PINS REPORT 6/5 - 6/7 2009

Jeff · **Posted:** Tue Jun 09, 2009 10:59 pm

Padre Island National Seashore
6/5 - 6/7 2009

Last week Ryan and I discussed possibly doing a trip down the beach. He offered to let me ride with him and we could split my gear between his truck and his friend Joey. I have been wanting to hit the beach for a long time but pretty much ran out of excuses why I couldn't go.....so I commit to going and Friday we meet at my house after work and load my gear into both trucks. Once loaded we hit the toll road toward Corpus. We hit the beach and head South in search of an appealing spot. After a good drive, we stop on the South end of the beach and start unpacking the gear. We had already decided not matter what....we are getting baits out tonight. So we get some reels out and start looking for bait. We cast net a few times in the dark and catch some horse mullet. We had some big baits (rays) but saved those for the next day. Tonight we just wanted to deploy smaller reels. I only brought one smaller reel, a red Avet 50w. Ryan brings a variety of reels and Joey mostly has smaller rigs. Ryan and I both get busy attaching leaders and rigging baits.

After we each kayak out a bait...it's about 3 am. Ryan decides to crash out and I decide to go ahead and start putting together the zodiac for the morning.

By daybreak we are all awake and ready to make a trip in the zodiac to the jetties. We leave the Joey in charge of the camp and head out.

After cruising around the end of the jetties and making casts at scattered tarpon....we chase some birds for awhile and start the trip back to our spot to check on Joey and the reels we have out.

We get back and tend to the lines and relax. The beach is as nice as I have ever seen it. I couldn't have chosen a better time to get back into fishing.

Ryan takes a nap and I decide to throw a small line out....but I cast right over one of our long lines, as I am trying to get the line down I look back and see Ryan looking at me ....the line lowers and I undo the two lines and as I look back, Ryan is on the tower motioning to me. As I get closer, he yells that I have a shark on...so I pickup the pace and put my bait rod down and as I get near the truck he says it sounded like a pretty damn good fish.....so I am like .... hmmm

m... really???? ( The only bad thing about an Avet is the damn clicker is too quiet....I am pretty sure we all missed a good portion of the run before Ryan woke up and realized it was happening, just guessing...I was in the water.)

Well sure enough.....I get on the platform and Ryan quickly hands the reel over to me, at this point I don't feel or hear anything. I am not really sure if there is a fish at all on....by the time Ryan gets off the tower, the fish makes its presence known again and I get a chance to feel the power and realize this IS a good fish.

Ryan helps me put on the fighting belt and I apply drag and set the hook really well just to make sure there is no drop on this one. I tell Ryan to grab the tail rope out of my bag and be ready. The guys are every bit as excited as I am. They walk back and fourth from the tower to the waters edge waiting to see how this is going to play out. I hand the reel down to Ryan so I can be closer to the upcoming action and to put the shark on a short leash. Finally we get a glimpse of an unknown shark in the wave.....it looks decent from the tower but the shark kept its head low and body parallel to the beach....at first I call Tiger....based off the long tail. But as we get the stubborn fish in the wade gut I see the dorsal better and realize this is not a tiger liked I had initially hoped.....I am thinking surely this is no bull....please not a bullshark. My heart sank....as I saw the side of the shark and there were no stripes.... it fought way too hard and didn't seem to have enough girth to fight as hard as it fought. Texas bulls have always been weak fighters. The first attempt at a tail rope was thwarted off as the shark faced them up and wanted no part of being tail roped. I yelled from the tower to them to just let it go for a sec so we didn't scare it. I doubt they could hear me....but they backed off and made a loop back around on the shark and got behind it again and attempted to do another tail rope. After what seemed eternity to me...lol Ryan grabbed the tail slid the rope on the tail and Joey ran back wards as fast as he could to take the slack out and the rope cinched down on the tail and only then was I stress free. At that point the shark started throwing its tail around and the head became visible and I remember Ryan yelling it's a hammer!

After measuring it twice to make sure....it was a 8'1" Scalloped Hammerhead (male).

Understanding the fatality rate that Hammers have when being caught and how stressful it is for them.....we quickly measure, take pictures, cut the hook and release this magnificent shark.

I must admit....this shark lived up to the reputation Hammers have of fighting hard. Several times as it neared the sandbars it would turn back out to sea and try to run again. Though I was worried that something might go wrong at any point to ruin this....I didn't give an inch. I deciced early on to put max pressure on this mystery fish the entire fight to get it on the beach as soon as possible, so it took about 20 minutes to get it in the wade gut. Seemed like eternity to me.

After all the action, we get some more baits out and Joey cooks some lunch.

While cooking Joey's bait rod goes off and he pulls in a nice trout!

Later that afternoon we rigged up some big baits on the 16/0, Duel 12/0w and a 12/0 and ran them out.

Ryan gets a run and it brings in a perfect tiger bait.

We did have two more runs,.... one later about 6pm and then again about 9pm. The first was a powerful run with the shark hooked but the power-pro to mono connection failed. The braid was still tied in a knot but the mono was gone. I assume it cinched too tight and cut the mono? The last run was different type and it picked the bait up several time and dropped it before it eventually took it and bit through the 250lb coated cable.

Sunday we woke up early and let some baits soak and we relaxed...

My Penn 7500 gets picked up and I get my own future tiger bait.

Later that after noon we packed up camp .....Stuart stopped by and showed us the pics of his Tiger and we showed him the hammer, after that we finished packing, cleaned our area and left the beach.

I definitely want to thank my friends Ryan and Joey for helping me with this catch! It takes a team to do this....whether it's running baits in the zodiac or wading out to tail rope a 8ft hammerhead. Would rather share the experience with friends than do it alone. Thanks again!

Earl, nice meeting you Friday night. - Jeff

Ryan · **Joined:** Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:28 am **Posts:** 1142

DUDE!!! awesome report!! I cant wait to hit it again....thanks for being the kind of friend that doesnt bail on me the last minute....and just one little piece of critisim.....

please no more pictures of me hungover at 7am :lol:

Twiztedrods · **Posted:** Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:19 pm

Hell Yeah!!! That is a freakin awesome report!!! Congrats on the Scallop that is a really sweet catch

Good to meet you Jeff, we will have to meet up again soon and do some sharkin. Congrats on one helluva fish and a good release.

justletmein · **Joined:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:08 pm **Posts:** 2320

Bery bery noise!!!

Brah, you look a little bit like me, stop it. :lol:

Jd761 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 12:09 am

Ryan wrote:

DUDE!!! awesome report!! I cant wait to hit it again....thanks for being the kind of friend that doesnt bail on me the last minute....and just one little piece of critisim.....

please no more pictures of me hungover at 7am :lol:

Could've been worse. Last time I fished with him, he took a sunrise pic of me from the back "observing the surf conditions". Guess he didn't notice I had one hand in front of me holding the front of my shorts down, while I was taking a piss. :hammer:

jc · **Joined:** Fri Dec 08, 2006 9:49 pm **Posts:** 2147

great report and damn nice fish Jeff!!!

seashell · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:18 am

Beautiful hammer. Congrats on your personal best. Thanks for sharing the variety of pictures.

Eve1 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:23 am

What a great time ya had and wonderful pictures

san martian · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:16 pm

Excellent report and a nice rare catch.
That pic of Jeff and the Jackfish is Badass

Sorry I missed you guys(long story) but I plan on headin back down soon. Dusty

Twiztedrods · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:14 pm

Hey Jeff, what kind of line do you have on that spinning reel you caught that Jack on? It looks orange but maybe that is just the picture? I have never seen anything like that before.

JOHNNYREB · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:02 pm

Nice fish dude ! congrats!

Chomper · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:18 pm

Great report.

Jeff · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:06 pm

Thanks everyone for the positive responses!! It was an incredible trip, the conditions couldn't have been any better..... and all the right decisions were made. I couldn't of had a better guy on the tail rope either. What else can I say.....things finally went my way this time, other times it doesn't. I was very fortunate. The line on my 7500 is called High Seas - Red Devil. I honestly don't recall buying it...lol Ryan wasn't fond of it when he tried to jump some tarpon at the jetties....but I kind of like it and the jack fish seemed to dig it. :-)

Next time we will be a little more prepared fishing the zodiac for kings, smacs and tarpon......I think Ryan saw the potential if we are ready. If you see me on the beach....say hello and introduce yourself. Look forward to sitting around the campfire with ya'll soon!....LOL. - JEFF

Chomper · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:09 pm

I use the quattro (4 continually alternating/blending colors) brand line by hi seas for certain rigs and I really like the stuff..

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justletmein · **Joined:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:08 pm **Posts:** 2320

Chomper wrote:

I use the quattro (4 continually alternating/blending colors) brand line by hi seas for certain rigs and I really like the stuff..

Attachment:

quattro.jpg

Hey is that the old Triple Fish stuff? I used to love that Triple Fish line pulling in Reds from the local lakes up here but then it seemed to have a bit of quality problems on the last couple spools and then disappeared completely, looked just like that stuff though ^.

PINS REPORT 6/5 - 6/7 2009

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