[Sticky] James Fuqua aka Jimbo,Jd,Hammer-living lejend

best person in the world to fish with or hang out on a bridge in the keys or where ever at

would love to fish with Jd some day and i hope soon. I have a lot to learn from older ppl that have done this sport along time

Before I met him I was fishing already in the mangroves, piers, and bridges of miami; just cruising around with my bike, a cheap k-mart rod, and different friends catching jacks, snooks, snapper, etc. but after meeting him through my mom, who has known him for over 25 years we took a trip to the keys and we usually went with three or four people at a time, he even made up games to supress the boredom of driving 100 miles like counting ospreys, naming songs on the radio, and counting cars. once we got to the bridges he showed me the best he could on how to find the fish, hook the fish, and land the fish, but after a while, I noticed he while he fished he targeted much bigger fish...sharks and jewfish by simply dropping down a bait and leaving it there and after seeing him catch a couple of sharks, I asked him to show me how to catch one.

so one trip we went up to the west coast (big carlos pas bridge) and he told aaron to rig up a 6/0 with a shark rig and he walked to the light and caught a ladyfish and ran down with it, he hooked it in the tail and sent it out live on incoming tide, it got hit in about 5 minutes, i set hook how i have seen him doing it, and teh fight was on, i guess, teh shark stripped line off the reel for about 200yards and spit the bait, he took teh shredded ladyfish and threw it on the otherside of the bridge because the tide switched, once again within 5 minutes the bite was on, i tried to do the running man again but for some reason i spun around with the rod and the hook managed to set, i ended up catching a fiesty 7.5ft spinner shark that jumped about 3 times.

and that his how jd lured in another kid into shark fishing, now i own a 12/0 and 9/0 with excellent bridge/pier rods.

I know this post came a little late, but i never really noticed it until now.

I found this site because I was curious about the history of land based shark fishing in our state. I remember the first time I read the stories about the guys in here they were all great but I have to say the one that stuck out the most to me by far was the Legend of JD Hammer. Swimming the bait out off the piers, catching 11' hammers on jigmasters, traveling all over to fish and introducing and helping many people succeed in the sport and getting the monsters off the beaches piers and bridges everywhere..I never met him yet but I am a good judge of character and I can tell he fishes for all the right reasons and is as good with any kind of rod and reel as anyone who ever picked one up just from hearing what his friends have to say about him. Fishing is lucky to have JD Hammer and other people like him that is the reason why I fish and why people will continue to fish.

exactly mike. like i said (Hammer)is the type that will show a tourist from out of town his hottest snapper hole with 6lb mangroves, catch him a live pin fish show him how 2 free line it into the spot and have him hooked up to the fish that makes his trip. thats just the way Hammer is, he can just meet you out on the pier fishing with squid and a 2 piece rod completely clueless, and by the end of the night Hammer is lending that same tourist his 14/0 and swimming him a whole cuda out with no surf board or kayak just free swimming then hooking that same rookie on to a 300 lb bull by nights end without taking the rod from the guy, thats the way Hammer is. These are the types of things that Hammer has done for random people he meets in the same day, and hes been the same way for over 30 years.

JD is still making peoples “dreams come true in 2022”.
He got me hooked up with 8+ foot Bull Shark that weighed 330-350lbs
last month and I haven’t fished down there since 1999. I moved to the
midwest in 1980, but am proud to say I have known JD since the early 70’s.
Thanks again JD
Stevie