Week of dreams!! 14 ft HAMMER & a 13 ft TIGER(Nov 2013)

Well I don't really know where to start so I guess Ill start from the beginning.

At the beginning of the school year, in September, I was assigned a year long research project in English called the S.I.R.S. project, or Senior Independent Research Project. Well my project choice was a no brainer, I chose to tag and track the migration patterns of sharks, or as I like to call it, an excuse to go to Florida and fish for sharks. So that's where it all started, now of course I couldn't miss much school so I decided like normal to go on holidays. So my first trip and most recent one was over my Thanksgiving break. We fortunately get the whole week off so I booked a trip and seeing as my grandmother lives in Florida it makes things easier. So I booked my flight in to Sanford international a week in advance and only payed $169 round-trip. Thank god for cheap airfare. So on Friday November 22nd I got into Sanford and headed to my Grandmothers. This is a frequent routine by now, the day after I get in I help her out around the house with things she cant and shouldn't be doing as a token of my appreciation for making my trip possible.

On Sunday we left around 9 A.M. and started our trek to Palm Beach, a three hour trip from Eustis where she lives. So we stopped on the way down at bass pro just to see if they had anything I could use on sale. They didn't go figure, so we continued southward. We finally made it to our hotel which I got for an extremely cheap price, only $46 a night!!!!!! So anyone looking for a cheap hotel in Palm Beach I would recommend the Travelodge on Blue Heron Blvd. its clean and has good amenities, the only downside is the rooms are small. But nonetheless we made it. I called Josh(Blacktip Hunter) on my way down and we planned to meet up and fish. He unfortunately couldn't fish himself due to injuring his arms but friends of his were in the area so we all met up and went to fish.I met up with Josh at his place and we left from there. We met up with his friends Peter and Peter and there gang and we headed for the beach. We weren't entirely sure if we were even going to be able to fish due to the howling 35+mph. But we got to the beach and I talked Peter into going for it. I was like I'm crazy I've yakked in 10-12 foot breakers up in Carolina. So he said he wasn't going to let a 17 year old teenager outshow him so we unloaded all the gear and set up. Peter was the first one to have his rod set up so he attempted first. He headed north into the waves but the current was horrendous and sucked him right into the inlet. So Josh got a great idea and said "Peter, drop a bait in the inlet!" So we did, he dropped his three rods and got waited. I was about to put mine out and then he heard his reel start singing. Josh was helping me with my rod and I said, "he's getting bit!" So we ran down the jetty to his rod and waited. It picked it up and ran with it for about 30 seconds before dropping it. It did that two more times before it finally committed. And when it committed we knew it was a monster.

http://s132.photobucket.com/user/blackt ... g.mp4.html
Heres a video of the Tiagra 130 getting worked courtesy of Josh(Blacktip Hunter)

When we hooked this beast we knew for sure it was a monster. It ran due east out of the inlet and headed north, except there was one problem, she couldn't make any headway due to the current that was incoming at the Inlet Super strong due to the 30 plus winds . We know for sure this shark wouldn't have been caught without the current working with us. But nonetheless Peter fought the shark, the wind was howling and the waves were crashing. Peter ended up at the end of the jetty using a rock to hold onto so he would go flying in. And for those of you who don't know him he is no small guy, 230lbs and 5'10'' and he works out every day in preperation for a fight with a huge shark. He fought this shark on stand up tackle with a harness and gimble belt for nearly two hours with over 70lbs of drag on this fish the whole time, he is very strong. After two grueling hours of fighting this shark and nearly getting cut off by 6 boats we finally caught a glimpse of her, she was a huge hammer and she showed her dorsal. It stood at least three feet out of the water . We attempted to walk her down the jetty so we didn't have to land her on the rocks, but with the current, wind and waves all fighting against us we had no choice but to land her and release her right there.

She was enormous, her head was easilyy over 40 inches wide.

Her mouth was wide enough to eat a 5-6 foot blacktip with no problem.

After a two hour battle we had to say good bye, she was tagged by me and swam off strong do to the circumstances and issues with cutting the leader our priority was to release her unharmed rather than measure her.

She gave us the high fin salute and was on her way.

http://s132.photobucket.com/user/blackt ... 2.mp4.html
Here is a video of the release.

All photos and videos of this catch were taken by Josh(Blacktip Hunter)

After this extreme battle it shows you how having a great group of guys together who are very well prepared, all love the sport and ready for battle, things go somewhat smoothly under severe circumstances,and luck always favors the well prepared and passionate.

Unfortunately though you don't always have the liberty of having another guy with you so you go at it solo.

Today I decided to hit up Sebastian inlet in hopes of a big bull or tarpon. When I got there I started out on the south side jetty around 2 P.M. There were birds everywhere but I had no luck and reverted to the north jetty.

After arriving I packed my crap and prepared for the haul to the end of the Jetty and for those of you who have fished there you know getting to the end is a trip and a half.

When I got out there the tide was still rushing in so there were no hopes of getting a shark bait out yet so that had to hold off. But the area was very promising, spinners and blacktips were jumping like mad anywhere from 100 yards to 1000 yards and beyond. So the sharks were there no doubt, and so were the tarpon. They were well within casting distance of the jetty so I got out the spoon and started casting, but after an hour of that I had no luck but i didnt give up.I sat and waited for the tide to change. All the while the blacktips and spinners were having there playday with the mullet, the mullet were plentiful if you had a cast net.

Finally 5 P.M. rolled around and the tide started ripping out. I grabbed my Makaira 80w and put a whole bonita on there and floated that sucker out. A half hour rolled by with nothing so I put a bucktail on my casting rod and threw it out. And boom the first cast was a success I knew it wasn't big but it was fighting when I got it in I realized it was a red and that it may be slot size.

No such luck, ended up being 28 inches.

I released the red and wen back at it, frequently checked to see if my big bait was getting messed with, but nothing had happened yet. After another fifteen minutes or so I hooked up on the bucktail and after five minutes of running it leaped and spit the hook, dang tarpon why do you have to be so hard to hook?????

So I casted again and this time I hooked in and hooked in good. The battle though was a short one, surprisingly due to the shear size of this one.

It was a fat Red that taped out to be 41 inches.

After a few quick pictures back in to the water she went. The second the Red swam off my 80w got picked up on a slow roll, I was sure what it was at first but it picked up a little speed and I pushed it up to strike after a 5 second run it went slack. I knew it would come and pick it up again so I loosened the drag back up and set it down and before I could walk away it was singing again, only this time it was committed. After I felt comfortable I threw it up to strike and it went trucking I had to loosen the drag up I couldn't hold it because I had no harness on yet and I wasn't expecting anything that large. I walked over to the rail and got situated by then I was down into the braid and by then I knew this was no Blacktip or Spinner. I hunkered down and gave it to the shark ,I pushed the drag up well above strike and it acted as almost nothing had happened. I was freaking out then I had no harness on and was holding the rod with the reel around 60 - 70lbs of drag so I yelled at one of the guys on the jetty to get me my harness out of my backpack.

He ran over and helped me get all strapped in and I got situated. By now I was down to a half a spool and only had around 500 yards of braid left so I bumped the drag up even more by now I had around 80lbs of drag on him and it slowed but only a little. I felt comfortable so I got my phone out and called Will and let him know that I was hooked up(he was supposed to come fish with me but couldnt) and it hadn't stopped yet. He was like "what????? Thats crazy he's rippin you on your Makaira?" I was like yeah I down to a third of a spool. I got off the phone with him and called Josh and let him know the deal, he said, " dude you've got a big hammer. And yelled to Peter and told him I was hooked up and was taking line on the Makaira."

I got off the phone with him as I was getting towards the bottom of my spool and I really gave it to him I was around 90lbs of drag up on the rail and I finally stopped him. I almost got spooled!!!!!!!! I could see the bulge from the knot on the spool. I switched gears and popped it in low and started gaining line slowly and steadily. I got back up to around a quarter spool and my arm was on fire!!!!!!!! I loosened the drag up a little, somewhere around 65lbs and let it pull a little while I rested my arm. I continued reeling and the fish took a crazy left turn and headed north I put it in high gear and reeled like there was no tomorrow. When this fish headed north I thought for sure it was a massive hammer. It ran in the beach and I went with it I was reeling like a mad man at this point. I had gotten back up to over a half spool and had gotten some mono back on. I called and gave Will and Josh an update on the situation. Will was thinking I had a big hammer on, maybe 12'1'' or 12'2''.

Then suddenly after getting almost all the way down to the end of the jetty and on to the beach it was off to the races again. Back out to the deep blue she went and this time I didn't wait I gave it to her I loaded down on the drag, somewhere around 75 or 80lbs. I certainly was glad for the rail without which I wouldn't be able to hold it. A boat came down and started drifting towards my line, I yelled and screamed like there was no tomorrow telling them I had a huge shark on. I was very thankful they understood and headed south rather than north. By now I had had the shark on for over an hour and it showed no signs of giving up soon. By then the shark had given up on the easterly route and head back north again but this time more towards the beach. I hauled butt running down the jetty reeling and this time I made it to the beach I got there and got in my battle position where I was me and my rod versus the beast King Kong!!!!!! After a half hour more I finally caught a glimpse of the shark. One of the guys fishing for Red Drum came to help me and had a huge spot light. I saw the notorious but faint stripes of the tiger. And she was a beast I knew from my experience with the hammer on Sunday that this shark was well over 13 feet!!!!!! I had given a pep talk like there was no tomorrow to one of the guys on the pier and talked him in to tail roping the shark for me. So he went to the waters edge and grabbed the leader. He got the beast within ten feet of the shore he walked out and the the bottom dropped about 3 feet. He was is chest deep water with waves crashing around him and a 13+ foot 850+lb tiger shark less than ten feet away from him. He swam like there was no tomorrow. I don't blame him. He got all caught up in the leader and was pulling and yanking on it and the shark came in, as soon as he got out a wave came in and lifted the shark in and she got her tail all wrapped into the leader the moment this happened I knew it wouldn't be good. She straitened her body out and snapped my 500lb mono lindgren pitman leader like it was nothing. I unstrapped and dropped my rod and ran out grabbed the rope and tried to get a tail rope of it before she could swim off. Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough and she swam off.

My heart sank, I was so upset. After a two hour battle and her being that close I was really upset. But I know that stuff like that happens and Ill be back soon I search of another monster. This here shows the true importance of what it takes to have a good team that you fish with and that sticks together. If I had just one more person there who knew what they were doing I would have landed that shark. But now I look at the broader spectrum and realize, I'm only 17, most people don't see these experiences ever and when the do never twice in the same week. I will be back down in a month and will be going in search of the illusive King Kong and his bride Queen Kaka. Until then tight lines and good fishing.