Giant Hammerhead Tales

January 21, 2004 By: Marshall Cutchin

This story about “Old Hitler” on Captain Mel Berman’s site reminds me of several encounters, including one off the south side of the Marquesas, where an enormous dusky brown hammerhead two or three feet longer than my skiff surfaced beside us and inhaled a tarpon we had been fighting for 2 hours. The skiff I was fishing out of then was an 18′ Hewes. I still recall the feeling of my blood rushing to my feet as I realized I was standing on a tiny platform just feet above the hammerhead’s back.