I never drink booze but I love getting hammered..

I met Brent down at the beach with the cast net and bait rods early afternoon, and entertained the tourists with my bait gathering skills. Was able to get some select baits without much problem. I did a looong drop on the 12/0 with a large bait and I dropped a smaller bait in close, about 120-150 yards.

Within 10 minutes of getting back to the beach the bait in close on my lucky TLD 25 went off. I fed the fish and hooked up. Right away I realized it wasn’t a lemon, as line started to peel off the reel without much I could do about it. It took about 300 yards or so, and heated up the reel a bit before I put the brakes on and turned it. Then it was a tug of war with the shark sweeping up and down the beach. When I got it to the sandbar and saw that distinct dorsal fin poking through the breakers it turns out I was right..it wasn’t a lemon. What a great sight. Earlier in the fight I thought it was either an 8 to 8.5 bull or a tiger of similar length.

Once I saw it was a hammer, I cranked my double line above my leader onto my reel then muscled the fish in the rest of the way ASAP. Got some pics and a measurement (9 feet 2 inches) and sent it back on it’s way to become a 14/0 killer. The fish took off on it’s own after a short walk and swam off great.

We watched the dorsal fin cut across the sandbar and disappear into the breakers. It was a fun fight on a 4/0 sized reel, and I landed it in about 20-30 minutes. Later on Brent got a run on his 12/0 and quickly landed a late season sandbar shark. Not a bad night of fishing at all, and a good way to start off hammer season. Thanks for your help Brent..and thank you to all the tourists who sent me pictures..