Ft. Lauderdale Hammer

Went on a family vacation to Ft. Lauderdale last week (3/23-3/30). With my fiancee and the rest of family being there didn't have much time for fishing. Managed to hit the beach a couple of times though. My goal this trip was to get my uncle who loves fishing, brother, and brother-in-law their first sharks.

I brought 2 rods and let my brother and brother-in-law watch those and my uncle brought 1. Kayaked out all 3 about 100 yards. With it being Ft. Lauderdale I was nervous about the reef. About an hour goes by and my uncles rod started going off and its hauling ass. I was expecting to only catch blacktips and sandbars. So when the fight lasted a little longer I was questioning the reel and rod he had but was hoping it was a bigger shark. Sure enough as it got close I seen the dorsal fin and yelled hammer! Ran out grabbed the tail and landed it:

Measured out to 8'8":


Pretty sweet for my Uncle's first shark:

Couple nights later and we were out on the sand again. Bluefish were giving us a rough time and eating the bait before anything else could get to it. About 1AM hit and I had caught a decent sized bluefish on my surf rod so I baited my 2 rods with the bluefish cut in half. Baited my uncles with spanish mack. Yak'd my first 2 rods out and let my brother and brother-in-law watch them again. While I was kayaking out my uncle's I had just dropped the bait when I heard a loud splash behind me and in the direction of where I dropped the first 2, I turned and looked and could see where the splash had just happened, about 30 yards away (It was a full moon that night so I could see pretty well). Just then a shark jumps the whole way out the water. I look back at the beach and I cant see if anything is going on or not. I'm yelling Shark! Do We have him?! I haul ass kayaking back in and as I get closer I see everyone around the first rod. I run up and my brother is working the reel but they tell me it was there but its gone. My brother doesn't fish and I'm looking and the line is real slack, I tell him he is probably swimming at us man, reel in. Sure enough he reels in and the shark is there, fight was quick and he got his first shark:

Those were the only 2 sharks we caught while down there. Told my brother-in-law we'll get him one next time. Was awesome seeing a hammer and was pretty crazy seeing the shark jump while out on the kayak and it felt good getting my uncle and brother their first sharks so it was a good trip.