This picture was provided to me by a panhandle fishermen and the details of the shark and the fight to catch it will be told below Ernie Polk who has volunteered and knows the angler well.This was quite a big hammer and caught by one of Florida's best ever land -based shark hunters.Details soon.
by Mike Peacher
MikePe
Redfish
Joined: 08 Aug 2009
Posts: 106
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:38 pm Post subject: White shark
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about Elmo's great white caught from the Navarre pier-quote
I will make some calls and see if I can come up with anything. I do remember that Elmo told me that it weighed 247lbs. He said it was snapping at the wooden pilings when they were trying to rope it.
about Rody Pate's giant hammer that stripped a 16/0 also at Navarre pier-quote
I also remember that Pensacola Junior College had a TV show on channel eight that featured Elmo and the jaws of the white shark. I remember a giant hammerhead that Elmo hooked and was literally stripped on a 16/0 Penn with 130lb. dacron. Roddy Pate caught the biggest hammer I know of in our area. It was 14ft. long and was caught off Navarre Pier. We roped it and drug it to shore but did not transport it to be weighed. (it was huge!!) Roddy still has a few old pictures of the big shark.
if anyone knows how to enlarge this pic and maintain it's quality -go ahead I can't do it.
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
I love these style of pics, gives good scale so you can really appreciate the size of some of these beasts.
That is a bigun but it ant the 14'er. The 14 was huge. They could not get the head off the ground. In the pic its head is dug up in the sand and the girth is un real. He used to keep a pic in his wallet. The jaws would go over ya shoulders, and any of yall who have a set of hammer jaws know how big that is. A hammer has a small mouth with small teeth. Any way here is the story as he told me. Rody and Jimbo had seen a bigun off the pier earlier in the day so the decided to fish that night. The night passed and they decided to go home and started reeling in the bait, as Rody's bait surfaced a huge cloud of phoprous busted from the bottom up to the bait and expolded at the top of the water. Instant hook up. The fish ran 1/2 a spool off the 16/0.(Back then they used 176lb sean twine) It fought for and hour and a half and was comming up to the pier, as Jimbo reached for the leader it left again, this time it took the 16/0 almost all the way. They didnt see the fish again for 3 hours. As they got the fish close it done what alot of big fish do on the pier, it headed to the beach. Rody stayed even with it but when it got to the beach 100yds from the pier it headed for the pier and kept comming, he tightened up on it and it went under the pier any way. The fish was right up against the beach so Rody was gona jump over pole and all, Just as the fish passed under the pier it ran up on the beach, beached its self.
ONE OF THE BEST EVER
Rody has been on the pier since the first one was built at navare in the 60's. He is the best fisherman I know, hands down! He has fished almost every day the weather permited all year long for half a centurey. His list of fish is un real. He got to fish befor the long liners kill them all. He told me that Elmo had most of his pics and he cant get them. He has caught 13' dusky's big tigers and atleast 100 hammers. So many 12'ers its crazy. A 9' mako and a 6' mako. You go Rody!
Land Based World Record #5 short fin Mako 700lbs
Team
Land Based World Record #8 Tiger shark 928lbs
True
Land Based World Record #9 Tiger shark 949lbs
Blue
SFSC Panhandle Events Coordinator
damn i wanna see pics!