Its early April when Rene and I have reached our destination, Long Key bridge north side, our cooler is filled with fresh tuna heads that we received from the charter boats out of Whale harbour. We loaded up our big heavy cart filled with 12'0s and 14'0s coolers and began are estimated 1 mile walk up the bridge to our favorite spot. Rene and I have finally reached our spot and it is about an hour before sunset, we begin to unload the cart when Rene realizes that he forgot the tackle box in the truck. So I decided to head to the truck to retrieve the tackle box meanwhile, Rene has a 14/0 with a rig ready. He hooks up his bait and begins to float it out and screams to me as I am walking to the truck "hurry up it won't be long". I am on my way back up the bridge with the tackle box when I hear Rene screaming at the top of his lungs "It Was Him!!!!" Rene always referred "Him" as a big hammer as I approach Rene I look at his 14/0 which has less than a quarter spool left in it after he was cut off. As he was reeling in what was left of his line he said it was a hammer about 14 to 15 feet. He said the shark picked up the bait as he was floating it out ,it stripped approximately 600 yards out of the 14/0 and cut him off. Rene finished reeling in his line and by this time the sun was just starting to go down and I decided to give it a shot. I put out a bait on my 12/0. So about 30 minutes later Rene and I are sitting back catching the breeze, talking and my 12/0 takes off fast the hit was so fast that my 12/0 back lashes and I hear splashing like a blacktip jumping out of the water I grab my rod and I feel slack. I am so pissed off of what a mess the blacktip made that I just start to hand line the shark in and feel no pulling just dead weight. I finally have the blacktip straight up and down, but something is missing; half of his body was severed by another shark 
from the dorsal fin back there was nothing I would have estimated the blacktip to be 5 feet plus. I began to wonder how big that hammer had to have been to bite a blacktip in half or maybe a tiger did it? Rene said he has seen it before blacktips getting bitten in half unbelievable, another unforgettable night spent with Rene I do miss him.
Will
Great story Will, Long Key is an amazing bridge, you never know what you will encounter there. My buddy had a similar experience in Biscayne Bay at Bear Cut this past spring, something grabbed this blacktip and let go, left the tail hanging by a thread. We heard from some of the charter guys that there had been a big hammer hanging out there eating tarpon off of their lines, we're sure thats what it was.
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2008 Shorebound Tournament Bridge Champs
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Damm welcome aboard Big Will you finally made it into the website.You have alot to contribute here and one of the main reasons was all the time you spent fishing and training under Rene's hardcore tactics in his last years of life.Looking forward to hearing more stories from you.Hey Rory thanks for the pic of the mauled up black tip.Most land-based shark fisherman don't realize the huge hammers out in our local waters.
thanks Phishing Phanatic those are some cool pics. Rene said he would see the giant hammerheads trying to eat his blacktips right under the bridge when he had them straight up and down sometimes with a birds view you can see much more
Will
very cool pic!...in the bahamas at walkers when i used to fish there every summer weeks on end, i had 2 blacktips eaten by bull sharks i mean just a head left! i had one upon the rocks and a pair come in a grabbed it from me working toghter , most def the pecking order ruled there and bulls had that the athority... you have seen where i fished on discovery channel cause thats where Dr Ritter almost got his leg taken off standing in them packs of big bull sharks trying to prove what ever point he was trying to document about lowering your heart rate and they stayed away, yeah right!... the fact is there very unpredictible the bull shark is!....that was the most sharkest places ive fished every evening they would come in and feed on the scrapes thrown in from the fish cleaning station, dozens of bulls and lemons...the spinners stayed out of the packs....i would catch them till i was tired or ran out of bait nightly from the rocks...a totaly awesome place to fish!...but it got kinda boring after a while if you can belive that...
i called Sharkman Jeff tonight and asked him if he had a pic of a spinner that he had eaten in half at the jetty in jupiter....he didnt but he said it was a full grown spinner that was taken in half in one bite!...we never took pictures back then, we made some awesome catches in that era of around 95-99 in that area....it hasnt been the same since, he said most likely it was a huge bull shark...they were plenty of them around there then..... mike 