Official 2009 Big Hammer Challenge-Reports,Pics-Leaderboard

well the surf was ruff and so were the boys in blue so we got sent home early while the bite was good..melissa got a 8ft10"lemon,and i got a smally at 6ft6"and another at 8ft6"any way still one more day to go!! see ya.

These are from tonight


Lemon - Chris Bishop - 8ft 7 inches


Lemon - Chris Bishop - 9ft 2 inches


Hammer - Chris Bishop - 11ft 1 1/2 inches

Nice going everyone!!!That hammer just knocked out some top spots.Congratulations on a beautiful fish guys.

Man thats' a freakin' awesome HH you guys, good 'goin TBB!

Correct me if i am wrong...which i am frequently :O)

But the measurement as stated is 11ft 1/2 inches

But that seems to be a typo and the true measurement should read 11ft 1 1/2 inches Adding 1 more inch.

I believe most of you know this already, BUT i felt the need to MAKE SURE you don't get shorted :O)

Nice catch!!

Awesome catch! What a way to close out the tourney for you!!

Blake

This tournament has probably been the most hotly contested Big Hhammer ever.Right from the first few days of competion the catches have been bigger then ever and the number of sharks caught has also been incredible.As we wind down this tournament i want to commend everyone who has put so much time and dedication into fishing this competition.I realize how hard you guys work because i'm also out there on the beach fishing,losing sleep ,braving the waves or on a bridge fishing, or at the charter boats picking up bait ,or at a friends house dropping off shark bait because my freezer is allready full,or making rigs or cleaning out the coolers from the previous day's fishing .I know first hand your effort and realize how hard it is to fish hard while juggling work,a family while trying to fish a month long shark tournament.For those that have fought till the end and have not given up all my respect ,deep felt gratitude

A SINCERE THANK YOU

for your undauting spirit ,and for those of you who chose to quit i wish i could make it up to you somehow but probably nothing i can say will change a thing .

I can say with all honesty that I put together this tournament every year because i love this sport and do this from my heart without the interest of making a red cent for my efforts.I do this for Florida's shark fisherman ,for the sport ,for the club and to be able to feel like i have done something positive for the sport that has captivated me since childhood. Just a note to give you an insight as to how long i have been obsessed with this sport.Last night Aaron Bunch and i were sitting around after dinner on the seven mile bridge after fishing all day and talking about how long we've been shark fishing and i remembered when i was in 9th grade in 1977 at Noth Miami Beach high i had a ceramic arts class with a black hippie teacher who used to play Led Zeppelin records for our class on a turntable as we worked on our clay creations and i remembered that my creation was trying to make a copy of a Penn 14/0 reel out of clay.I started by making the side plates and that went well but when i tried to make the croosbars and the spool the whole project went to crap because i did not know enough how to master the clay.Just looking back at my life and remembering how long i've dreamed,lived,breathed ,obsessed with shark fishing and thinking about where I've gone and the people i've met in pursuit of this sport. Some day maybe people will recognize how hard i have worked to make this tournament a good thing but many times i am sad and disappointed and feel like it has all been in vain and my efforts to promote the sport have amounted to nothing.

Anyway Congratulations to everyone who has fished and given so much.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Will,

Thanks so much for putting together a great tournament. I had so much fun fishing it with my team. The 4 or 5 trips from baltimore to Miami all this month have been well worth it, and i would do it all over again in a second. The sharks that have been caught in this tournament have been enormous, and the numbers have been incredible. We have 2 teams that caught over 50 sharks, which is an incredible accomplishment. We also have 4 or 5 hammerheads over 10 feet as well as some gigantic lemons and bulls.

Thanks for putting together a great tournament,

Blake

Will, you put together a hell of a tournament, congratulations bud!!

Hey everyone This is e polk with the Harold Anglers. We have been watching the whole time. We have fed the crabs 35 big baits this month and we have got 2 runs. the west wind has blown down the beach all month. The watter looks like mudd from all the rain and the rivers. Usually the spring is good fishing but not this spring, we'v been fishing the dead zone. Our hole at Ft Pickens was closed from storm damage but will be open soon. Next year our bait will be better and our rough water hole will be acesable. It sure is good to see this class of fish showing up, I thought the long liners had killed them all for there fins. Maybe the US regulations are doing something. If the other countries would regulate there self we could get some where. Thank you Will for supporting our sport, I thought we were a dieing breed. maybe next year we will show a big mako.

Our 674 lb mako from a panhandle beach caught a few months ago

Thanks everyone for your support .Thanks Mr Ernie Polk and there team for being the first and only Florida panhandle team to compete in The 2009 Big Hammer Challenge. I know you guys will do better next spring and we look forward to seeing your summer shark fishing reports on our website.Thanks again to Ernie and Team Herald Anglers!!!

We hit the bridges in a mad dash to make something happen in the end, but our results did not live up to our expectations.Aaron and I did some bridge hopping hitting 3 bridges in a 24 hour period.We started at Channel 2 ,then long key bridge and finnally ended at 7 miler.

Channel 2 fighting a blacktip

Our spotlight was weak and we had a heck of a time trying to get a good picture

we took several pics and these are the better ones


Will -1 blacktip 5 to 6 foot

we got to the 7 mile bridge for the incoming tide

We unloaded our gear set up base camp and got to work.The water was a bit murky from the strong wind that's been blowing for almost a week straight. The snapper fishing was really slow even if you hit all the best spots with the best of baits it just was not happening.No jacks ,no snappers and the cudas were less then cooperative.

we floated out fresh bonitas with our water bottles and sewing thread

we chummed with our bloody cooler water but only the nurse sharks came to inspect

We ran into my cousin and his Team they were leaving the 7 miler as we were arriving.They reported having caught and released at 5 am a huge jewfish (400 -450 lbs) on the outgoiing tide in between the two bridges and a lemon shark also on the same tide.Neither of the two fish was caught by a competitor in the tournament.


My cousin ,his wife ,and there two friends Varoon and John(sharkhunta)

A 3 foot bonnethead shark we caught we put out for shark bait but was ignored and we ended up taking some nice bonnethead fillets home.

the fillets ready for the ice

On the second night we were feeling like two sun dried raisans the sun was so strong during the day and after a light dinner we fell right asleep and were awakened by the 14/0 s clicker .

fighting the foul hooked 8 ft lemon shark that had me running up and down the bridge

We just got two today despite spending a lot of time on the beach. Our spot dried up on us at the last minute.


Lemon - Troy Weber - 9ft 4 inches


Lemon - Dave Goode - 8ft 9 inches

We fished every single night in this tourney without a single day off. At first the Tips were eating us alive. There were schools of hundreds every day and we couldnt avoid them no matter how big of bait we fished. Once the Tips moved away we got into some really nice fish, but then it started blowing like crazy and messed up the good thing we had going. Thank goodness for Troy and his ability to get through the big surf cause I wouldnt have been able to get a bait out the last four nights.
All in all we did pretty well. We caught a lot of total sharks, got four Hammers in the tourney, landed a triple header of Bulls in the dark, and had a lot of fun.

well tonight we got 3 fish a tip a lemon at 8ft 3 and a nurse,, pretty slow other wise..no big fish but we caught alot and tried hard.. we caught more fish then most do in a year..sorry about the pics with the tip i was the only one there.

Finaddicts has 3 to post and a bid for non shark