When Trade Desk, a 60-foot Hatteras, left Orange Beach for three days of catch-and-release billfishing, hooking a swordfish was just an afterthought, one that would stress all their resources as well as enter the Alabama Saltwater Record Book.

Robert Fritze, his dad (Ron) and four buddies (Harold Wells, Jamie Boyd, Wes Hagler, Robert Parks) had scheduled the trip a while back for August 14-16 with the main goal of finding marlin and sailfish.

“We saw where people were having success catching blues, whites and sails,” said Fritze, who hails from Birmingham. “We headed out southwest and thought about deep-dropping, but that wasn’t the main goal, so we just decided to push on.”

The crew was near the Delta House oil and gas production platform in 4,500 feet of water when they discovered a r

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