Silent Stalkers

As long as I can remember, I have been crazy about sharks. The sheer image of a shark holds our attention… and no shark species has it riveted more than the great hammerhead whose fearsome size and head shape are part elegant ocean hunter, and part freaky science fiction.

My first experience with the great hammerhead is one I will soon not forget. I was bouncing like an out-of-round basketball on an uneven hardwood deck heading out of Marathon, Florida, into a nasty Atlantic Ocean a few years back. A storm was brewing from the north, and the winds kept the seas choppy and uneven as we plowed our way to the Thunderbolt, a WW II navy ship intentionally sunk in 1986 as part of the Florida Keys Artificial Reef Association project.

To paint a picture of the dreary day, my party boat comfortably held 50 anglers on a usual trip, but on this run, the crew consisted of me and about eight intrepid other souls. Even though the weather and rolling seas were difficult to handle, I was excited because I knew we would have shots at grouper, amberjack, cobia and whatever else might be lurking around. Once anchored over what the mate called the forecastle of the Thunderbolt, I set up for business. I had tied two dropper loops into my ample leader with an eight-ounce lead carrying it home to the ship more than one hundred feet below.

In the rough conditions, we swayed east for a long count and then back west as the swells buffeted us about. At the railing, I quickly got my sea legs and a semblance of a pattern as I lowered my lead and juicy mackerel chunk to the bottom. Immediately, a weighty brute latched onto my 5/0 circle hook with vengeance. By the force of the tug and quick resistance, I had visions of a large grouper darting out, snatching my offering, and then heading back for safety within the confines of the Thunderbolt. I applied as much heat as I could to the Senator’s cranked-down drag. It was a seesaw battle before I could feel the fish turn its head and move toward the surface. I knew I had a chance if I kept the pressure on. The battle was shaping up nicely when I finally saw the clear image of a gag grouper in the twenty-pound class kicking toward the surface.

As I was peering into the murky drink, eyeing up my prize, a dark silhouette appeared behind my gag. I stood transfixed, leaning against the boat railing as the broad curved head of a great hammerhead intersected my grouper no more than fifteen feet from where I was standing. The shark engulfed my hard-earned prize as if it was no more than a tasty hors d’oeuvre. The grouper struggled for a moment, then there was tremendous shaking and tearing for a few seconds, and then there was peace.

I had been fighting that grouper with such intensity and concentration that when the line went slack, I nearly fell backwards. As I regained my footing I cranked up the remaining few feet of line to discover a perfectly formed gag grouper head, part of a grouper shoulder, and a few tendrils of dangling intestines. That was my first experience with a great hammerhead.

A Super-Sensory Shark

First identified in 1837 by a German scientist, the hammerhead family consists of ten related species including the bonnethead, the smooth hammerhead and the great hammerhead. The science and study of hammerheads is evolving; a new species of hammerhead was identified by its DNA off the coast of South Carolina during the summer of 2006.

Great hammerheads, the sub-species I’m most interested in, are found in the Atlantic Ocean in coastal warm tropical and temperate waters ranging from North Carolina south to Uruguay including the entire Gulf of Mexico. That means they surround the entire Florida Peninsula. The great hammerhead is found far offshore in depths exceeding 1,000 feet as well as in much shallower lagoon settings. This migratory behemoth moves seasonally, heading pole-ward during the summer months to find cooler water. Life expectancy of great hammerheads is estimated at 30 years.

Great hammerheads are apex predators which indulge on cephalopods (mollusks), fatty fish and other sharks. A favorite snack is the stingray, and numerous hammerheads have been captured with ray barbs impaled in their faces and mouths from recent encounters. They are also cannibalistic, eating weak or injured siblings. When hunting, they have been known to form schools in the daytime of over 100 sharks; at night, they become solo predators.

This brings us to the supersensory nature of the great hammerhead. Dr. Peter Klimley from the University of California- Davis, believes the hammer-shaped head serves two functions. Juvenile hammerhead sharks locate stingrays buried in the sand by using electro-receptors called ampullae of Lorenzini which are scattered across the underside of the hammer. The wider the shape, the more area covered per sweeping movement of the head, similar to that of a metal detector, only here, electrical signals are being sought rather than lost treasures. They can sense electricity generated by a single muscle twitch of a flounder buried deep in the sand.

For adults, the hammer-shape head has to do with their ability to navigate through the open ocean- (adults don’t feed on buried prey but on bony fish and squid). They seem to orient to minute intensity changes in the magnetization of the seafloor. By reading these magnetic changes, they find their way over thousands of miles of featureless open sea.

How dangerous is the great hammerhead? According to the International Shark Attack File, the species of sharks within the genus sphyrna (hammer in Greek) have been responsible for twenty-one unprovoked attacks with two resulting fatalities. In Florida waters from 1944 to 2005, there were twelve recorded unprovoked attacks by hammerheads. As with all large sharks, great hammerheads display an aggressive behavior if they feel jeopardized.

Fishing for Great Hammerheads

These silent stalkers can be caught year round at any time of day around the entire state, but you’ll increase the odds by concentrating your effort from early spring through fall when surface temperatures remain above 70 degrees.

Whenever fishing for large sharks, including great hammerheads, bring equipment that is up to the task. I recommend utilizing nothing less than 50 lb. class rigs loaded with at least 400 yards of fresh 80 lb. monofilament. Penn Senator 114s and 115s do the trick in combination with sturdy six to six and a half foot stand-up rods. The business end of the line must be capable of withstanding the assault of the hammerhead’s toothy mouth as well as her sandpaper skin. There are many ways to rig the terminal end. I prefer a 300 lb. ball-bearing swivel to which 10 feet of single strand 200 lb. wire is attached. At the end of this wire, a second ball bearing swivel connects three feet of 400 lb. multi-strand cable. The final touch to the setup is a 10/0 circle hook attached via leader sleeves forcefully crimped on. What to dangle from your hook is up to you, but productive hammerhead candy includes stingray, generous fillets of mackerel, bonito, kingfish, or whole bluefish.

To attract the big girls, the secret is in the chum. Two rules of thumb are smelly and sloppy. While there are many recipes, the most inviting chums include ground oily fish like bonito, mackerel, jacks and whatever other fatty fish you can obtain. On the flats around the Florida Keys, it is fine and dandy to dangle a butterflied barracuda over the side of the bow to attract a hammerhead (often a bonnethead). Off the Atlantic coast or deep in the Gulf, drifting across a major structural break leading from 100 feet of water to up to 2,000 feet, means you need chum that penetrates the water column and loudly rings the dinner bell.

When you entice a large shark, you will know it by the way the predator treats the bait. There will be a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on! After an initial “click, click, click,” the shark will pick up her prize and run for the hills. If she drops it, be patient; she’ll likely circle and pick it up again. Once she finally starts running, don’t let out too much line before coming tight. Let the circle hook do what is was designed to do, catch in the corner of the fish’s mouth, and you should be in business. Expect a fight that is both hard and long with a number of gear-rattling runs. A five-footer might be subdued in half an hour. A nine- or ten-footer might take hours to bring boat side. This is where the extra line on the spool comes in handy. On the flats, you can chase a large shark if it goes on a running blitz because it can only go out rather than down. On the open ocean, hammerheads can easily head for the deep, hundreds of yards below.

A word of advice; make certain your adversary is tired when you get her alongside the boat… the most dangerous part of the process. The best release is by cutting the leader as close to the shark’s mouth as possible. This is where long-handled cable cutters come into play. Your average pliers won’t do much against multi-strand cable. If the hook is exposed, try to remove it when possible using a five-foot piece of PVC with a V-shaped notch cut into the end. NEVER TRY TO REMOVE THE HOOK BY HAND!

Size does matter

There has been a recent noteworthy catch of an enormous great hammerhead on the west coast of Florida. For twenty-four years, the IGFA world record great hammerhead stood at 991 pounds represented by a huge fish caught by an angler from Punta Gorda, Florida. In the spring of 2006, the record was crushed!

Fishing a stretch of the Boca Grande Pass, Captain Clyde “Bucky” Dennis caught a monster hammerhead that spread 1,280 pounds over her fourteen-foot frame. This shark was hooked at 11:30 a.m. and was finally subdued at 8:00 p.m. after towing Dennis’s boat nearly twelve miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Dennis bested the shark with a stout six-foot stand-up rod with a 9/0 Penn loaded with heavy duty 130 lb. braid attached to twenty-four feet of 600 lb. wire. The bait was a twenty pound live ray impaled on a 12/0 hook.

Dennis knew there was a potential world record in the area as soon as he saw the fish crossing a sand bar in the Pass. He first caught a glimpse of the monster as it was chasing one of Boca Grande’s famous tarpon under a nearby charter boat. The huge hammerhead was accompanied by two large bull sharks also looking for a meal- the bulls backed down. Dennis noted, “The hammerheads have jurisdiction over the bull sharks. They get to eat first.”

Unfortunately, the mammoth female turned out to be pregnant with 55 pups discovered at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota where Dennis donated the giant’s mortal remains. This was the greatest number of pups ever found in a great hammerhead shark, and it has raised quite a bit of controversy. As Mote Lab Director Robert Hueter noted, researchers prefer that anglers tag and release large sharks because this helps sustain the species. While they are grateful that the animal was donated to science, the price of the gift lay in the stillborn pups. Dennis was quoted saying “The guys in the Pass hate sharks that eat hooked tarpon. I did them a favor… a public service.”

Regarding the health of the shark population, scientists at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, reported recently on the dramatic decline of shark populations in the Atlantic Ocean based on catch records from the commercial sector and fisheries managers. According to the study, shark populations in the North Atlantic have plummeted by more than half since 1986 with most of the blame falling on overfishing. Of particular concern are the devastating declines in the populations of the great white, which fell by 79 percent, and the great hammerhead, whose numbers dropped by 89 percent. The study published in the journal Science postulated that “recovery is expected to be slow because of the slow maturation and low birth rate of most sharks.”

If you fish for Great Hammerheads

I believe that fishing for great hammerheads is one of the most exciting and invigorating opportunities in any big-game arena. The crew has to be prepared, patient, and smart. The great hammerhead fishery is at a very sensitive point right now due to fishing pressure and a variety of factors relating to shark biology, so each encounter needs to be treasured.

Please fish safe. When a great hammerhead decides it wants to eat something, that something usually ends up dead. If you get one boatside, NEVER attempt to haul it onto your craft. Part the leader or attempt to remove the hook while always keeping a safe distance, and then thank the bizarre creature as it graciously glides off into the mysterious depths.

Hook a hammerhead!

Captain Ralph Delph
Key West Fishing Adventures
Phone 305-294-6072
www.DelphFishing.com

Captain Ken Harris
Key West Sportfishing
Phone 305-294-8843
www.FishFinesse.com

Bio
David Barton fell in the water and hit his head chasing bluegill at age four, and has been fishing ever since. He travels all over the world to some of the finest sport fishing destinations on the globe, including Belize, the Yucatan, Virgin Islands, Finland, Scotland, Alaska, North Carolina, California, Baja, and, of course, much of Florida. He still occasionally falls in.