Woman catches 11.5-foot hammerhead shark from a truck
Fishing from a platform built atop a pickup truck, Jen Merchant caught a personal-best hammerhead shark measuring 11.5 feet in a battle that took 45 minutes.
Merchant, a surf-fishing guide and conservationist, was surf fishing Saturday with her husband Tim and Dustin Hickey south of Bob Hall Pier on North Padre Island in Texas.
Merchant told My San Antonio it was a “really good fight” and that she was still sore two days later.
Her previous best hammerhead shark measured 7 feet, 4 inches, and was caught and released on July 18, 2021.
“I was stoked,” Merchant told My San Antonio. “I’ve been trying to get one over 10 feet for a while. It was definitely satisfying to finally achieve my personal best. I couldn’t have done it without Tim Merchant and Dustin Hickey there to help every step of the way.”
The trio measured and tagged the hammerhead shark, along with retrieving DNA samples and removing hooks that had broken off during previous battles with fishermen. They then released the shark, as shown in the video.
Jen Merchant fought the shark from atop the truck while wearing a fishing harness, and it appeared at times she needed to hang on to a back railing for stability. They used a drone to drop the baits into the water.
Jen has been fishing in Texas for 11 years, according to her website Fishing with Jen. “She grew up running limb lines for catfish and frog gigging the lakes and creeks of East Texas,” her site states. “Once she got a taste of the salt life, she was hooked!
“She specializes in catching all species from redfish, trout, jack crevalle, black drum, tarpon, stingray, sharks and mackerel.”