: the bill is flat and wide rather than round, there are no pelvic fins, and an adult has no scales and no teeth. Dark above, pale below, with an eye the size of a fist for seeing in water with almost no light in it.
Where swordfish hang out
Swordfish spend the day deep, often below 1,000 feet in cold dark water, and rise toward the surface at night to feed on squid. Off Southern California they are out past the banks, over deep water and along the canyon edges, and they are there far more often than the catch numbers suggest.
How the fishery changed
For decades the only way to get one here was to sight-fish a basking fish and hope. The modern approach is deep-drop: a heavy weight, a bait and a light sent down 1,200 feet or more in the middle of the day, which found the fish where they actually are. It is a long, patient, gear-intensive way to fish.
Rules and reality
Swordfish are a highly migratory species with federal and state rules covering gear, reporting and in some cases permits, and those rules change. Check the current CDFW and NOAA Fisheries regulations before you go. Expect a full day for one bite, and expect that bite to be an hour of work.
🐟 FUN FACT
Swordfish have a heat exchanger beside the brain and eyes that keeps them warm enough to see and react in water near freezing. It is why they can hunt at 1,500 feet and still strike a moving bait.
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From the logbook
More on swordfish
Fish
Swordfish or marlin? How to tell a broadbill from a striped marlin
Two fins on flat water in October. Bill, dorsal, keels, color and how each fish shows on the surface, so you can call it before anybody reaches for a gaff.
Gear
Deep-drop swordfish in Southern California: the canyons, the rig and the drift
In 2019 local anglers started dropping squid a thousand feet down in daylight, and the swordfish catch went from a handful to more than a hundred. Here is how the rig works.
Heading out for something we do grade?
This is a profile, not a scored species. Fish or Pass grades seven fish across the Bight every day, so if you are going anyway, see what the water is doing for those.