On July 23, 30 people of all ages crowded into what little standing room was to be had in the Mattapoisett Historical Society Museum to hear Tom Brownell and John “Johnny” Clark recount their swordfish tales.

“It’s an honor to relive these parts of our lives here tonight,” said Tom Brownell. “[Swordfishing] was the best of times any three guys could have.”

For about an hour and a half, Brownell and Clark, both Mattapoisett residents, retold the tales of their “glory days”  and the times they spent together aboard various fishing boats with their friend Tom Borges, who is now deceased.

“If the three of us weren’t in the boat, it was just another boat trip. We weren’t interested in that,” Clark said. “We had to be together or we just didn’t want to go.”

Back in the 1980s, Clark, Brownell and Borges made approximately 35 fishing trips per summer to bring back fresh swordfish for local restaurants such as Turk’s and the Mattapoisett Inn.

“A couple times we’d just wrap the fish up in a tablecloth and haul it through the restaurant. It definitely got the point across that this was fresh fish,”  Brownell joked.

In all 30 years of harpooning together, the largest fish the three ever caught was over 600 lbs.

“That was the best day of our swordfishing lives,” commented Clark.

On July 17, 1983, Borges, Brownell and Clark caught six full grown swordfish in just one day, including their largest. At the time, swordfish only cost 25 cents per pound, but the three still made a hefty profit.

“We were a team,” Brownell said. “I was the striker, Tommy was the wheel man and Johnny reeled them in. We were fantastic, unlike anything else. I’ve been swordfishing since I was seven, I’m sixty-six now and I’ve struck over four hundred swordfish with these guys.”

“You have this passion,” Clark added. “You live with it night and day. It was never just a hobby for us, it was a way of living. Swordfishing was the second best thing I did in Mattapoisett, the first was marrying my wife.”

The three haven’t fished together since the mid-80s. Brownell believes that after 1985 “something changed in the water” that led to the demise of swordfishing on Cape Cod. However, they still remain close friends and are currently overseeing the renovations to their old boat.

“We were always on, always watching, always having fun,” said Brownell. “We spent more time cross checking each other, always trying to make the others look stupid. It was a contest to us, a fantastic time.”

“I do miss it,” Clark said. “I really do. Those were definitely our glory days.”