Pensacola

[Shark Hunter]

No Sharks Yet. Got several pickups last night, but nothing solid. Had a red on Bob's 9500, but the hook pulled. John caught this nice Red right before sunset.

[harryk3616]

best of luck  daron,  enjoy your vacation and give those senators a workout.  tight lines my friend

[floating doc]

That's a really nice redfish.  Same spot?

[bluefish69]

Harry

How are you doing & what hospital are you in?

Mike

[harryk3616]

hi    mike,    i'm in southside hospital in bayshore.  might be leaving in a day or two to a re-hab facility, boy this sucks big time.  two,  t.i.a.  's in a three week period and they still don't know why, they are just anxious to discharge me so i can go home in a week and a half or so, have a third one and possibly fall and break a hip or something, they all suck. we take every day for granted, when some thing like this happens, you realize your not such a tough guy.  thanks for asking  mike,   take care my friend

[Alto Mare]

Be patient Daron, you will get your chance . I had no idea John was keeping you company, nice fish John, but I want to see something bigger . Is that the 9/0 with my finger prints?
Good luck down there guys and be safe. Is Bob stopping by?

[erikpowell]

Patience Grasshoppa 
That is a huge red, I hope to get some lines wet in Oct when I'm down there!

[johndtuttle]

What lake are you fishing on? 

[handi2]

Stop by and see me if you get a chance. When you come back across the beach bridge take the first left hand street. 1311 Soundview Trail.

[Chris Gatorfan]

Daron go to the gulf side the Tigers are running hard.me an brad both had runs there Sunday. Mine ran out about 200 yards of line in less than 30 seconds on my 9/0 with it locked down at 50lb drag. He missed the hook but from what I learned from NMFS today about the bite mark it left, it was estimated at 12-14 feet long.

[broadway]

Hang in there, Daron... I got a good feeling things are gonna pick up.
Nice red, John. That would make a heck of a good bait
Be safe,
Dom

[jonnou]

Good luck mate
out there doing it!!!

[MFB]

You know what they say " the worst days fishing....."

Rgds

Mark

[erikpowell]

Are those big reds any good to eat?

[ChileRelleno]

We fished the Gulf side today and finally got into a few fish.

My son Nathaniel managed to land the first shark out of all of us, he got the skunk off us.
He also managed to whup up on some Blues.



Mike dropped a Bluefish for me out past the second bar, approx 350-400 yards.
Awhile later my reel's clicker starts screaming, gave him a few to eat and it was fish on.
I stopped the initial run, then he realized he was hooked and took off again.
I cranked as much drag as I could handle and stopped him again, then began a long give & take tug-a-war.
This fish damned near took me off my feet a couple of times, very strong, rod & line humming under the pressure.
At one point I had another angler's line around mine after he went down the beach, thankfully no braid & my much larger mono held up.
Forty five minutes (?) later we finally see a dorsal in the surf, no mistaking the species, it was a Greater Hammerhead.
And he was a whopper... 137", yes that is eleven feet five inches (11' 5") of pissed off shark.  
Trying to leader and tail rope him was very exciting.
Tried to get some pics (they suck), verified sex, got a FL/TL measurements, cut the leader and had to forego tagging due to a minor cluster----.

This is where the story goes bad.

We finally get this monster back in the surf for release and were unable to revive him enough to swim off.
I tried to help, but was so danged tired from the fight I gave up after maybe 10 minutes and collapsed panting on the beach.
Daron & Mike went on with efforts for quite some time, thought he was going to make it several time, but it kept getting worse.
This species is well known for fighting till exhaustion & death, add in an extra minute or two of handling and, well it happens.
We were not happy about this, this is an endangered species.  
I've made a decision, henceforth with big Hammers after long fights, I will never do anything but immediately cut the leader/hook and release the fish.

Hooked In
Reel: Penn Senator 116L 12/0, spooled with 1000 yards of 100# Sufix Superior.
Rod: Penn International V TS/TF Stand Up, VS5010TS60



Shark on the Sand