Belizean 2-Man Crew Lands Unprecedented Monster 386lb Daytime Swordfish
Belize Game Fish Association member Dr. Adrian Heusner recounts his epic battle with a 386 lb swordfish while daytime baiting, sending ripples not only through the Belize sportfishing community, but also through the entire Central American and Caribbean region.
Below, find his personal recount as told to us before being optimized and rewritten for clarity. Words by our staff writer.
Dr. Adrian Heusner [right] and his deckhand Emerson Vasquez [left] pose with their trophy 386 lb swordfish in Belize City, Belize — February 22, 2026.
February 22, 2026 - Belize City, Belize [Turneffe Atoll]
The beauty of sportfishing isn’t just camaraderie—it’s also the healthy competitive spirit that inevitably grows amongst anglers with every prize fish. I’d admired my fellow captains who have dedicatedly targeted swordfish in recent years and ultimately proved fruitful. In celebrating their wins, they inadvertently confirmed swords are biting and can be caught here in Belize, almost an open invitation to perfectly outfit the right gear, the right luck, and the right rigging: if they can learn, so can I. I began with YouTube, gravitating towards the Watson method of rigging, which has had most of its success in Australia and New Zealand, with ease at the top of the leader instead. I’d already committed to getting a permit from BAHA to pick up squid on my next visit to the United States, and I grabbed a few 5-count packs from Publix.
The day practically began like any other when heading out to sea. I’d self-rigged for daytime swordfish beforehand—YouTube simultaneously going—with squids, but I’ve rigged bonito belly, dorado, and more in my past efforts. Bait doesn’t matter as much as a hungry fish; when they’re ready to bite, simply have your gear cranked to go.
But plans changed, and schedule conflicts made our usual Mad Storme crew have to thin out.
Every time you leave the house to swordfish, every angler thinks today could be the day, but we were completely unaware of what actually lay ahead. Leaving from the lift, it was just my deckhand, Emerson Vasquez, and me for a two-man crew loading rods, ice, and bait before putting the throttle down on my 30’ Robalo 300 Mad Storme for Turneffe Atoll.
Tight Lines Out At Turneffe
File: Mad Storme
A little after 2 PM, we’d reconciled with GPS for where we’d begin targeting at a depth of 2,100 feet and dropped down after crimping bait to my Daiwa Tanacom Seapower 1200 rod and reel combo. It takes a good 15 minutes after a bait is ready on the line to get it down to depth, and it also requires a few hundred yards of moving the boat to keep the bait as close to vertical as possible during that long drop.
I noticed the rod had the faintest bend at the tip. Subtle. Then, after retrieving about 200 feet of line, the rod just bent over, and I realized we were hooked up. We were hopeful about what was on the other end, considering swordfish swim up after the initial bite. By 2:30 PM, we were officially hooked up deep in Turneffe Atoll, and so began the 4-hour fight.
“At first, we weren’t sure whether it was a shark or a swordfish, but when it moved up in the water column and jumped, we knew.”
The next few hours went by quickly; Emerson and I had to wear many hats to ensure a safe, swift, confirmed swordfish. Witnessing the swordfish come up angry and slashing at the surface is enough to convince anyone to keep the keenest attention, to avoid any mistakes, and our fish jumped at least three times. We realized its comfort zone was around 1100-1200 feet, and we were at her mercy, with not much wiggle room for control. Just a game of patience until she tired out, but it was cat and mouse into the abyss.
At the first jump, we estimated maybe 150 lbs, but the first time we managed to leader it to the boat, I’d let go of the wheel to assist Emerson. I’d grabbed the bill, but with a singular shake, I let go from it’s sheer power and force alone. She sounded again, and we fought for another hour and a half before bringing her to the boat on leader only for the second time—still so green. For this to be our first swordfish, we really learn in trial by fire: we quickly realized we had no harpoon on board.
For the second time, and something she’d do for a third time before being landed, our swordfish sounded to 1200+ feet. After a hard fight, she began tiring, and we managed to bring her to the boat. Immediately, I noticed how oily the fish actually was; there was an oil slick across the entire sea surface as she surfaced. Even now, days later, I rinse the bill [that I’d kept] daily and can still see oil droplets in the water that runs off.
Without a harpoon, we’d tail roped her once landed, then tied another at the bill. We failed—twice—to bring her through Mad Storme’s marlin doors because of her size, considering the pectorals alone were too large to fit, and don’t retract. Plus, our only manpower was the two of us alone.
“Its head couldn’t even go over the transom.”
I’d called my wife Vanessa to say that we’d be in after dark and why: we’d landed a gladiator of a swordfish. Belizean boaters know how weak a signal you can get out on Turneffe, but we finally managed, and Vanessa did the rest from the mainland. Captains Brendan Bouloy and Stefan Musa were the first to get in touch to render aid; Brendan even managed a video call, and he rang the alarm bells in the sportfishing community.
Stefan, who was running back to Belize City from Caye Caulker after a charter, called to confirm he'd run out to help with a few extra hands. The St. George’s Caye Lodge offered too, but their vessel wasn’t large enough to run and meet us where we were; instead, we’d towed for seven miles until the reef outside St. George’s, where they’d meet us. Captain Stefan angled on, and three more of his family members jumped onboard Mad Storme with extra elbow grease on arrival.
We then pointed the bow back home.
Video by Shelby Musa.
Abuzz, Anglers Awaited To Welcome A New Possible Record
Word spread fast. Back on the mainland in Belize City, anglers of all ages crowded my yard—curious where the catch ultimately falls for Belizean prizefish. Captain Brandon Bowen brought a scale, as did Brendan Bouloy, where we would weigh onsite at my home dock. It ultimately took four or five of us to get the fish out of the boat to hoist it to the scale, where the digital numbers ultimately rested at 386 lbs.
“We’d measured from bill tip to tail, landing at 132 inches, or 11 feet.”
The energy was celebratory and electric with camaraderie. Rum, whiskey, and beers were brought out to herald her 386lbs of brute force; we celebrated, then we cleaned and sectioned off the white-flesh delicacy. I don’t think we’d finished until maybe 11 PM.
I’ll remember this moment of pride for the rest of my life. She was massive. Congratulations were echoed with, “Now I’m ready for mine.” That felt really rewarding.
To date, Adrian Heusner and Emerson Vasquez’s swordfish is one of the largest on record (as we can currently source) ever landed in Belize by recreational fishermen. Members of the Belize Game Fish Association—the national sportfishing competitive fishing body, including President Madelyn Bowen—were on hand to confirm the record.
Adrian Heusner had a vision: If others have caught swordfish before, why not us? A dental doctor by day and an offshore fisherman by passion, Adrian has spent years in the sport, once serving on the Board and in the Presidency of the Belize Game Fish Association. And here we are, in 2026, being recognized by world-renowned celebrity fishermen like Carey Chen for showing what Belize can produce.is Rent Broadbill Rank Belize Among Regional Records?
Always a challenging species, swordfish records have been taken from waters as distant as Chile and New Zealand to New York and Florida. The current all-tackle record of 1,182 pounds was set by Louis Marron of Chile in 1953—whose fish remains the only IGFA-legal swordfish weighing more than 1,000 pounds—but quite a few buzzworthy beasts have been landed, even regionally, since.
Swordfish, Louis E. Marron Courtesy IGFA
Swordfish carry their weight all the way through their tail, making them one of the most powerful fish in the sea, with endurance and stamina like no other.
For context, at 386 lbs, Dr. Adrian Heusner’s country record comes close to the Cayman Islands’ swordfish record at 392 lbs, caught by Australian-born Cayman resident Jason Begg-Smith on a 14-foot aluminum boat after an all-night 15-hour fight in 2012. Caught Wednesday at 8 pm on squid bait, Begg-Smith’s midnight hookup on an 80lb test wasn’t brought boatside until 2:30 pm the following day.
