Still Getting Hammered..

Got down to the beach mid afternoon in search of bait and there was not much luck. I didn't catch a damned thing on a bait rod all day and I had 3 out there. But I managed to get some smaller baits with the cast net. Out of frustration I didn't want to run out any little baits so I sat in my lawn chair staring at my actionless bait rods and looking in my bucket full of snook baits wondering what to do. I rigged up 2 rods and ran them out honestly hoping for a small blacktip or a stingray to use for bait. My TLD 25 went off and a big tarpon flew out of the water right as I got to my rod and was gone. I put the rod back down in the holder and let the bait sit for another 20 min then reeled it in and checked it. Still had bait with a tarpon slinky in my wire..so I straigjtemed it out and right as I was getting ready to run it back out my 12/0 took off. Hooked up and brought the shark straight to shore, it was an 8' gummer and a real pain to deal with rolling around like a female mud wrestler. Dehooked it and sent the nuisance on it's way.

Now that was my only respectable sized bait and it was wasted on a gummer. So I decided to leave the 12/0 in for the night. I reached into my bucket and rigged up a snook bait to my avet lx and ran that out together with my tld 25 in 1 trip. Brent's rods at the other end were having some strange runs but the sharks wouldn't commit. Not too much later my tld made a few clicks and took off. I hooked up, and for whatever reason the drag on my reel started slipping..terrific. I thought I had a 7' lemon on it wasn't doing too much and luckily I was able to get my drag working right about 1 minute into the fight. Then things got interesting. I was starting to wonder if my drag was failing again, line was still coming off with ease. But my arms were straining holding up the rod so it wasn't the drag failing..I was just wrong about it being a lemon.

The fight continued on..at first it didn't take too much line but was tough to move on my 30-50 lb rated rod. A half hour passed and I hadn't made much progress..the fish made several short runs to the south and was not moving too much. I was lucky to get 6 inches of line back at a time when I could. Then about 40 minutes into the fight the fish headed north and went on an exhilarating run. One hundred yards, still going, two hundred, three hundred, still going. I have slightly over 800 yards of line on this reel and at one point I was well below half spool..it was exciting to see but stressful because the fish was still going and I had the drag fully locked and was applying extra pressure with my thumb on the side of the spool. Thankfully I was eventually able to stop and turn the shark and he headed back south. Just as I get back all that line that I had lost, the shark made another hard, sustained run to the north and I had worked so hard to get all that line back only to lose it again! Now this was the first time in my fishing career where I actually began to tire during a fight with a fish..I was over 1 hour into the fight at this point and I managed to stop the shark again once he got me down to just below a half spool.

This was it, I was tired and I am sure the shark was too..so I hustled to get some line back on my reel and get this over with. The shark still had a couple shorter runs left in him. Finally got it to the sandbar and saw the glorious dorsal of a greater hammer. But I was sort of disappointed. Judging from the fight and from the hammer I got a couple weeks ago I expected this thing to be a true monster of the deep. But this fish had some spunk. He took another run of about 30 yards after seeing that sandbar, but shortly after I was able to get him in. It was by far my longest battle with a shark, and was heavier than the hammer I recently posted. The old tld 25 comes through again. Thanks for all your help again Brent, I hope soon we can get a look at the mystery fish that trashed your fin nor. Well, sorry for all the writing but this was the most fun fight I ever had with a fish and the most fun day I've had in sports since back when I played baseball. The pics aren't that great because I leave these things in the water and I strongly believe it makes all the difference in a healthy release. I will be out again probably tomorrow night trying for a bigger one..It's hammer season and we are taking full advantage..