# Huge Hammerhead in the Florida Keys



## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

A couple of days ago, the Son-in-law (Chad), the Grandson (Evan) and I went fishing in Niles Channel here in the Florida Keys. This channel is a large one between Summerland Key and Big Torch Key. It is known for having a large shark population and good Snapper fishing as well. I hired a guide to go with us, on our boat, to show us where and how to fish the area.


Evan wanted to catch a shark, but at 9 years old and under 60#s, the shark couldn't be much more than about a 4 footer. As it turned out, the 1st shark to bite was a monster. It was a Hammerhead Shark that was close to 12 feet long and the Guide estimated it to be in the 600# range. It's girth was large enough that I was quietly thinking that a person could fit in there.


Chad took on the battle because we knew right away that it was a VERY large shark, and he is in very good physical condition.. The Guide pulled the anchor up and I immediately started following the shark with the boat. There were a couple of times that the shark tangled the line with crab trap float lines, but Chad and the Guide were able to quickly sort it out and correct the tangles. The battle lasted about an hour. The whole time I tried to keep the boat directly over the fish so that Chad could keep a vertical pull on the shark. The drag was set very tight so the fight was exhausting. When Chad's legs and arms would begin to shake from exhaustion, the Guide would take over for just long enough for Chad to recover and then he was back at it. This tag team effort switched back and forth about 4 times. The vertical pressure on the shark was around 50#s of drag pull at all times, and it still took around 45 minutes to get a really good view of the shark and another 15 minutes to get it boatside.


It's bazaar to think that this fish was hooked up in only 6 to 8 foot deep water. We had to follow the fish's zig zag path for about 3 miles (GPS). Finishing about 1.5 miles (GPS) from where we started next to the island. The picture of the island in the distance is where the Shark was originally hooked. When we finally got it to the boat, Chad, the Guide and Evan all got to grab hold of it top fin which was about 20" high. Then the Guide cut the line.


The rod and reel were heavy duty. The reel is a large Penn International loaded with 80# test line, cable leader, and a large hook. The Guide used a 12 inch chunk of Ladyfish for bait.


Nobody wanted to fish for Shark anymore for the day after that. We switch for fishing for Snapper and Grouper and caught the nice bunch of them.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Here are a couple of more pictures of the Shark. Also some the of Snapper, Grouper and Cero Mackerel that we caught later the same afternoon, after the Shark episode.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Brought up this post again because of Tortuga's post about the new record Hammerhead caught in Texas City. This beast was hard enough to get boat side. Can't imagine how tough it was for 1 guy to catch an even bigger one. It really seemed like we had hooked the bumper of a truck.


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## DA REEL DADDY (Jun 7, 2005)

Sounds like a great time! I had my son and his friend on the boat one time and they hooked into a 6'er fishing the surf here in Sargent. They switch off for a while and we caught and release too. They wanted to catch another one and I said that was enough for the day let's stick to trout.

I love Florida. My in-laws use to live in Madera Beach. They moved back to Sugar Land. No more Florida fishing for me for a while.


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