Official 2013 Big Hammer Challenge-Reports,Pics,Leaderboard

the one that got away

team: dirty south

got a call from shannon inviting me to the keys to hook on to a monster..

all we had were theses small baits

we get there aroun 5 pm and in no time i get hooked up

look at will with his lagge in his hand lol

my first glimps of the shark

after a long tiring fight i had him str8 up and down the shark looked dead tired bringing him back in he got a sudden burst of energy and took me under the bridge and pop i lost him we just looked at him swim away.

Hit the sand last night just behind the thunder storm. The water was dead calm. About one hour after the drop, The rod leaned back in it's spike and the line dropped to the sand. I jumped up to reel in the slack knowing something picked up my bait on the way in to shore. While I was reeling in, the fish changed direction, made a short run, got spooked and dropped the bait. It tore out the center majority of a 12 LB jack and didnt take the hook. I wish I had used a double hook rig last night
After that I ran the Head of the jack out and some little fishes were having fun at my expense. Kept the night exciting.
This fat chick also showed up to dig a hole!

The biggest shark caught so far in the 2013 BHC (11 foot 4 inch hammer)has been beaten .Just got the call, and the angler will post the pictures and the report later on today.

LAST DAY TO TO FISH THE 2013 BIG HAMMER CHALLENGE IS TODAY ----LINES OUT OF THE WATER AT 12 MIDNIGHT.

Team Get Bent with shark #3 5ft blacktip shark angler Bill Huffman
Shark #4 5ft 6in blacktip shark angler Kaleb Jeffery both caught on 50lb test.

7'10 bull caught by Viktor Hluben Team hammerlife
9'6 hammer caught by Viktor Hluben Team Hammerlife

Team: Hammer & the Phenoms Angler: Shannon Bustamante Nurse shark #1
Blacktip shark #2 5'6
Blacktip shark #3 5'1
Blacktip shark #4 5'2
Blacktip shark #5 5'3
Nurse shark #6

Blacktip shark #2 5'6

Blacktip shark #3 5'1

Blacktip shark #4 5'2

Blacktip shark #5 5'3

Nurse shark #6

This nurse got wrapped around the pilling as you see me with the hammer challenge postcard trying free her with no rig attached. Nearly flipped on top of the shark. lol Scary!!

My wifes Cuda 49 inches

Team: HAMMER & the Phenoms Angler: Luis Picua Nurse shark

"HAMMER AND PHENOMS" JD FAGAN Lemon 7 ft 4

7'4", LEMON

Hammer Wrangler Rico with a 8'7" Lemon Friday night
Hammer Wrangler Rico with a 8'7" Bull caught Friday night
HaHammer Wrangler nino with a 9'2" Lemon caught Saturday night
Hammer Wrangler Nino with a 5'11" Blacktip caught Saturday night
Hammer Wrangler Nino with a 8'5" Bull caught Saturday night.
Junior Hammer Wrangler Austin Maturo with his 12' Hammerhead

Hammer Wrangler Team Totals
Junior Hammer Wrangler Austin Maturo has 7 sharks over 7 1/2 feet
Hammer Wrangler Rico has 4 sharks over 7 1/2 feet.
Hammer Wrangler Nino has 12 sharks over 7 1/2 feet.
30 Sharks overall for The Hammer Wranglers.

shark 1 -Hammer Wrangler Rico with a 8'7" Lemon caught Friday night.

shark 2 -Hammer Wrangler Rico with a 8'7" Bull caught Friday night.

shark 3-Hammer Wrangler Nino with a 5'11" Blacktip caught Saturday night.

shark 4-Hammer Wrangler nino with a 9'2" Lemon caught Saturday night.

shark 5 Hammer Wrangler nino with a 8'5" Bull caught Saturday night.

Junior Hammer Wrangler Austin Maturo's Fight Picture of His 12' Hammerhead

shark 6-Junior Hammer Wrangler Austin Maturo with his 12' Hammerhead
TAIL SHOTS

RELEASE PICTURES

Working on writing the story, will have it up later tonight.

Junior Hammer Wrangler Austin Maturo has 7 sharks over 7 1/2 feet
Hammer Wrangler Rico has 4 sharks over 7 1/2 feet.
Hammer Wrangler Nino has 12 sharks over 7 1/2 feet.
30 Sharks overall for The Hammer Wranglers.

Excellent catches! Are these East Coast or West Coast?

To all those who think that I did anything wrong, Junior Hammer wrangler Austin set hook on that fish all by himself, fought the fish all by himself before we even knew what we had on the line. We caught that fish 5:00 Sunday morning. Rico fished with us Friday night and went back home Saturday morning at noon. I called him sunday morning after we had caught the fish to tell him the news. I asked him if he had posted our pictures from thursday morning and he hadn't yet so I had him post them immediately. As soon as we got off the beach on Monday morning, I reported the catch in at 11 am. To all those who think you need a boat to compete with us, you don't. The last thing I would try to do is boat a fish. I warned Will in the beggining of the tournament that there was talk of other people trying to do so and to look out for that. Shark fishing is my life and I've put in thousands of hours of preparation this tournament, starting from the day that last years ended. I never thought we would win again this year. The fish's head and gills are clearly in the wash of the water. This is Austins first ever Hammerhead and HE caught it on the rod HE was fishing the whole time. I always try to do everything right, fair and square. I always carry two boat gaffs with me I use them for a dehooker. I have not robbed anybody, we are worthy and this fish chose us. I'm going to post a full story of the fight later, I just wanted to comment. I have witnesses to lots of our catches, Team Gasparilla Big Game Club was there for quite a few, and so was Team Requiem Fishing.

-Captain Nino Diamandi

Gaffs could be for landing rays or other baits.

shark looks fresh, there's even fresh blood from the hook and where the tag went in. doesn't look dead to me.

they should take pics of the landing or at least a leader in it mouth...

If anyone feels the need to question the integrity of these anglers feel free to give me a ring at (seven one seven 466 nine seven eight eight). Its disgusting the way yall are acting over someones catch. Ever think there may be a reason like hard work and dedication behind these catches year in and out. I had the PRIVILEGE to share the sand with these amazing people for a couple days and was very pleased to see how they handle this sport.

You guys are too busy being hurt to realize a 13 YEAR OLD ANGLER LANDED A 12' HAMMER! Nino may be the man behind the scenes making sure each bait is well prepared and all the rigging is 100% perfect BUT I have witnessed these guys as a team and Austin can put the BOOTS to fish. Take your damn ego out of the equation already and

Looking forward to hearing from anyone I'll have my phone on me.

Team Pork Rinds are slowly recovering from our 17 hour drive after a week of sharking....didn't have a lot of size but decent numbers. Still had a blast

5'5 blacktip

6'8 bull

6'9bull
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6'9 sandbar
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6'3 bull

5'1 sandbar

5'9 sandbar

6'0 bull

6'8 sandbar

6'10 sandbar

5'9 sandbar

5'3 sandbar

5'8 sandbar

My dad got this 7'1 1/2 sandbar on SPINNING (FinNor OFS 8500, 100lb powerpro)

Dad also got this nice 41 inch red

Hello, I have fished with niño several times through out this tournament and niño, Austin, and Rico would never do such a thing. The gaff that is seen, niño always has it with him. Niño is honest and didn't cheat in this tournament.