Of Tiny Bugs and Giant Hammerheads

Of Tiny Bugs and Giant Hammerheads

A little bug popped out of the water of our bow wake and flew about 50 feet. Then another and another. After seeing the third, we decide that they weren't invertebrates, but small flying fish. Perhaps they are common at these latitudes in the summer but we had never noticed them before.

Today was a day to see them. Though there was a four foot swell, the air was completely still and not even a hint of ripple on the sea surface. We decided to troll to a set of numbers we were given where a wreck we hadn't found previously should be located. At times, this strategy works but often the location is off by a little.

The rod/reel on the port side started screaming and looking back we saw the sea erupt about 100 yards behind our stern. Ruta grabbed the rod but the fish which was obviously a mahi continued to strip line. Martin was reeling in the other rods and steered the Sea Wyf. After about 10 minutes, the fish was brought along side and landed. Was a 14 pound mahi.

That was the beginning of a perfect day. We continued trolling to the wreck site and it was there. Took a couple drifts over it to see if there was life below. There was, we immediately caught a few seabass though only one was of legal size, 12 1/2 inches.

We decided to anchor and spend at least a few hours. Dropped a chum bag over to see what we can attract. After a few hours we had caught a good number of legal seabass though maybe only one in 10 were larger than the minimum size.

Then Martin noticed that our surface line back in the chum started moving toward the boat. He picked up the rod and struck. The fish ignored the strike and kept coming and turned a bit toward the starboard side. It was obviously a very big and strong fish.

We thought it was probably a cobia. However, when it came along side, we saw the fish was half the length of the Sea Wyf and was a hammerhead shark. At that point it realized it was hooked and ran off 200 yards of line. We fought the critter almost back to the boat before it broke off.

We were sure happy that Martin didn't have to go overboard today like he did a few trips ago.

A few hours later, we decided that we had caught plenty of fish for this trip and began trolling home. We did pick up a nice bluefish on the way in and had a few other hits. Probably blues.

This was just another day in paradise: The Eastern Shore of Virginia.

We forgot the camera today, the day we have a 10 ft hammerhead next to the boat, so the pic is one from our archives.