Rodrigo Rodriguez drives four hours to the beach each weekend, and each trip is a chance to beat his personal best, to come home to Houston with an even bigger hammerhead shark story.
Mr. Rodriguez, an oil refinery worker, drove south of Galveston and, on Saturday, June 8, reeled in his biggest hammerhead yet. His last largest, caught two weeks earlier, was 11 feet, 6 inches long. This new one was 13 feet, 2 inches.
The bigger hammerheads are to be caught closer to the Corpus Christi shoreline in the Gulf of Mexico, rather than further northeast, Mr. Rodriguez said, though he’s not sure why.
“I go more down south to the Texas Gulf Coast, which is Aransas, where I caught the big hammerhead,” he said. “I love going down, down south.
“May and June is when the big ones come out. I got lucky that day.”
June 28 was Mr. Rodriguez’s 27th birthday, making this new personal best an early birthday gift.
At around 6 a.m., it was sunny and hot in Port Aransas. Mr. Rodriguez had already cast his exceedingly robust Okuma T-RX 80 wide line out to sea when he heard a sound that spoke volumes.
The reel started peeling off like there was no tomorrow, and it appeared a hammerhead had grabbed the bait and was speeding off into the deep blue sea.
“We got real big reels,” he said. “They’re special for those kind of fish.”
He knew it was big, he said. However, they were in for a major shock when the hammerhead really started hauling. Mr. Rodriguez is a strong guy, but he could not have battled this massive shark ashore alone, not without help.
He had two fishing pals and a lady with him that day. He and his friends took turns fighting the fish, trying to reel in that powerful force.
“Hammerheads fight harder than any other shark,” he said. “Sometimes they fight to death.
“Sometimes, if you don’t bring him in quickly, they might die on you because they get real tired.”
The hammerhead had the men running up and down the beach as they tugged and reeled and tugged some more. “My adrenaline was 100 percent,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “To the fullest.”
Until finally, they had it: The hammerhead. Ashore. And what a hammerhead! They took some pictures—which are pretty spectacular—and measured it before letting it back out to sea.
Mr. Rodriguez always releases his fish.
The same day, two hours later, he snagged another hammerhead, this one smaller, measuring 11 feet, 4 inches.
Mr. Rodriguez, who has been fishing from age 7, started taking the sport very seriously in the last decade. Where he grew up everyone fishes. Always on the lookout to beat his biggest, he persisted over the years, fishing every weekend.
Next, he hopes to get his license to guide others out fishing to earn money for it.
But for now, he’s just thankful for his birthday gift.
A new personal best.
“Twenty days before my birthday,” he said. “I got blessed with that one.”
