HammerHeads in New Jersey

[one4water]

So me and the Mrs are out last week and catching a lot of nothing all day. Then we start landing what looked like thresher sharks. They were between 3 and 4 feet long each. 4 of them within a hour or so. Not big guys but fun to catch on light tackle, we were using 20lb line and small flounder hooks. The heaviest weighed in at only about 25 lbs but put up a nice fight on a light rod.

Anywho, as we were thinking about heading in, the Mrs. drops down a flounder rig and soon enough, the line starts tearing off the reel. She said she had another "thresher" so she went to town letting it run and drawing it in like the last few. As we see it break the surface a few yards away, she says it looked like a hammerhead, then it dives deep again. It took her about 15 minutes to get it in overall since she was working it real easy on light line but we got it to the side of the boat and sure enough, it was a hammer head. While deciding how to bring it on board or if we should even try, we eyed it up using spots on the boat and figure about 4'-5' long. Weight, no idea. It ended up biting through the monifiliment line and off he went. Probably better off for us as I have never dealt with a hammerhead and would be tossing him back anyway.

I never heard of hammerheads off of New Jersey before. We were both shocked. Even more so when you consider were we less than a half mile off the Avalon beach.

Are these common around here?

[Offshorebri]

We saw a dozen or so between 1/2 a mile and 5 miles out of Barnegat Inlet last week one day. We had another 3-4 out on Barnegat Ridge. They were cool to see but we couldnt get them to bite. They seemed to be just sunning themselves and finning around. They were all about 5 feet long............We see them almost every summer but I never saw that many at once...................

[one4water]

We saw a dozen or so between 1/2 a mile and 5 miles out of Barnegat Inlet last week one day. We had another 3-4 out on Barnegat Ridge. They were cool to see but we couldnt get them to bite. They seemed to be just sunning themselves and finning around. They were all about 5 feet long............We see them almost every summer but I never saw that many at once...................

well it was a first for us. Pretty cool. Next time we will have camera ready

[billfishnfool]

So me and the Mrs are out last week and catching a lot of nothing all day. Then we start landing what looked like thresher sharks. They were between 3 and 4 feet long each. 4 of them within a hour or so. Not big guys but fun to catch on light tackle, we were using 20lb line and small flounder hooks. The heaviest weighed in at only about 25 lbs but put up a nice fight on a light rod.

Anywho, as we were thinking about heading in, the Mrs. drops down a flounder rig and soon enough, the line starts tearing off the reel. She said she had another "thresher" so she went to town letting it run and drawing it in like the last few. As we see it break the surface a few yards away, she says it looked like a hammerhead, then it dives deep again. It took her about 15 minutes to get it in overall since she was working it real easy on light line but we got it to the side of the boat and sure enough, it was a hammer head. While deciding how to bring it on board or if we should even try, we eyed it up using spots on the boat and figure about 4'-5' long. Weight, no idea. It ended up biting through the monifiliment line and off he went. Probably better off for us as I have never dealt with a hammerhead and would be tossing him back anyway.

I never heard of hammerheads off of New Jersey before. We were both shocked. Even more so when you consider were we less than a half mile off the Avalon beach.

Are these common around here?

Yes,they are quite common in New Jersey waters.Back in the 80's I chartered my boat out,specializing in sharks(when we had plenty of sharks around)and frequently caught hammer heads in late July/August.This year while fishing the ICW in AUG. I caught this little fellow.Never seen one this small in NJ before but 80deg. water will bring all sorts of new species to our waters.

[sandybeach]

To fish for them you need a permit and to keep them they must be over a minimum size. Along the coast here (LI NJ) they even come into the surf.