Hello Samuel, can you introduce yourself to the readers of Fishing.news?
Samuel Urbain -Hello to all ! My name is Samuel Urbain, I'm 36 years old, I'm originally from Belgium and I currently live in Sainte-Maxime in the Var.
I started fishing in Belgium with my father and my great-grandfather, looking for freshwater fish and more precisely on the Meuse river.
I started fishing in the Mediterranean a little less than twenty years ago... I started by searching for bonito, pelamid, wolfish, barracuda, trolling... A few years later, I started to fish for tuna, off the Islands of Hyères, with fast trolling or with scrambling, but also for yellowtail and dentex with slow trolling, jigging and soft lures.
For almost ten years now, I have been focusing and specializing on the fishing of Xiphias swordfish, "The" mythical fish that every fisherman dreams of having at the end of his line and that's why I'm specifically interested in this one!
You just won for the fourth time the title of the best swordfish fisherman in the world, congratulations. Can you tell us more?
Samuel Urbain -So I won this competition for the fourth time, but not consecutively... I won in 2017-2019-2020-2022. And I finished second in 2018 and 2021!
It is an international competition organized by the famous "The Billfish Foundation" the world's largest foundation for the protection, preservation and research of billfish.
This competition takes place over a full year, the goal is to tag as many fish as possible over the year! Marking the fish consists in placing a small tag called "Tag", then we release the fish quickly.
The purpose of marking the fish is to see their evolution and movements, it is essentially for the protection and preservation of the species.
The competition takes place all over the world and everyone fishes in his region... And it is spread over a year (from November 1st to October 31st) so that everyone can fish during the best period of his region... For example, in our region, summer is the best period, but in other parts of the world, it is in spring or during our winter.
Why and how did you decide to participate in such a competition?
Samuel Urbain -Let's say that at first, I started to tag and release swordfish, because one or two nice fish in a season are more than enough for your personal consumption... And then came an even greater protection of the species by following some recommendations of ICCAT which directed us to a 100% no-kill.
And then I said to myself, I am going to intensify the tagging of swordfish in order to collect a maximum of information to contribute at my level to their protection and preservation in the Mediterranean. And given the rather large number of catches, I decided to participate in this competition.
So you fish in France?
Samuel Urbain -Yes, I fish almost exclusively in France, and you will have understood that my favorite fishes are swordfishes. I also like to hunt big bluefin tuna with a scraper.
Your next dream is to get a fifth title?
Samuel Urbain -My plans... Continue my passion as long as I can ! And why not other titles in the future years... Pass on my passion to my son if he wishes. I would like to become a fishing guide in order to share my passion for the Xiphias and to be able to welcome fishermen from all over the world so that they can confront themselves with these Mediterranean giants... But unfortunately, I am currently short of time to obtain the necessary certificates to exercise this profession which requires a long training.
Do you have any advice for those who would like to compete against a swordfish one day?
Samuel Urbain -It is necessary to be patient, because it is a fish rather difficult to target specifically, but so fascinating... Concerning the fishing techniques used for sport, the most known is to look for them at night. But for the last fifteen years, day fishing has become more popular, because it is much more comfortable... Nevertheless, it is much more difficult to achieve!
The techniques can vary greatly depending on the regions, the currents and the behavior of the fish, so it is necessary to adapt the rigs to compensate for these differences... Hence the complexity of their research and the success of this fishing, which makes all the charm!
