Well, these certainly aren’t bass. Texas angler Christian Haltermann recently pulled off the holy grail of shark fishing, landing two 14-plus-foot hammerheads in one month.
BIG HAMMERHEADS ON THE BEACH
Haltermann is an avid shark fisherman and tells Wired2fish he’s logged over 500 hours this summer chasing trophy sharks from shore. Haltermann primarily fishes from North Padre Island National Seashore, which is where his recent catches occurred.
The first epic catch took place on June 8 at sunset. Haltermann was soaking an entire jack crevalle with a massive 24/0 circle hook. After the big fish took the bait, “it ran really hard sideways down the beach,” says Haltermann. “I had to hop on a buddy’s truck to chase it and make up line. We ended up squaring up to it after it had taken us probably three-quarters of a mile down the beach.”
After about an hour and a half, Haltermann was finally able to crank the fish onto shore. That fish stretched to nearly 15 feet, which Haltermann says could have put it in contention to beat the world record, though he didn’t get an official measurement on it before releasing it.
But Haltermann’s luck didn’t end there. He hooked into a second whopper hammerhead in the afternoon on July 28. That fish took a large southern stingray and the fight lasted for just over an hour. This time, Haltermann measured it at 14 feet, 2 inches.
SWAM OFF STRONG
Haltermann went to great lengths to safely release both sharks, including keeping them in the water during the whole process and swimming them out past the surf to make sure the waves wouldn’t push them back into the beach. He says both fish swam off strong.
“I don’t know of anybody that has caught two hammerheads of this size at all. To catch two of this caliber in one summer…I’m super lucky.” says Haltermann. “You never know what you’re going to get when you’re shark fishing. There are bigger hammerheads than the ones I caught out there. I will find them one day.”
