Hammerhead Caught and Quickly Released in Melbourne

Wade Senti caught this 10 ft (approximately) Hammerhead in Melbourne Beach.

I was fishing with friends at a usual spot we fish for sharks and other fish along the beach. We kayaked out a half a piece of Bonita and anchored it with a breakaway line (biodegradable twine) concrete block piece about 250 yards off the beach. I used my Penn 12/0 (with a drag upgrade) backed with 600 yards of 200 lb braid and about 375 yards of 125 lb Bullbuster mono on top.

We began our day at 9am and had our first hit of the day just before 3pm on a friends rod, his Bonita bait was taken. Within 10 minutes of the first hit of the day mine went off and the battle was on from there.

I slowly brought the hammerhead in over about a 30 minute period, never losing ground, but with many periods of standstill. We could not measure it, but estimate around 10 ft. We quickly released the shark once in the trough area.