heres one of just the epic weeks we used to have , before we started posting up on the intenet, i bought a cheap 6.99 camera from walgreens after we would come and and tell someone of our catches and they would call us "liars" that really pissed me off...ive never been called that... it realy stunned me...shortly after this weeks fishing the guy who called us that seeing these pictures ,gave us a Kodak DC5000 digital camera....thats when realy started focusing on getting pitures and starting a new era for us...then we came on the internet shortly after that..but it was a 2-1 man vote from our team about taking pics and showing our work to others....we spent a solid month in talks daily before we would enter the 1st shorebound tourney the next year, we have always been soul fisherman and the "one nay vote" thought this would be selling out so to speak...our vibe is diffrent than others...
we had a great month in june having great numbers, that year the spinners stayed thick up untill the end of may, we already had a record number of spinner shark catches from the winter we had a over 300 sharks releases at the end of the year between us, it was that staggering..i have a few pics from them months but maybe in a diffrent report...just awesome fishing but we started setting goals for our selfs....we had a big tuesday, a huge wensday and that friday was the clincher for topping our personal goal we set...
we started fishing for that yearly big hammer after my birthday, hop scotching diffrent beaches looking for what we need to see but only a lotta nurse sharks at each place with a spinner mixed in...we traveled on both sides of our inlets for a week, yet nothing. scouting and hunting traveling very light for once...zac got a big load of bonita from his kayak on monday, where he put them all in that lil kayak has always been a mystery to me ....so on my tuesday -wensday days off we were on the hunt again...starting at noon on a very rainy day our search for that hammer contuned...
Tuesday catch...
we hit one of our local spots cause a few friends wanted to meet us there , forcing us to fish local so we agreed.....the water looked right and had the life we were looking for in our quest or hunt....we caught 4 spinners, a chunky blacktip, a blacknosed and someother type shark i couldnt tell what it was but it was around 70#...looked like a silky to me. then we got a double of a pair of desent fish on below...one on chris's wide 6/0 and one on the 12/0...one of our many double header on bulls...
zac's figuring out he going to be while and puts on the harness while chris fish headed down the beach...
chris's fish headed back towards us and the line got crossed at one point when we had them both in the wash so im leardering his shark first..
it was a smaller one but a good test for the wide 6/0 with 50#...his biggest to date
a shot of zac's shark a little nicer...
a diffrent angle..and a very rare shot of a pic with zac and i cause we usaly fish with the 2 of us only..
zac puttin it back...a cool shot tho...
Wensdays catch...
the water looked awesome once again for that hammerhead....i hooked up on a big giant fish off the bat that spooled us down to the hub on the 14/0 and the hook pulled in the first 15 min fishing....
hanging on waiting for it to stop!...down to the hub once again...
we reset quickly and we had a epic day on bulls we caught 9 of these in this size class....i took picture of all them but some came out all messed up on that cheap 6.99 camera from wallgreens....we also caught a spinner and then a pair of nurses on one hook, they were mating entangled toghter doing there thang so to speak,a first for us once again....something that many people dont see in the wild let alone catching them in the act!.... and i mean catching them!
we thought that fist fish was a hammer by the way it ran spooling us, later that day we just released a bull, when a 100#tarpon was jumpimg in the wash, then the dorsal apeared in the wash after that tarpon, it was a massive hammerhead all right at our feet, i grabbed a bait and put it on the hook from the same released bull leader just seconds ago... and zac already had the kayak, he was chasing the massive hammer that was doing its circles looking for that tarpon.. he was hell bent on gettin that tarpon and he ment business!... it came back around and zac lowered the bait to it about 75 yards out, with the massive hammer head was a big bull as well....i thought for sure we would get hooked up....he came back in tired after all that excitment that just happened , we were at the right beach after all....we waited for about a hour and nothing happened.. that was good welcome it gave as a breather after all the action on those big bulls and the mixed bag of stuff we caught..i was going to wind in the bait when it slowly took off , i gave the rod to zac saying here ...i want no part of this fish being it was pretty massive....lol....he hooked it, sure enuff he got spooled on the 12/0 but a diffrent type of run just a slow steady one...it was gettin to the knot heading south east, when i took the leader off the 14/0 and tied a uni to uni and we spliced it on...it started acting like it knew it was hooked then and took us a mile down the beach, with us leaving all the gear down up that way ...but we wanted this fish bad...it took out about 400 more yards then it stopped and zac gained some line bad and was making some head way ...it was dark now, and i just rembered they 12/0 with no line was way back up the beach so i made a b-line back to it....i got back just intime when we need to put the line back on the 12/0 ...whew!...spiliced it back and back gaining all that 100# line back on the reel again...i was happy i gave that rod to zac now!....were passed the next beach access and some one was necking with his girlfriend i asked if they had a cellphone and to call this number for me ...to bring a camera down to us....we had the big one we thought i said ....he went to the beach that we started at and walked the 2 mile hike down to where he seen a spot lite....we were very close when he arrived , this fish was stuborn and tuff, it wouldnt come over the bar just going north and south like a hammer would...i walked out and grabbed the leader seen a big dorsal i thought in the darkness, walked steady back making some head way.... it was still very lively thrashing all around, i still couldnt make out what it was yet...we been on this for 3 hrs now ...what is it ?....i got help on the leader and seen it was foul hooked, it was a 11' 10" foot lemon hooked in the very tip of the pec fin...wasnt what we expected at all ...maybe our hopes were set on that hammer...it sure fought like one! i seen that big pec fin i guessed when it rolled looking like a hammers dorsal...i was fooled at night being pitch black, but having that hammer we seen earlyier on my mind... ....someone snap a pic below and away she went...still a nice fish that just pupped out with her belly being flat...its in our top 5 of biggest lemons we caught..
pics of the day in no order....
zac with a nice one...
a chunkie one...
the bite was awesome that day...
zac puttin it back...
zac asking this spinner why he came crashing our big bull party?...
all school sized fish ...zac again...
im hooked up but snap a pic as well since the camera was in my hand multiy tasking!...lettin it make its first big run ...
a nicer one....
the fish that fooled us all...gheeze!...what a battle on this one, a foul hooked stubbon female....she was bigger than in the picture leads on ...
and on Friday....
we still wanted that hanmmer even tho i returned back to work the next day very sore and very tired....i was thinking we almost caught about every spieces of shark we had around that time of year....all we need was a tiger and a hammer.....i made joke to zac about going and getting them, lets stay on the fish....may venture up north fish .....he thought i was crazy....friday came around zac went out bonita fishing that morning bringing in a mother load once again from that kayak, still wondering where does he put all of them ...lol....he seen a pair of nice lemons on the way in that day ...he acted like he wanted to go, so i was hell bent on gettin some one tag along taking full advantage of him thinking of even going that day, i had that feeling!...about 3 pm ryan wonder in the shop, looking for something to do ...i led him across the street and loaded the truck up for them....just go...i had that feeling that day...even after they went i was still pre ocupied to where i wanted to leave work that day, basicly i was worthless there anyway my mind was on other things ...scott came in and i sent him up to where they were fishing , he had a cell phone so he could report back...i told him we need a hammer and a tiger, thats all we need....it was about 6:30 i could not stand it no more, i just had to leave work...i had that feeling , something you just know inside ...i dove up and scott was walking down the boardwalk with the camera in hand, smilling....heres your fish he said ...i said no way!...i thought he was messing with me , i grabbed it and run out to the beach, ryan was down with light tackle randy chasing some snook and my heart sank ...they were messing with me...zac was packing up the gear when he said go get them developed...we had a double that i thought it was a pair of spinners and it was a 110# hammer and about 90# tiger...theres your fish ...there was now way i thought, we just caught all 9 spieces with that silky in a week , there joking with me....he said with a smile ....now go get them developed, i shot off that beach so fast only to get at the wallgreens with there one hour photo down, i drove 40 miles looking for a place to get these pictures develped ...found a place in vero beach...it was 11:30 that night when he handed me the prints back....was the joke on me?....opened them up and i had the biggest smile on my face ive ever had, there they were a small hammer and a small tiger , just what we needed!...the shark gods answered our prayers!...i never was so happy in my life , have those 3 good days fishing, setting out with a goal and catching all those spieces in those few days.....people can travel around the world and never acomplish this in a lifetime .....`we were blessed that week...kharma shined on us!....
bad pictures but zac said he wanted to get the fish back in quickly....scott took the bad ones, shame on you!...lol...
zac running to get the hook out of the tiger...
a diffrent shot before release...
a head shot showing those awesome lateral lines that only the tiger sports...it ate the brick paver as well zac said, it had the bait and the brick in its mouth....ture garbage can eaters, and a first for us!...
i was so happen when i seen this pic!...zac said it changed colors with its moods, darked and lightened the stripes...
thats pretty much it, im sure i missed alot of other details and a pic of fish that didnt turn out so well...but a lotta action , we missed our big hammer but seen it or posibly maybe have hooked it, we kept on the hunt ...but put a new goal to be acomplished mid game we kept after it, had a suprise or two mixed in there as well.... bottom line is we made it happen!....thats all that matters!...we started taking photos after that each trip as well ....wont be called a fibber again!...i still cant belive that guy called us that....lol...he wound me up and we havent stopped since!....mike 
Awesome report Mike great details and emotion.You guys are blessed to have some of the most productive beaches in the entire state.Sounds like you guys did some hard core back to back fishing that June and then 9 species and a 11 ft 10 inch lemon to top it off,,the shark gods were shining down on you guys for sure,,,,,incredible,,,,,,,i've never seen a lemon as big as that one-it's massive and it stripped a 12/0 and you guys tied into the 14/0 wow!!! Just a matter of time before you guys break some kind of record up there .Congratulations on a trip of a life time and for taking the time to share it with us.
thanks will ...we used to fish every chance we could get a few years back 12 months of the year before up untill the tourneys, we enjoyed it back then.....the tourneys were fine but really took alot out of us....not to mention im gettin older!....its a young mans game today, having to fish 40 days and nights regardless, im still paying for what we lost during that period , bills, relationships, you name it...still trying to recover..... it was 3 months long in the begining and the 1st year it was a little longer i belive, now we have your tourney before that and a short rest in between.. if we were wealthy and didnt have a job it would be ok for us, to fish with our all but....were going back to the way we used to fish before all of this, taking this year ,we took off to rest....we have a new fresh mind and our old outlook on things.....having the excitment and fun like we used to have....back to soul fishing for us!...mike
Great stuff Mike , glad you put it up , can't get tired of seeing those pictures . By the way , the sandbars showed up , we got a biggun last night . Fun fish and that big dorsal gets me every time.
Jeff