One of biggest hammers ever caught on rod and reel and Land-based biggest hammer of all times,,,,,,this is it and caught from a Florida keys bridge.
It's a small world they say and today that proved to be so true.I met at the fish cleaning table in Fiesta key rv resort a very nice man in his mid to late sixties whose name is Mike Simonds and he was a shark fishing legend in the 60's and 70's .He has the distinction of having caught a world record hammerhead from Long key bridge (3 mile bridge is what he called it)in the 1960's .I was very impressed after talking to the man for a few minutes i knew that i just happened to stumble upon a local legend of our sport.He used to fish with the likes of Lee Caman,Robert Mosler and Maury Vondenberg- the then president of the Palm Beach Sharkers .I knew about this Monster Hammer from the Met Tournament brochure but had no idea it was caught from the Long key bridge.Imagine that one of the oldest continuos fishing tournaments in Florida (over 55 years) and the biggest shark in it's history was caught by a group of hardcore land-based shark fisherman.Hooray for our sport. Now i know how long the history of those reel smoking monsters on Long Key bridge really is.
Mike fishing with Bob Mosler one day hooked a huge hammerhead on the incoming tide at long key bridge and they ended up fighting it for 6 hours on a 12/0 Penn.The big shark was so heavy that they had to bring a boat from marathon to drag it it to the boat dock and had a winch to take it out of the water.I can imagine that in those days it was a bit easier to land a giant such as this because there were no light poles out in the water to cut off your line.The man has so many stories to tell and soon we will showcase his complete stories with pictures on this site.Such as an almost 17 foot sawfish from Lake Worth pier a Tiger over a thousand pounds and many other stories.We exchanged information and the pictures will be on this website soon.many tales of sharks so big they would spool reels on occasion at the Bahia Honda bridge ,Seven mile bridge and of course at long key bridge.love to meet these older shark hunters with such great history to share,,,,can't wait to share them with you guys.Gave Mike a shark club shirt and made him an honorary Club member.I happened to have a book with the picture of the exact shark that he and Robert Mosler caught which is still the biggest ever caught in the Met Tournament .
Notice the width/girth of this monster hammerhead
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
Man that is a HUGE HAMMER!!! In that first pic it looks closer to a 1300 - 1400 pound Shark to me. I know every fight is different but how in the heck did they stop that thing? Would love to see more pics of this one.
That is one of only a handful of huge hammers that have been caught from a keys bridge.In comparison Shannon's 12 foot 2 hammer only weighed 531 lbs half the weight of Mostler's 1007 lb behemouth. Those are the hammers that frequent places like long key bridge ,sevem mile bridge,Bahia Honda bridge,Boca Grande pass and a few other places during the height of tarpon season every year.The two in the picture above with the 1007 lb Hammer are Mike Simonds and Robert Mosler I was lucky to meet Mr Mike Simonds in person at Fiesta key rv campground In long key Florida last summer(2009).Pure coincidence but today Luis Iglesias called me from bass pro shop in Islamorada where he was buying shrimp as usual on Tuesday morning (his day off) and was wearing his shark club shirt and met a gentleman by the name of Capt Tony Lea who was in the Palm Beach Sharkers back in the 1960's and he knew the two guys that caught that 1007 lb hammer at Long key bridge.Apparently capt Tony Lea has alot of shark fishing history he fished with Herb Goodman when he was a young man and also knew Lee Caman who caught the 1060 lb Tiger shark at channel 2 bridge in 1969.The guy has a collection of shark fishing pictures from back in the day and I'm working on setting up a meeting to copy his pictures and write his stories ,,,,maybe we'll have another Florida shark fishing legend to join us on this site very soon .Small shark fishing world Indeed!!
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