Over 9ft hammerhead shark caught on Penn 4/0

boghy · February 04, 2011, 06:49:10 AM

Well,

I have to admit - what a great fight!
In South Florida there is a fishing pier known as Lake Worth Pier, where i just had my first 9ft hammerhead shark few hours ago.
I have a left hand retrieve Penn Senator 4/0 reel spooled with 500yds of 100lbs braided line. This reel was on an 8' Crowder rod rated at 30-80lbs line. The fight lasted over an hour and a half from around 9pm to aprox 10:30pm.
The reason why i really decided to post here, this report, is to prove that Cal's grease really did his job. Many shark fishermen that helped me to fight the shark couldn't believe how smooth the drag was. They thought that after so much drag tension my star drag will be really hot or even start smoking but NO! The star drag was just warm the entire fight! And, let me tell you something - this fish pulled hard - hundreds of yards of braided line several times. There where 5 guys fighting this shark with drag tensions anywhere from 14lbs all the way up to 20lbs towards the end of the fight.
I learn a lot from this forum, and i realized how many advantages i got just by being a member of this forum.
Overall what works - works!

P.S. Thank you Alan for not banning me when i sign up on this forum due to that small technical misleading - that would make me lose this wonderful animal which is the hammerhead.

Norcal Pescador · February 04, 2011, 04:58:56 PM

Can you post a picture??

boghy · February 04, 2011, 07:20:37 PM

Yes, as soon as i will get them from others. My camera couldn't take any pictures in dark for some reason, but other guys toked nice pictures.

boghy · February 08, 2011, 06:54:26 AM

Finally, here are the photos with the 9ft hammerhead shark caught on Penn 4/0 reel 100lbs braided line 500yds:

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...two hours of fight!

alantani · February 08, 2011, 06:13:13 PM

10 years ago, guys were saying that grease was bad. times have definitely changed. nice catch! alan

boghy · February 08, 2011, 11:15:48 PM

Quote from: alantani on February 08, 2011, 06:13:13 PM
10 years ago, guys were saying that grease was bad. times have definitely changed. nice catch! alan

To be honest with you Alan, after this great catch - i can say FOR FACT that Cal's grease works!
If i would have a harness, then i would be able to hammer this fish harder, but my arms were in paint from this fight!
After one hour of fight the shark had a surprising huge run, over 160yds of line which he never did before! We had to increase the drag by 3-4lb to stop him - and it stopped after 20-30 sec of increased drag tension. People around me they start yelling in the background "you'll be spooled, you'll be spooled" meanwhile you could hear the line pealing off 160yds!!! Someone said in all this crazy moments "don't touch your star drag cause will be super hot" - he was SO WRONG!!!! WAS WARM!!!
After all that crazy run i was able to reel-in all the line and soddenly the shark decided to go towards the shore. Imagine me running in same direction on that pier while i was reeling-in as hard as i could. It was crazy!! What was more crazy is that when i did that run i was looking behind me and another 15-20 people followed me to watch the action. Oh boy, what scene! When the hammerhead got near to shore, about 20yds in 6-7ft of water, he decided to go underneath the pier. By that time someone else had my rod fighting it - my arms were already sore. I was looking from the profile how that fisherman laid down as hard as he cloud with the rod over the railing, then i start seeing my rod bending 30 degree 40, 50, 70, 80 90 degree - i'm thinking (oh my God the rod will snap) - 100 degree bend in the rod - then the line from the reel star to peal off and suddenly the shark turned back in same direction where he went in between pilings. After that again he decided to run back towards the ocean and again we start running after him. At the end of the pier we decided to increase again the drag tension and we did so to stop him to do another big run. Then after 30-40yds the shark stopped being exhausted. We reeled in the fish next to the piers toked few photos and the hammerhead shark was released.
When i got home i measured the drag tension and in got 18.7lb of drag. By knowing that i would appreciate that the tension on the reel when the fish did that 160yds of run was around 13-15lbs.

broadway · March 02, 2011, 04:41:10 PM

Boghy,

I have a ton of faith in Cal's grease, but ya gotta give that 4/0 a lot of credit... I love hearing/ seeing a small senator produce such a large fish! Great Catch!!!
Dom

Tile · March 31, 2011, 10:33:42 AM

I have to say congratulations for your catch. The reel did an absolutely flawless performance during the drill. Otto did an excellent job when he layed out the design for the Senator series back in the 30s.

blktwr2660 · July 16, 2011, 08:45:35 PM

Way to go,Have a soft spot for shore bound anglers,Was one at one time so I can say be there and done that.I'm so glad to here you released it to fight a another day

.Have been lucky in life and biz.don't have to fish on shore any more,but still miss it at times.Hey! any of you guy's who still fish shore bound keep it up.Keep the faith.Sorry Alan

didn't mean to take over but I do have a soft spot for anglers who are shore bound,Something to do with cost of a fishing platform.Thanks

I know what a very busy man you truely are

13starsinax · July 16, 2011, 09:47:02 PM

very nice!

slip tip · August 05, 2011, 09:05:41 AM

Once on a 10 day long range trip I caught a "toad" of a hammerhead. Damn thing fought like a 300# tuna! Nice job and a great catch!

Regards,
David

Board4life · August 05, 2011, 10:39:10 AM

Prob would have only taken 30 min if your handle was on the other side of the reel... lol.

Nice fish...

trishul · September 22, 2011, 04:31:58 PM

exellent catch love the crowder rods they are a very nice quality rod not like some other mass produced rods i have two for dorado trolling 16-20lbs