In the summer of 1963 my sister droped me off at Lake Worth Pier. I was 13 years old and the pier master, Bill Narsiff was called out to the end of the pier. He had his Winchester rifle in his hands. I had no idea what was going on. I followed him out.
This may sound like bull but I looked out and saw at least six big hammers on top of the water hanging around the pier. Back in the old days they would pile up the Bonitas on the end of the pier and then throw maybe forty or fifty of them in the water... Back to the story.
One boy at the end was told to throw out a jack and draw the hammer to the top of the water and Bill would shoot the hammer just below the dorsal fin and the shark would roll over and sink straight down. That day he shot four or five big hammers, these hammers were all over twelve feet, but remember I was only thirteen and did not shark fish at that time.
I will always remember the sight of the big hammers on top of the water, I can still see them in my mind even now.
A fishing story that i'll never forget was when i first started fishing for sharks from the beach one summer. I thought i had such a big reel, a 9/0, and was ready to catch a big shark. I had no clue what i was doing. I remember as i was reeling in a nurse shark on my 6/0, my 9/0 goes off! My buddy runs over and hooks up to something that he will never forget. I remember i was focused on beaching my nurse shark, which was exciting for me back then, and seeing my friend start from 20 yards up the beach fighting his huge shark, which i didn't know was such a monster at the time. The next thing i know i look over and he is chest deep in the water hanging onto the rod for his life!! I dont know how he got pulled in so quickly, the drag was obviously locked down, but he got wet quick. It was such a hilarious sight to see at the time, WE HAD NO CHANCE! The line snapped later due to too much tension, but that was my first big shark experience and i have been landing big sharks ever since, with the help of a lot of people and countless time and money spent on gear.
j.d.,
i guess you remember when they used to bring the crane in to lake worth for the annual shark tournament,the biggest tiger i ever saw was there i think back in 72-73,remember where the sharks ended up.the last tournament i fished there was around 76,in fact i think that was the last year they had it.turned in a lemon about 280 lbs or so,imagine (2) 130 lb kids,16-17 dragging the fish from the beach to the truck and then triyng to load it on the back,then drive back from park and fish in melbourne at 4 in the morning.remind you of the good old days.onced you are cursed there is no letting go of it,and so never more shall we see thee again.
The night that I remember on Bahia Honda Bridge the most vividly was the night JD Hammer fought a shark all night long. We thought he had Old Moe. Right before sun up, he was so tired that he tied his rod & reel to the bridge to try & sleep a couple of hours. He was so exhausted that he couldn't stand up anymore. When he woke up, he couldn't budge the shark an inch. We waited for the tide to switch to see if he could move it. A couple of divers in a boat came along & he yells, "Can you go down & see what's at the end of my line?" One of the divers goes down & comes back up, screams, "It's a m-f'ing monster shark!" , jumps into the boat, starts it up, & got the heck out of there! LOL! We never did get to see the shark ourselves. 
OK, since Mojo dusted off this previously posted story, I'll dust this one off in case you missed it!. It's a long read, but a good true story.
A TALE YOU SHOULDN’T TELL YOUR KID WHEN YOU’RE BRIDGE FISHING AT NIGHT
It was winter, in the early 1980’s, and just like every other weekend, my husband, Jerry & I went fishing in the fabulous Florida Keys. We fished a while on the Old Bahia Honda Bridge, and then decided that it was too cold and windy to stay there overnight. We decided to pack it up and head over to the Old Wooden Bridge. You know the place. It’s the Bogie Channel Bridge that goes from Big Pine Key to No Name Key. It’s quiet, peaceful, secluded, and away from the Overseas Highway. We normally took our loyal German Shepard, Harvey, with us when we went to the Keys. For some reason we left him at home this weekend.
It was getting dark, so we started getting our gas Coleman lantern ready so that we could pilchard fish for snapper bait. There were only a few people on the bridge. When it got dark it was a completely moonless night. We dropped the lantern and waited for the pilchards to school up. After about twenty minutes we were ready to start snapper fishing. A couple of hours later, mostly everybody else was gone. A speed boat went racing through the channel a few times, and then stopped and the captain yelled at us to pull up our lantern and turn it off. Jerry responded with, “No man, we’re bait fishing. We aren’t in the channel. It’s perfectly legal to have the lantern there.” The boat left, only to return, zipping through the channel a couple of times. On the third pass, he suddenly veered toward the lantern, and smashed it to bits. How he didn’t end up with an exploding fire ball on his boat, I’ll never know. We were pissed off because it was the only light source that we had. Luckily we had already caught quite a few baits, and had them bagged up in the cooler. We kept fishing.
Around midnight I was getting pretty cold & tired. We were now the only fishermen on the bridge. Knowing that Jerry was going to fish all night, I told him that I was going to climb in my sleeping bag to get warm. That always meant that as soon as I was warm, I’d be asleep. While I was asleep, I kept hearing the motor of a little Jon boat going repeatedly back and forth through the channel. At one point it annoyed me so much that I raised up on my elbow and peered through the void on the side of the bridge to see what was going on. I could vaguely see the outline of the boat which had no running lights. Whoever was on the boat shined a flashlight in my face. I laid back down and fell asleep. Awhile later the boat stopped going through the channel and I settled into a restful sleep. Jerry must’ve run out of bait because he was in his sleeping bag sound asleep too.
Have you ever been somewhere and felt somebody looking at you? You know the feeling. It makes you turn around. Well, while I was in a deep sleep, I suddenly had that feeling. My eyes popped open and all I could see in the complete darkness was the silhouette of some really big muscular guy standing at the foot of our sleeping bags and he had a frigging baseball bat in his hand! OH MY GOD! I instantly scrambled to my feet. My mind was reeling and I had a flood of thoughts going through my head. “Think fast Fuqua, you’ve never been in so much danger as you are in now. Don’t freak out. Show no fear” was all I could think of. In a calm quiet tone of voice, I started talking for our lives. The whole time, I’m inconspicuously nudging Jerry with my heel and praying that he’ll wake up. “Hey man, how are you? We ran out of bait so we decided to get a couple of hours of sleep before daybreak. We were partying a lot, so we were pretty tired. Are you getting ready to fish?” (My best dumb blond imitation.) He listened, and then said, “My car got stuck in the mud on No Name. Can you take me down there to get it?” Dear God in heaven, if I wasn’t scared before, I was terrified now. I knew that if I left the bridge with him, I wouldn’t be coming back. He’d probably kill me, then come back up the bridge to kill Jerry. My heart felt like it was going to pop out of my chest. I said the only thing that would make sense. “Oh, wow, I’m sorry. We cruised here on fumes. We don’t even have enough gas in the car to make it over the bridge. We have to wait for the fish camp to open up in the morning so that we can buy some gas at the boat pumps. There’s a pay phone down there. I’ll be happy to give you some change to make a call.” I’m holding my breath and digging in my jeans pocket for coins. I gave him the change in my pocket. He thanked me and I could see him walk about twenty feet closer to Big Pine Key. It was so dark you couldn’t see any further than that.
I laid back down on top of the sleeping bag and started poking Jerry in the ribs. When he opened his eyes, I cupped my hand around his ear and started whispering to explain what had just happened. His response was, “Where? I don’t see anybody.” No chit Sherlock. It was too dark. Jerry went right back to sleep. There was no way on God’s green earth that I was going back to sleep. My eyes were wide open. I know to this day that the guy crossed the street and doubled back and stood there watching us. I could feel him watching to see what was going to happen. After what seemed like forever, I heard the engine of the Jon boat come to life. The baseball bat wielding guy was in the Jon boat. There was no car stuck on No Name Key! I sat up with my sleeping bag wrapped around me, shaking from fear. I waited for daylight for what seemed like an eternity.
The next morning, there was smoke pouring from a boat that was close to the Spanish Harbor Bridge. It was a cabin cruiser and it was on fire! By 7 AM, the Marine Patrol car came to the bridge and stopped next to us. The officer asked if we’d been out on the bridge all night. I told him yes and he wanted to know if anything unusual had happened. I poured out my guts with all the details of the night’s events starting with the maniac who’d smashed our lantern with his speed boat and ending with the maniac with the baseball bat. He told us that someone had stolen two boats from Doctor’s Arms last night. (It’s the first housing development on Big Pine, closest to the bridge.) They stole a cabin cruiser and a Jon boat. The thieves were using it to off load square grouper, then set the cabin cruiser on fire to conceal the evidence. The Marine Patrol was searching for the Jon boat. “Do you know how lucky you are to be alive?” he asked. WELL HELL’S BELLS, IF I DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE, I SURE DO NOW!!!
The speed boat wanted to get rid of the lantern so that nobody could see what they were doing. The guy in the Jon boat wanted to make sure that we weren’t informants who were watching the operation.
I guess the rule is: If you’re going to sleep on a secluded bridge at night, you better have a big dog or a fast thinking woman with you!
I couldn't find the post FG i looked?
Didn't we have a whole section for these kind of story's?
Yes, Mojo, it is in the ARCHIVES,TALL TALES,CLASSIC STORIES.and HISTORIC SHARK FISHING LANDMARKS
area titled Tales of Terror when Land Based Fisihing. 
Great topic .Moved it to the "Florida fishing reports" section and gave it a sticky.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
The Big Lemon!!!!
The question is did it clear 11FT?
It's late August in 2006. I had not been Shark Fishing in a while and was anxious to get out there. My uncle and cousins pick me up at 5AM ( the usual time when we head out to the Keys ) and off we go to our favorite Bridge Channel 5. Now Channel 5 is by no means the best fishing bridge in the Keys, but it is one of the most comfortbale ones and one that we have fished for a longtime. My father and grandfather used to fish off the rocks on the north side back in the days and I use to go with them. Like any bridge in the Keys though it holds good fish. So on the way to the keys we go and we encounter non stop rain the whole way there including some lightning. My uncle and I are just hoping it clears up a bit as we do have my little cousins with us. After stopping to get some bait we arrive at Channel 5 around 7AM. The rain has stopped but it's very overcast. I can still remember this day perfectly. When we arrive the current is incoming and a friend of mine had given me some Nice Dolphin Carcasses ( not one of my favorite baits ) for Shark bait. I quickly put a big Dolphin head on the incoming tide and I begin my search for the Cudas while I have my bottom baits down as well. I remember the Cudas were scarce to the point I didn't even see one and had none chasing my Tube Lure. My little cousin happened to catch a Pinfish and I quickly put it on one of my rods on a balloon not too far from the bridge. By this time the tide had changed and was outgoing. Finally a Cuda showed up but didn't hit the Pinfish, then a couple of minutes later my my rod takes off and i'm on with Mr. Cuda. The Cuda's got me wrapped around the pilings but i'm able to get him off. My uncle drops the gaff and we know have Fresh Shark Bait. By now it's about 11AM and the clouds are beginning to lift and the sun is starting to make it's appearance. I get my 10/0 ready and out goes 3/4 of the Cuda as I left the tail section for my uncle's Shark Rod. I balloon the bait out and leave the Cuda on the balloon to try and keep the Nurse's away. Not 10 minutes later I get a slow solid hit on the 10/0. Now most of the time when a Shark hits, the balloon line gets cut off. well this Shark hit slow and I can actually see the Shark dragging the balloon on top of the water. The Shark is heading to my left. I let the Shark eat and then I set up. I know some on here use the running man and maybe I should try it some time, but my set ups are reel until it's tight and then set up multiple times. Around my fourth set up the Shark slams me down and continues heading left. Now the frustration begins. THE DARN LOBSTER TRAPS!!!!!!!!!! After Lobster mini season the keys gets inundated with traps and will cost you fish. The Shark is heading left and I start bringing it in slowly. Or maybe it's doing what it wants as this Shark is strong and has the current to it's advantage. As the Shark is heading left I notice a few Lobster Traps in it's path. I try hard to get the Shark inside the traps but second guessing myself now I guess I should have let the Shark go around. Darn The Shark his hung up on a lobster trap. Now the Shark begins doing a Jaws impersonation and starts taking the Trap under water. We still don't know what kind of Shark it is until it comes up one time while hung up and we see those Dorsal's of a Lemon Shark. Now you can really admire the size of this Shark as you could see it come up about 50 - 75 yards off the bridge. This Shark has such a big girth that my uncle says it has to a Bull!!!! But we both saw the same thing and you can clearly see it's a huge Lemon Shark. I have caught some Big Lemons but i'm telling you this Shark cleared 10ft. Back to the fight. I try and get the Lemon off the Trap but i'm unsuccessful. The next step is I try and pull back hard and either pop it or get him off. My 80lb test pops. The Big Lemon is gone. I'm hoping he's off the trap and free. It seems like it because the trap is no longer going under and the Shark can't be seen. Now it get's weird. I rig up and put another Dolphin out there. By the late afternoon no hits and we are ready to head back home. As I'm reeling in my 10/0 my line snags my broken line from earlier in the day and right in front of us on another trap we see the silouette of a big Shark! The Shark and the excess line got hung up on another trap. Of course crazy things cross your mind about diving in and freeing up the line but I'm not that crazy. The Shark is bout 30 yards of the bridge and about 4ft - 5ft underwater and all you can see is this Big Shark swimming in circles around the lobster trap. I'm hoping when I pull on the line hard it will free up the Shark. And that's exactly what happens. The line pops and the Shark is now gone for good. I still wonder to this day. The Shark cleared 10FT but did it clear 11FT?
Here are a couple of pics from that day.
I believe the Sharks was already hung up on the lobster trap in this pic.
Great story Luis! I think the ones that get away irritate us the most, especially since you had the chance to see it. 
Great storie partner.
Thanks. Hey Janet I remember reading your story when you posted it. Crazy!!!! There is not shortage of weirdo's out there that's for sure. Getting walked up on by some stranger in the middle of the night is not good. Especially if your partner is asleep!!!! Oh and I think the most frustrating thing is when you lose a nice Shark and you never got to see it. You don't know what you had on!!!!!
Back in the 1940's,
Robert C. Harris my grandfather and his friend Bruce Thomas and his brother Richard Harris where fishing the channel 5 bridge Key West, FL.
They hooked up on a large Tarpon, but it went under the bridge and came out on the other side. One of the fishermen went over to the other side of the bridge,
and dropped a feather jig and caught the line, and pulled the line up into his hands. Then the person with the rod set the drag,
and dropped the rod and reel off the side of the bridge. The other person on the other side then pulled the line up untill he reached the tip of the rod. They continued to fish on the other side of the bridge.
They all helped each other on catching the Tarpon with a little bit of help and quick thinking.
Thought you guys would enjoy the story. It has been told in my family for many years and will get passed on to my two sons when they get older.
Here is one of the pictures I found going through my Grandfather old fishing gear.
Robert C. Harris and the Tarpon.
CLASSIC KEYS BRIDGE FISHING STORY,,,,,,,,thanks for sharing it with us.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
Great storie. Ive been passing rod under the bridge since 1968. Your grandfather has me beat by far. 