Hey everyone! its been a while. I am done fishing shark tournaments for good, due to lack of time, morale, and money these days. I have been spending my energy developing new anglers.
There's a kid who fishes the local pier where I grew up fishing and learned how to shark fish named Viktor, he is 17 and one of the very few younger people around that still has a major interest in the world of land based shark fishing, so this report is much more about him and everything he has been doing more than myself or my associates in any way shape or form. I am just the messenger.
NIGHT#1
Viktor himself in the past couple of years has gotten 6 hammerheads and and 8ft tiger, including a 10ft hammerhead me and him captured off the pier a few weeks back when the big rain hit us. And for a long time I have been slowly getting him more into the beach/surf game b/c it is much more personal, and gives you great up close experience. after this weekend I am sure that it will be an easy decision for him to make.
I woke up Saturday morning and the first thing I thought when I opened my eyes was that ..I think the kids need to fish tonight, so I made a few phone calls to people and located a 30lb amberjack for bait after I had awaken unreasonably motivated for the first time in 5 months. And proceeded to call Viktor who was trying to catch shark bait w/ his friend Conner at the pier. and told him I don't care what you are doing, you are going to the beach tonight, they were skeptical at first but i persuaded them to do so.
We arrived at about 600pm, and got out to the beach with our 4 palm sized baits, I showed them how to rig tourney style with small hooks and small baits and Viktor promptly deployed 3 baits on his 12/0 on his BRAND NEW NEVER FISHED ROD, my 14/0 and 9/0...so that if any rod gets hit him or his team mate Conner will fight it,....about 2 hours into the night, Viktors 12/0 takes off and he locks it into gear runs back and line is getting ripped off his 12/0 fast! after about 3 minutes about 300yds are missing off his reel on top of the 200yds it was out and he settles in for a long battle w/ a big fish
The fish ran north to south and south to north about 8 times almost a full 180degrees each time...and after about an hour and a half of fighting this thing like a veteran we get a glimpse of the backside of the bar of the fish..HAMMER! someone yells, and I run out with the rope to the backside of the bar to subdue the fish and drag it in for a quick shot.
Unfortunately the camera man did not get a full frontal shot in the chaotic 1 1/2 min it was on the beach for before I started to drag her back over the bar. But Viktor and Conner were ecstatic! I was almost happier for them than they were!...The fish Taped out at 10ft 7in and was very fat, around 375-400lbs
But we promptly moved her back out while sustaining some serious rope burns trying to get her back over the bar, and w/o hesitation she swam right off! always great to see a hammer do!
Needless to say it was a great way to break into his beach career! He listens well and doesnt get over excited and stays cool under pressure, he wants to learn and better himself in the sport.
NIGHT # 2
Well the next night rolls around, and I still had that feeling, so i woke up early to head to the boat docks to try to hustle some bait up to get the kids motivated to go back out again. Needless to say Viktor was ecstatic to go again especially since we had bait, but not one of his teammates were available, so we picked him up and headed back out. Shortly after bait was deployed Pat gets hooked up and his fish takes 300yds off the 10/0 very quickly as well.
about an hour into his fight Viktors rod starts going off and Viktor leans into it and BOOM now we got a double!
But after a short 5 minute battle the culprit appears and makes its way onto the beach, a small 5ft black tip, which Jeff helped him w/ the tape and pics for the tourney entry and quickly released it
Then about 15minutes later we finally see pats fish after it made 5 blistering runs when it got to the sand bar..another hammer Jeff says, so we go out and subdue it quickly and drag it up for a couple of quick shots, and release her back into the water, she taped out at about 8ft 9in and around 200lbs.
All in all, good stuff, Viktor and his team are progressing great right now and i swear this kid must be made of dang nails cause anytime hes around hammers show up.
NIGHT # 3
This is the Team Rebel aspect of the report, The kids all went dow nto the keys to try thier luck on the bridges down there, we had a few obstacles to overcome with the cold front hittin us and shutting us down for two days, but we had the full moon and a little bit of chill in the air, so Jeff, Pat, and I headed back out to the beach for a session after work to see if we can fulfill the hammer prophecy of the April full moon and we were not disappointed.
We got out and I took to the water and deployed 3 baits before sundown, it was very dead for a good deal of time until the moon rose and the current started raging and soon after we had a slow pick-up on the 12/0...I jumped on the rod and lay into it and 300yds disappear instantly..
the battle was short but brutal. In 30minutes the fish hits the beach
But as usual it was released safely within 2 minutes and swam away unharmed! always a great thing to see!
NIGHT #4
Well that brings us up to where we are tonight...we went back out for night four, it was still rough and the black tips had moved in and every bait that put out was ravaged by black tips instantly. but after weeding thru a bunch of small fish hits, viktor finally works thru the rough seas and obtains one more beast hit on his 12/0. He runs back and bows up on it and gets drug right down to the sand with ANOTHER large fish hooked up. 300yds are flying off his 12/0 and the fish is showing no signs of slowing down at half spool and rapidly losing more line when the hook pulls! OUCH! well you cant win them all i suppose? we did get one shot of Team Pier Bred bowed up on the fish before the hook pulled!
And these guys here were at the beach every night hanging around our camp! random! but they were good luck! The feather hammer duo lives on and hope to see them next time we head out!
All in all one HELL of a week here and are going to try to continue the good fishing on into next week and see if the kids cant get a fish to take the BHC in glory! they are already making noise and the fishing is borderline epic!
But until next time...
Team Rebel out! 