Man vs. Hammerhead

Saturday, July 16, 2016

This past weekend the surf and tide lined up nicely for an early morning fishing trip. I met my brother-in-law and a work friend out there. Our families joined us later.

The Lord painted a beautiful sunrise on a thunderhead west of us. Thankfully, the thunder stayed there.

Once the shrimp poles were in the water, I undertook getting the shark poles ready. Thankfully, I had some bonito fish-sicle with me from a previous weekend trolling trip, because the non-sicle fish weren’t interested in my shrimp offering.

For my big bait caster, I cut the bonitos in two, putting the smaller butt piece on a hook and the bigger head portion on the other hook. The bonitos itself was large, well over twenty inches, so I went back and forth about using the whole thing. I decide go big or go home! I used a kayak to drop the bait into the gulf one hundred and fifty yards from shore.

I returned to slow fishing. The shark poles sat quietly. The dolphins put on a show for us. We did catch one small blue runner. Eh. At least we weren’t going to be skunked.

At 9am, the big bait caster whispered, “click, click, click”. I picked it up. Everything went silent for a few painful moments. I felt a few tugs and then the drag screamed. It felt like I had hooked into a speeding train. The line was flying and I feared the fish would spool me. I tightened the drag as tight as I could and the fish just kept going. I tried to pinch the bail with my finger but couldn’t hold it and burned my finger in the process. I put all my strength into turning the fish around. I have never seen the shark pole bend like it did then.

Eventually, it took all of my line (over 300 yards worth). I looked in the bail and saw the end of the line tied around the internal metal rod. The fish continued to pull and miraculously the line didn’t snap. With my friends’ help, I ran forward to the shoreline to try to gain some line. I got a little back. I walked backward and then ran forward to gain more. Slowly I gained the upper hand.

After an intense 30 minute battle, there wasn’t much fight left in the fish. I felt a few head shakes but no more train runs. That made me think I had hooked into a giant stingray. About 15 minutes later the fish was close enough to shore to glimpse. I didn’t see a shark dorsal fin but did see a lot of white underbelly, so I really thought it was a stingray. It came nearer to shore and showed its true colors – a fowl hooked hammerhead shark!

We landed the worn out beast. One hook was loosely hooked through a belly fin. I think it was initially hooked correctly but the hook came lose and ended up in that fin right before it gave me the fight of my life. I would have thought it was dead on shore except for a little blink from an eye at the end of its shovel head. Then I saw the gills moving. We quickly captured a few pictures and then I escorted my catch back into the gulf.

Landed!

Fowl hooked

Measuring 7’2” head to base of tail

Picking up the beast

Snuggling a hammerhead

The beast, my baby and me

Catch and release

 

 

What hammered my sting ray

My wife and I went out to the beach for some shark fishing

Recently my wife and I went out to the beach (Perdido Key Public Beach Access #2) for an afternoon of shark fishing. Well, I went for shark fishing and my wife came in support of me. Our friends David and Sara Sewell joined us. By shark fishing, I mean catching small fish

Sewell’s pointing out dolphins

from shore with shrimp, rigging the fish up on big hooks, kayaking them out well past the first sand bar into the gulf, and returning to the shore to wait for a shark to hit.
At first we didn’t catch much of anything with shrimp, so I used a frozen Lady Fish I had from a previous fishing trip as shark bait. Something hit but quickly dropped it. When we brought in the bait we saw teeth marks gashed in the fish, but of course away from the hook.

Fishing with shrimp for shark bait

Returning from kayaking out sting ray bait

Eventually, we caught live bait – a sting ray small enough to fit in my hand. I hooked it up for shark bait (monofilament leader with a circle hook the size of my index finger bent) and paddled it out. Sting ray has traditionally been prime time shark bait.

Reeling in sting ray shark pole at dusk

Minutes turned into half hours and then hours with no sharks. David and Sara left. Sunset came calling. Becki and I decided to leave the shark pole out while simultaneously packing up. Nothing. So, I dejectedly began to real in the sting ray shark pole. Darkness was beginning to replace the sunset so I quickened my reeling. I imagine the sting ray was zipping through the water.

Then, it happened. Something large hammered my sting ray. The drag began to release and scream. I set the hook with a yank. Shark on! Becki came down from taking a load to the van and aided with her iPhone light. The shark fought hard and ran up and down the beach. After half an hour’s fight we landed the shark, a four and a half foot blacktip!

We snapped pictures. I picked up the shark by the tail for one picture and looked down in time to see it bending its body and nearly taking a chunk out of my calf. “Wow!” I exclaimed while quickly pulling it away from my leg. After the pictures I released the shark back into the water. What an unexpectedly great way to end a fishing trip!

Fighting the shark

Shark fin in the water

“Wow”

Hugging the shark

4.5 Foot Blacktip Shark