The year was 1989 and the University of Miami was having it's second annual shark research tournament so we decided to battle the likes of Rene de Dios,Capt Ron Schatman,Jorge and Lazaro from Casablanca Seafood,and an assorted group of top notch Islamorada Charter boat captains used to catching big Tigers,Makos and an occasional Great White from the Islamorada Humps.The previous year Capt Schatman had won the tournament with a 711 lb Tiger that his son Jeff caught also at north Bimini.So Bimini it was ;if there were no boundaries set up we had plenty of expierience fishing the Bahamas so we decided to try and knock out the rest of the field with a Bahamian Monster.My brother Jorge,Luis Iglesias,Luis Kattou and I were the team that was going to venture to the Bahamas for 4 days of non stop shark and snapper action. We left on a thursday on my 25 foot Rampone open fisherman to set up and anchor on the ledges of north rock where the water drops from 75 feet of depth to over 400 in less then a quarter mile.After two days in the sun catching assorted small caribean reef sharks and some small tiger sharks in the 300 to 450 lb range we were like raisins in the sun well toasted and starting to get on each others nerves.The last night on the boat everyone was fast asleep and we had freshly snagged rays for bait out on all 4 rods.Everyone is sleeping in whatever little space they can find on the floor of the boat littered with fishing equipment pots and pans clothes ,old mushed bait it looked like a bomb had fallen in the boat.I was laying by the transom closest to the motors and Lui Iglesias 12/0 that he had borrowed from Julio Terzado starts to to scream with a fast paced hit .I wake up quickly and yell out for Lui to wake up he's getting a hit and he tells me "Wlli you get it PLEASE i'm burned out man"so my brother grabs the rod before i can reach it and the spool is spinning so fast the reel is almost backlashed I tell my brother " Hey !Lui told me to get the rod and besides i heard it first" we're half asleep my brother sets up and the monster takes off towards the deep ledge ,my brother knows how badly I want this fish and hands me the rod and i'm yelling out orders to the crew "'let go of the anchor this fish is huge and will cut us off if we don,t hurry!!''
My brother starts the engines and by then this shark is smoking the Penn 12/0 and now everyone is up and scrambling to lift the anchor but it's stuck on the bottom and they can't budge it so I give the order "cut the anchor line let's go -hurry please this shark is HUGE !!"
The reel is more then half empty when we are loose from the anchor and following the beast that is headed into the deep blue water of the Gulf Stream .I'm fighting the shark as we chase it to keep from getting spooled ,its heavy af and has tremendous power and I am hooked up to the shark of my dreams ,,,,finally. I end up fighting the giant hammerhead shark for almost an hour and a half and when we get it boat side we are amazed at the width of the head and the size of this huge hammerhead .We stick a big flying gaff in it's open mouth and secure the rope to the cleat. VICTORY!! OUR BIGGEST SHARK EVER!!!!.We thought it weighed about 550 lbs but when it was hoisted up on the scales back at Holiday Isles Marina in Islamorada it tipped the scales at788 lbs we are in the lead winning but as things often happen A half hour before the the end of the tournament while we waited at the dock cold rumrunner drink in hand for the final weigh in Capt Ron Clark called in a Huge Mako shark they were bringing in from the Islamorada hump. We see the charter boat pulling in and the giant mako shark hanging from the gin pole looks like a giant blue Tomahawk missile on the side of the listing charter vessel. We are heartbroken the shark weighed 832 lbs and beat us out of !st place by a mere 44 lbs. 
