John-Michael Kamel, and his buddy, Paul Thorburn, recently landed a 13-foot, 4-inch hammerhead in the surf along the Padre Island National Seashore. But despite making the trip with the intention of targeting big hammerheads, it took everything coming together for the pair to tangle with the creature.
Kamel has been chasing large sharks in the surf for years, always eyeing the late spring and early summer as the most optimal time to go.
“The beachfront really comes to life with schools of baitfish, rays, jackfish and tarpon,” he said. “And apex predators, like giant hammerheads, come in to take advantage of it.”
As soon as Kamel and Thorburn could agree on a time window to hit the surf, they packed up and headed straight for PINS riding high hopes.
Upon arrival, the duo was promptly greeted by strong winds, a rough current and a whole lot of seaweed, so they continued south until they could find a stretch of water with a little more clarity, just north of the Port Mansfield jetties.
However, precarious weather conditions made catching mullet difficult.
“The current was ripping along the beach, and the water was flowing like a river in the first and second guts,” Kamel said. “This seemed to push the baitfish a little farther offshore than we would have preferred.”
After chasing mullet for most of the day, the anglers had gotten ahold of enough finger mullet to catch three stingrays, which ranged from 20 to 35 pounds. With enough shark bait to deploy a spread of rods, they were able to start shark fishing late in the afternoon.
The tandem kayaked their baits anywhere from 250 to 400 yards out, a little past the sand bars. The hammerhead ended up striking a whole, 25-pound stingray they dropped just over the third sandbar. Line started screaming off Kamel’s 80-wide-sized reel as soon as the shark took the bait right at sundown.
“I hopped up on the rack of my truck and fed the shark line for about 20 seconds, and then slowly applied drag,” Kamel said. “The more drag I applied, the harder the shark fought. It was incredible how fast it was moving. I just knew we had hooked a large hammerhead.”
Not long after the fight started, Kamel had to crank the drag all the way up on his reel just to stop the shark from running any farther.
“Once I stopped the shark, I knew we had a decent chance of landing it,” Kamel said. “It became a stalemate for a little while, and then she started moving down-current.”
From the time they hooked up with the shark, a lightning storm had begun for ing over Port Mansfield and was continuing to build. Temperatures were dropping and the wind was gusting, making the northbound current even stronger, but also posing a threat to the saltwater battle of a lifetime.
“We knew time was of the essence,” Kamel said. “So I ended up driving north, about 1,200 yards or so down the beach, while Thorburn kept the line tight and applied steady pressure on the shark with the rod and reel from up on the rack of the truck.”
Once they caught up to the hammerhead, it was swimming in the second gut. Kamel made his way out to the first sandbar and grabbed the leader before realizing the shark ran aground on the first sandbar.
Without wasting any time, they quickly took photos and helped it swim safely to deeper water.
They had hooked, fought, landed and released the 13-foot, 4-inch hammerhead — the largest Kamel has ever caught — in just under an hour.
“The feeling we got while standing in the water next to a hammerhead of that size was indescribable,” he said.
