# Hammerhead on Navarre - 7/23/13



## wdrummel (Apr 12, 2012)

My brother and I were at Navarre today for a few hours this afternoon. The wind was forecasted to be 10mph and was easily more like 30mph with stronger gusts, so we didn't even attempt to yak baits.

I threw a bonito head out about 25 yards and within five minutes something started to pull drag. I free lined for about 30 seconds and let it eat, then set the hook... It started to pull a little bit and I thought it to be a smaller shark. My brother has never fought one so I handed him the rod and began instructing on what to do. As he was pulling it in slowly, I ran to reel in my other line and saw a huge tan dorsal about 20 yards out. I started to get a little excited. Within five minutes the surf was pounding the shark and I could tell that it was easily seven if not eight feet long. One more large wave came in and the shark turned towards the shore and rode it in. It was a huge scalloped hammer. I was completely unprepared for catching a shark that size and had no rope or anything. I slid my hand down the line to grab the leader (at least I had some gloves) and he thrashed and snapped the braid (80lb test... Probably damaged during the brief fight since my leader was only about five feet long). The waves slowly washed over him and he swam away from the shore before I could even think to run and grab my camera. My brother and I could not believe it...

Up until that point we had only caught tons of june grass and a few pesky hard heads...

I have no idea why the shark put up a very sad fight, but I am thinking maybe he swallowed the 18/0 hook and that is why. I caught a 7 foot great hammer in St George Island a few weeks ago, and that took me nearly 45 minutes to get up to the shore...


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## bigassredfish (Apr 3, 2011)

Awesome report! I wish you had a camera handy! Nice report thank you for posting.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Great report. Too bad it turned itself loose a little early but you still got her to the beach

The largest scalloped hammerhead I've caught was nearly 11ft long and only took 8 minutes to reel in. Most of the time they just won't fight, like its a waste of their time I guess. A great hammerhead of pretty much any size usually gives a great fight


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## just-a-man (Jul 24, 2013)

What is the difference between a scalloped hammer head and a great hammerhead


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## reelndrag (Feb 20, 2013)

Wow nice report! Sure wish yall could have landed that joker and snapped a pic but at least u did get to eye him before he for off!


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## iJabo (Jul 6, 2013)

A buddy of mine caught a 6ft. great hammerhead Tuesday night. Took him an hour and a half to pull him in. Too bad your's wasn't feeling feisty, they can be fun.

-Edit- 
Don't know that much about the differences of scalloped and great when it comes to fighting but that may be a factor.


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