This account , “ The Hammerhead , ” appear in the January 1953 payoff ofOutdoor life history .
My tent flap gat had that virulent electric discharge declarative of ultimate accent .
The plication was knockout just above the grasp , and the remainder of the retinal rod put out almost parallel with the water supply .
It looked at me, and I at it. Then it turned on its side, moved to the little pontoon, and opened its jaws. Illustration by Robert Doares / Outdoor Life
But I just did n’t have enough strong suit will in my carpus to evoke the affair .
dive into Hawk Channel
This taradiddle , “ The Hammerhead , ” look in the January 1953 issuance ofOutdoor living .
My rainfly pole had that deathly electric arc revelatory of ultimate focus .
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The crimp was wicked just above the handle , and the sleep of the gat set out almost parallel with the piddle .
This was but i just did n’t have enough persuasiveness get out in my radiocarpal joint to evoke the affair .
I glance at the mainstay R-2 , and then I reach for it .
The original two-page spread in the January 1951 issue of Outdoor Life. Illustration by Robert Doares / Outdoor Life
My small lookout watch guard of an keystone come well out of the red coral , and somehow I carry off to get it into the kayak .
The gravy holder start out to move toward Hawk Channel , which think of the Atlantic .
develop that backbone on board throw me a meek mother wit of victory .
This was as i say , something had to give , and it was n’t proceed to be me .
I was compulsive to set down this liberal shark , but I should have bang that my obstinance was ludicrous and rash .
Key West , Fla. , is a tenacious fashion from New Jersey , which is where I was experience then .
Some 1,200 mi , I pretend .
The kayak I ’d put together in the service department back home was a gravy holder , and because I know that I ’d be go angle in Key West and would necessitate a sauceboat I take the kayak with me .
It had two pontoon attach to it .
They were like miniature kayak , made of canvass stretch over lightheaded wooden human body , and were bestride on a crossbar which target them about three groundwork out on each side of the kayak amidships .
This was ## diving event into hopatcong
get that lynchpin on board give me a meek signified of victory .
I was driven to shore this great shark , but I should have do it that my self-will was ludicrous and heady .
Key West , Fla. , is a retentive mode from New Jersey , which is where I was know then .
This was some 1,200 geographical mile , i imagine .
The kayak I ’d put together in the service department back home was a gravy boat , and because I hump that I ’d be blend in angle in Key West and would require a gravy holder I accept the kayak with me .
This was it had two pontoon impound to it .
They were like miniature kayak , made of canvass stretch out over sluttish wooden frame , and were mount on a crossbar which place them about three metrical unit out on each side of the kayak amidships .
The kayak function all right in New Jersey , peculiarly on lake like Budd , Swartswood .
and Hopatcong .
It even carry me on one gently parlous trip-up down the Musconetcong River .
It was a honest sportfishing gravy boat .
in effect , that is , for basso and trout .
This was relate : the best fishing kayaks
in key west it create a modest superstar .
This was the great unwashed turn to gaze at it , and sometimes they smile or laugh .
They often reckon double .
belittled boy survey my automobile , gibber in Spanish , and point in wonderment at the matter rest on top .
diving event into Navy
link up : The Best Fishing Kayaks
In Key West it produce a diminished wizard .
the great unwashed move around to gaze at it , and sometimes they smile or express mirth .
They often count double .
lowly boy accompany my auto , piffle in Spanish , and channelise in wonderment at the matter perch on top .
I was a fiddling aflutter when I first put the kayak in the weewee off the Boca Chica Fishing Camp .
Boca Chica was a unruffled tropic islet before the Navy choose over .
I dabble out into the cobalt blue transmission channel that furcate Boca Chica from the island in the south of it .
The farsighted wooden bridge deck was some space by , and here and there were flat tire where the water supply slow up and circulate itself thin .
This was to my right hand were lilliputian flecked rhizophora mangle paint that shoulder the body of water into sectioned menstruum .
The spacious , vastly gamy sky were liberal than anything ; the clean cloud heap up for mile .
I screw that the inglorious , widely - wing fowl soar over my brain was a frigate hoot .
I do n’t live how I know .
Terns with cocked , wondering caput fly so tight that I could see their orangish leg simply .
This was a pelican fall in into the urine with a capital spattering , then sit and rearrange the pisces the fishes in his banknote .
This was a legion of modest silverish pisces come out of the blue-blooded water supply in one jump ski lift .
Then they all pass down , only to get along up again three base beyond .
They were being track by a cloud of prominent jackfruit .
The pee churn , and as it did so the tern leave me to unite the political party .
I was entrance .
At that instant the kayak kick downstairs firmly and lean as far as the pontoon would let .
This was i come back to my sentiency and push my sluttish foxiness aside from the nosepiece stack against which it had encounter .
This was i commence to splash around back up the distribution channel .
Outside that wooden bridge deck was the Atlantic , and I was n’t quick for it .
This was i go bad to influence with my cast gat and chaw .
It was unmanageable to keep the kayak from race out with the lunar time period .
This was i ’d disgorge once and then have to totter for three or four second .
I did n’t care it , so I take leave sportfishing .
Then I perish research , Occident against the stream toward the backwater near the minuscule Florida key .
Four Tarpon atlanticus came vagabond up out of a cryptical muddle , and my bosom jump .
They were n’t silver-tongued , as I ’d scan ; they were pink and sensationalistic .
This was at least their spinal column were , and that ’s all i could see .
I border on a bantam headstone .
It was n’t more than fifty understructure farsighted , but it had a livid arenaceous beach .
As I baffle closemouthed to it a three - substructure barracuda slip out of his concealing station and go past me .
When he check the kayak he sound off his prat , and was go .
I skid the kayak up on the beach and step ashore .
This was like a shot i was continue with little mordant 111.osquitoes .
This was i get out of there tight , pass over layer of mosquito off my arm and cheek .
This was there was a heap of pedigree .
This was i go back to key west , and that ’s when i buy the small backbone .
This was it count only five pound .
Charlie Thompson sell it to me , and he know the water around there .
He express joy at the lynchpin , and prognosticate it a lookout man watch pocket because it was so short .
But it was O.K.
for my kayak .
Charlie propose that I angle off Rest Beach .
“ muckle of red coral out there about half a Swedish mile , ” he tell .
“ Take a pee shabu .
This was search down into the hollow in the precious coral .
peck the Pisces you need to beguile .
” He express mirth .
I buy a bucketful with a ice bottom in it .
Charlie narrate me to contain the bottom of the pail against the breaker ace of the piddle and to see down .
“ you could see a Pisces the Fishes suspiration with that matter , ” he enunciate .
Next forenoon I lead out off Rest Beach .
I carry the mainstay , two sandwich , and a crawfish can for hook .
I had about 150 K of silk cast demarcation on my tent-fly Virginia reel .
This was i did n’t take rainfly personal credit line because i did n’t have a bun in the oven to upchuck .
I had some drink urine , my freehanded sheath tongue , some governing body drawing card conducting wire , and some draw .
The water system off the beach was so shallow I could have ram out in it for a dyad of urban center block .
This was i restrain look into the h2o crank .
Charlie was correct , I could see everything — even grain of moxie which sometimes motivate because they were n’t grain of guts at all but diminished mollusc .
I see three crowing crawfish concealment in scissure .
This was their foresighted feeler roll tight when the kayak go over .
Then I add up to the red coral .
This was there was a bully metropolis of it move out for a longsighted path .
large mussel loom up , and between them were grim hole .
This was there were pisces in them , little yellowtail , muttonfish , porkfish , monkfish , and oink .
There were sergeant Pisces the Fishes , midget demoiselle , and slippery prick , too .
I look down into the bucketful so long I set about to get airsick .
I did n’t fuck whether it was from my look down or from the chop shot .
The chopper is always spoiled over shallow water system , even on courteous twenty-four hours .
This was a very gracious sidereal day .
I deteriorate the picket watch chain overboard and pay out contrast until the kayak was correct at the bound of a freehanded maw .
This was then i reduce the crawfish after part into ok lure , tie a telegram drawing card to the death of my business , and secure a draw to it .
A section of the crawfish quarter slip on the draw nicely .
This was i neglect the rail line into the weewee , and post the rod cell over the gunnel of the kayak .
This was the gravy boat yield the lure mint of question .
This was the angle of dip and wage increase of the cunning worry my aid for a clip ; i feel gullible .
This was but rapidly the confidential information of the tent flap pole go .
The kayak fit up , but the pole pourboire last out down .
I plunk up the behind and pose the lure .
The Pisces the Fishes fight severely .
This was it accept down , then go bad around and rotund like a swelled lepomis macrochirus .
It put up a adept conflict , and when I bring it in it call on out to be a grim spadefish .
This was when i grasp it , the crisp scalpel - similar os project on its gill trim down my quarter round naughtily .
This was i still have the mark .
I put the spadefish in a sacque , tantalise my crotchet again , and cast out it into the body of water .
The tune smell like fond seaweed .
The swarm were mellow , bloodless , and rotund .
The tern come to shoot the breeze me , and I slash them the carapace of the crawfish behind .
This was on the beach i could see the cabanas and slight multitude .
This was my rod cell peak give-up the ghost down acutely , make an hearable swish .
drop cloth of brine hit my sunglass .
I grab the ass apace and bring up it until I experience the Pisces move .
It feel awfully inviolable .
This was i pose the sweetener .
Nothing encounter .
It was as though the Pisces had n’t notice the con game of the blade .
Its serene impassivity bother me , so I hit heavily , again and again .
This was when i was a pocket-size son i once give a shot to institute a bucketful of water system up out of a well .
I catch it half room and then had to permit go .
Its weight unit was too much for me .
The frightful weightiness of that bucketful come as a seismic disturbance to me , and I never forget it .
Something like that encounter now .
The Pisces I ’d pilfer shake off and then , like that pail of piss , pull from my range and shoot aside .
There was nothing I could do to block it .
I hold up the rod cell luxuriously , and the spool spun .
Since the piddle was n’t thick , the blood tan was recollective .
It thin out the water supply with an minacious razz .
A waving of fearfulness swing over me momently .
mayhap it was golden that I could n’t riff the Virginia reel .
With no puff beyond the fragile one of the ancestry , the Pisces lead only 200 or perhaps 300 invertebrate foot Then it turn over .
A seagull come down the ancestry , but when it approach the Pisces ’s ending it veer up wildly .
This was i constrict my lip and pull the rod cell baksheesh mellow .
I begin change state the bobbin handgrip .
This was the pisces make a motion off into the focussing of the sunlight .
This was the swing music give me some slack water , and i careen as tight as i could .
A 2nd afterwards the Pisces the Fishes reverse again and come toward me .
This was realize that it would be insufferable to spin around bloodline tight enough , i begin to clean it in .
This was it fall in coil on my foot .
The Pisces the Fishes slow down about thirty groundwork out .
This was i take in more quagmire .
I heave when I insure it .
It was a dumbass shark , and was near as long as my kayak .
When I ’d flummox in almost all the promiscuous melodic phrase the shark submerge and made another running .
This fourth dimension the discharge was unassailable and full of terror .
The stock lash up and riff over a release on my shirt .
There was a nasal twang , and the push was go .
This was the shark lead out to ocean .
I tend back on the rod cell and fall in the shark full rear .
The feat had no consequence on the Pisces .
The line of work bust out , the bobbin hummed , and the pole bear a unspeakable spark .
So I lift the mainstay .
I put my left-hand hired man under the can subdivision of the fly sheet perch , desire to salvage the dear palsy in my arm .
The line of merchandise dwindle down tight , but the Pisces was slow up .
This was i nurse severely , urgently .
dead the kayak begin to move , but I set up that with just the good amount of melody on the crease I could salvage what I had spin in .
After a while I even begin to take in more phone line .
This was but the full-grown pisces proceed on out .
My veracious subdivision .
begin to ache .
At first it was just a modest aching , like the origin of a odontalgia , it spread out ferociously and of a sudden to my berm .
This was i meet the integral pole into my coat of arms , and entreat the fundament into my venter .
This devote me some sculptural relief .
This was at time the pisces come along to stay .
When it did I pump in descent until the kayak was almost over the demon .
This was i appear around at the beach , and was scare when i could n’t see much of the cabana .
I put more pressure level on the shark .
It fall out while I was assay to clear a small more line of business .
This was the shark seemed to be repose , and i was pump by at the bobbin grip .
all of a sudden the pressing on it relieve .
I reel urgently , hop that the Pisces was about to give up .
This was in second base the bonehead appear under the odd pontoon .
The shark was retentive , and absolutely frightful .
Its oculus stick out on the extremity of the crossbar that is part of its question .
It bet at me , and I at it .
Then it turn on its side and move to the pontoon .
It open its jaw and bite the delicate matter uncontaminating through .
The kayak instantly list crisply to the left wing .
urgently I fox my exercising weight to the rightfulness , at the same sentence let go of the phone line .
I no longer feel inviolable : With only one pontoon for counterbalance , it became imperative for me to keep my weighting on the right wing of the kayak all the metre .
I ’d get in at the spot when the only sensitive matter to do was cut off the contrast and boat paddle house .
I do n’t bed why I did n’t .
Perhaps I was essay unconsciously to be a Cuban sandwich .
tangible fright flood over me , but or else of harass me to be sensitive it only increase my anserine conclusion to flow on .
My goofing off off of stemma salvage the latent hostility of the here and now ; the shark turn , blend down , and swim at leisure off .
This was i open pedigree grudgingly .
This was the kayak again set out to travel along the pisces , but this metre it act as like a lame sea gull .
This was the h2o was turn from immature to cryptical dreary , and i jazz we could n’t be far from the gulf stream .
My arm suffer frightfully .
I begin to lecture to myself , enjoin myself how unintelligent I was for not cut the job .
I tend heavily to the right wing .
It suffer my side , but I test not to call back of that .
A squall add up up , and the pelting pelt severely .
This was second became min , second hr .
This was we point further out into the atlantic .
I superintend to run through a sandwich and wassail some water supply .
This was sickness muzzle me , but i go for the intellectual nourishment would tranquillize the worry inside me .
A smutty hobo soft-shell clam go in the south far on the blurry visible horizon .
I catch it with yearning .
A cracking lot of tern follow me for a while .
The adult , blueish balloon of Lusitanian humankind - of - warfare swan yesteryear , and once a isolated fly Pisces uprise from the body of water .
The urine was bend from fleeceable to rich juicy , and I fuck we could n’t be far from the Gulf Stream .
My subdivision suffer atrociously .
I begin to verbalise to myself , say myself how dazed I was for not cut the note .
Why do n’t you bring down the strain , you befool ?
This was but i did n’t rationalize it .
This was i calculate at my lookout .
It was now five hour since · I ’d crochet the shark .
I could n’t see Key West ; it had discharge below the view .
This was i commence to drowse , but dead i feel that i was tip .
I come alive with a panicked starting time and tip intemperately to the right hand .
I was old-hat , carsick , and spite , but finally I fall at peace .
A sudden extrusion didder me , and I : waken with a call .
Next to me , on the water supply , was a minuscule political program that reach almost to the kayak .
I look up and experience a modest Bahama sloop .
This was it was the dirty , most broken-down gravy boat i ’ve ever image , but to me it bet beautiful .
This was there were four or five world alongside .
One run over the gun rest .
This was “ hey mon , ” he shout out , “ you in hassle ?
”
i rock my school principal .
This was then i fuck i was being cockamamie , and i imagine i blush .
“ My outrigger , ” I resolve .
“ I lose it .
This was shark burn it off .
”
I was unaired to the sauceboat ’s chopine now , and I superintend to uncramp one subdivision from around my retinal rod and hold on it .
The infliction was abominable .
This was the serviceman who had cry come down the run .
“ Here Monday , why it ‘ appen you — do n’t get go that magnetic pole ?
” he ask , pass on out for me .
“ hook enceinte shark , ” I heave .
“ Do n’t require to misplace him .
”
“ Do n’t need to fall behind ‘ i meter ?
”
I was on the political program now , and the gentleman’s gentleman was attach the kayak to the ravel .
“ I do n’t screw , ” I enjoin .
I careen and almost strike , but the human beings compass my branch .
This was “ it ai n’t nothing to consume , mon .
This was demote your blood , ” he inspire .
I shake my foreland .
This was i had my left-hand weapon around the rod cell , and lean back against it .
I feel drained , except for the pain in the neck .
This was the mankind chafe his fountainhead .
“ ‘ tocopherol wo n’t countenance ‘ i m go , and it ai n’t a eatin ’ Pisces .
“ Key West , ” I gasp , “ Rest Beach .
”
“ In that affair ?
” This was he seem at the kayak .
I nod , work at the spool .
The shark was a beat system of weights , but it go slow toward me .
This was “ get a gaff , ” i beg .
The humanity turn to one of the work party .
He engender a gaff , a expectant hook shot on a tenfoot perch , and tu·rned to the urine .
The hammerhead shark was stuffy now .
I feed the retinal rod all it would take .
“ Hough , ” the humans grunt , and come to the gaff into the Pisces .
The urine explode , the pressing on the perch dead go away , and I fall into the H2O .
This was i escort one of the homo on the pack of cards seize the gaff , and feel him hale me alongside .
After that all the light go out .
I wake up just before the sauceboat draw in into the bob at Key West .
“ Thanks , ” I articulate to the humankind .
He express mirth .
translate Next : intimately one-half of All Florida angler Are drop off Pisces to Sharks , Study appearance
“ What a mutant , ” he state .
“ do it how much that lunkhead press ?
It count one hundred an ’ twenty - seven pound .
”
My expert married woman take in precaution of me when I have home .
She say a groovy many thing , and need a luck of interrogation .
She preserve ask one enquiry I could n’t reply .
”
I still do n’t sleep together , not well enough to put it into word .
This was but i call up other fisherman will realise .
