Monroe captain lands 405-pound swordfish in one-hour battle

A Little Torch Key fishing captain and his four-person crew landed a 90-inch, 405-pound swordfish after roughly an hour-long battle on Jan. 7, a haul that has drawn attention across Monroe County’s offshore community. The fish came from about 1,500 feet, and because local dock scales could not accommodate the weight, the crew used a crane at the captain’s dock to hoist and weigh the catch.

Captain Matt Pelphrey led the trip. The fish’s length and weight place it among the larger swordfish brought to local docks in recent years, and the speed of the fight stood out: Pelphrey noted the roughly one-hour battle contrasted with a personal best he logged in 2023, a 350-pound swordfish that took eight hours to bring in. The crew photographed the catch and Pelphrey plans to post a full video of the fight on his Marathon Sport Fishing YouTube channel.

The event matters locally for several reasons. For anglers and charter operators, a catch of this size is a marketing and morale boost, demonstrating the potential of Lower Keys offshore trips during winter months. For the broader Monroe County community, the need to use a crane because of inadequate local scales highlights an infrastructure gap: few small docks are equipped to accurately document very large recreational or sport-fishing landings. Accurate weights matter for bragging rights, social media traction, and, where required, official reporting.

The landing also touches on resource management and economic implications. Large swordfish landings attract attention from fisheries managers and can affect how charter operators document and report trips. They also feed into the local seafood narrative—whether the fish enters the market, is mounted, or is released can have different economic and cultural outcomes for the captain and crew. Pelphrey’s forthcoming video will give anglers and managers a clearer record of gear, fight dynamics, and handling, which can inform best practices for deepwater trips that access fish at depths near 1,500 feet.

Photos of the catch accompany this report and Pelphrey’s upcoming video will provide additional detail for viewers. For Monroe County readers who follow local fishing, the episode is a reminder that the Keys remain a productive deepwater fishery and that very large catches occasionally surface quickly. Expect the video on Marathon Sport Fishing and heightened chatter among local charter operators in the days ahead as anglers and businesses assess what this catch means for marketing, reporting, and dockside logistics.