14 foot 3 inch,1007 lb Hammer from Long Key e bridge

It's a small world they say and today that proved to be so true.I met at the fish cleaning table in Fiesta key rv resort a very nice man in his mid to late sixties whose name is Mike Simonds and he was a shark fishing legend in the 60's and 70's .He has the distinction of having caught a world record hammerhead from Long key bridge (3 mile bridge is what he called it)in the 1960's .I was very impressed after talking to the man for a few minutes i knew that i just happened to stumble upon a local legend of our sport.He used to fish with the likes of Lee Caman,Robert Mosler and Maury Vondenberg- the then president of the Palm Beach Sharkers .I knew about this Monster Hammer from the Met Tournament brochure but had no idea it was caught from the Long key bridge.Imagine that one of the oldest continuos fishing tournaments in Florida (over 55 years) and the biggest shark in it's history was caught by a group of hardcore land-based shark fisherman.Hooray for our sport. Now i know how long the history of those reel smoking monsters on Long Key bridge really is.

Mike fishing with Bob Mosler one day hooked a huge hammerhead on the incoming tide at long key bridge and they ended up fighting it for 6 hours on a 12/0 Penn.The big shark was so heavy that they had to bring a boat from marathon to drag it it to the boat dock and had a winch to take it out of the water.I can imagine that in those days it was a bit easier to land a giant such as this because there were no light poles out in the water to cut off your line.The man has so many stories to tell and soon we will showcase his complete stories with pictures on this site.Such as an almost 17 foot sawfish from Lake Worth pier a Tiger over a thousand pounds and many other stories.We exchanged information and the pictures will be on this website soon.many tales of sharks so big they would spool reels on occasion at the Bahia Honda bridge ,Seven mile bridge and of course at long key bridge.love to meet these older shark hunters with such great history to share,,,,can't wait to share them with you guys.Gave Mike a shark club shirt and made him an honorary Club member.I happened to have a book with the picture of the exact shark that he and Robert Mosler caught which is still the biggest ever caught in the Met Tournament .

Just recieved in the mail some great historic shark fishing pictures from Mr Mike Simonds and in time I will be posting them all here for everyone to enjoy.This is another picture of Mike Simonds and Robert Mostler with the behemouth 1007 lb Hammer caught years ago after a 6 hour fight using a 12/0.

Notice the girth and the packed 12/0,,,,,,,Ibet they needed every yard in the reel to catch this monster.From a beach that 12/0 would of been spooled to the knot !!