Russ Mack’s Hammerhead Shark Surprise

“It was weird, it was cool, because we had been getting brown sharks and then we hooked into that…” said Russ Mack, a twenty-year-old fisherman with the knowledge and confidence earned by anglers twice his age. He fishes South County beaches and the deep waters with friend Lucas Holloway. They catch and release fish through all seasons and through ice fresh and salt, but as waters warm and southern species migrate north, recently they’ve been catching brown sharks in the night surf. He said they knew right away the fish they hooked on August 2 was very different. Russ Mack’s hammerhead shark surprise, working the shoreline for prey, fell for an eel. “The brown sharks, they fight the same, just a little solid pull then you pretty much reel in dead weight that’s pulling against you. This one kept pulling and you couldn’t get anything on it.” That odd feel, that heavy pull back, turned up to be a scalloped hammerhead shark.

From Maine to Connecticut, sharks have been seen this year at popular beaches and salt rivers. Newport boaters saw a hammerhead on July 13 at the surface, one was filmed swimming just a few feet off a Nantucket beach a week later and on July 24, the Atlantic Shark Institute tagged a scalloped hammerhead shark off Block Island, the first ever for the Institute. Some research indicates younger sharks are arriving, which may signal a population dynamic change. Plenty of striper fishermen have reeled in just half a bass this summer, which they call “getting sharked,” likely from browns, also called sandbar sharks. DNA evidence indicates sharks may have been here for 450 million years, which is 200 million before Tyrannosaurus rex, so they’re entitled to their share. Hammerheads prefer bony fish, stingrays, crabs and squid and use their broad heads, called a cephalofoil, and as their mouths are centered beneath the hammer, they scan sea floors for then press prey to the bottom  Having eyes so far apart affords them 360° binocular depth perception to hunt for prey, like Russ’s eel.

Russ Mack prepares to deliver an eel

On a falling tide and rising moon, Russ and Lucas wanted to know what was patrolling off the beach. “Is it true you paddled a kayak out there to set the bait?” I asked. “Yeah.” His delivery is consistently understated. It’s a sign of his mettle. With Lucas on the rod, he puts on a PFD, paddles a sit-in kayak fifty or sixty yards out then releases an eel and weights, out where they know sharks are hunting.No big deal. “I play it kind of careful. We get some looks about it,” he said. He’s pretty casual about this maneuver. “It works fine.” He is honestly cool.

“Losing three-dollar hooks when you’re catching sharks gets expensive,” he said. Russ Mack’s hammerhead shark surprise happened because he’s an experienced fisherman and those folks tend to look down and shuffle their feet when asked for too many details. He did say they use 65-pound line with wire leaders and barbless circle hooks because browns tend to hang in schools of stripers. For a while they used eight-ounce lead shots to sink eels but they got snagged in rocks so they lost a few bass and lead is costly to wallets and our environment. They switched to rocks secured with rubber bands and a kayak delivery. “You can’t cast rocks anywhere,” Russ said with a laugh.

Russ Mack Is All About A Good Story

“I’m not a big photo guy. I’ve caught forty-pound fish, I have photos of some of them,” he said because his focus is on releasing his catch. His fishing is all for sport and he keeps only the occasional fish for his parents, Sue and Doug. “I’m a big fan of catch and release. You catch a forty-pound fish, you have that thing out of the water for five minutes, that thing’s not swimming away. Mostly I’m not going for slot sized fish, I’m going for the nicer stuff, to have a story behind it.”. He’s careful with everything they catch. “We try to take the best care of them that we can, we’re walking them out past the break to let them go.” Russ is a much needed young conservation-minded angler and hopefuly he will keep a journal of his adventures so we can all benefit from his lifetime’s worth of stories

Russ Mack carefully releasing a brown shark

For a young man, he has spent a lot of time in and on the water. “Me and my dad, we used to go down all the time, we used to catch 15, 20-pound fish from the surf for hours straight.”  Is there a better story than one beginning with, “Me and my dad?” He says “fish” as a generality, as a unique noun, as a marker, because fish might mean trout or tuna and fish are what drives him. When asked how long he has been fishing, he said, “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you. The first fish I ever caught was with my dad at Old Mountain Field.” How many bass has he caught? “This year or ever?” “Either.” “No idea.” Russ values stories far more than cell phone pictures.

They fought that fish, that scalloped hammerhead shark, for more than two hours, trading off to keep the pressure on. When it was close to the beach, they saw its pectoral fin and, “Eight or ten feet back we saw the tail fin. Then we were like, oh, that’s a big shark.” A friend took a few pictures and a quick video as they pulled it into the whitewash, removed the hook, peeled off a lamprey from behind its anal fin and set them both free. They also both agreed to call it a night. He phoned his dad when it was over, then Declan at Breachway Bait & Tackle, and like Doug, Declan didn’t really believe him at first, because it’s remarkable. As expected, after posting about the night on Instagram, social media experts circled the two. They handled each comment with common sense and facts, relating that even in those lightning moments of such a surprise catch, they were wise enough to protect the hammerhead shark to ensure its survival. “It might have been two minutes, from the moment we landed the fish to the moment it was back. We were not targeting a hammerhead. We’re not there to kill fish. We’re just there to have fun. We didn’t drag that thing on the sand. When we let that thing go, it wasn’t tired. You can see in the video, it just kicks and it goes.” Responding to one critic, Lucas explained the truth and added, “Have a great day.” Classic polite dismissal.

“There’s lots we can learn”

Russ’s skills and passion for understanding fish reminded me of Frank Daignault, the great surfcaster and writer, who caught hundreds of big bass from the beach and loved telling how he did it. “There’s lots we can learn from that and do better, we weren’t equipped for that at all. At most we were expecting a hundred-pound brown.”  That’s it, just a hundred pound brown shark. Just another day on the beach. They hope to measure length or girth on future sharks if they can do it quickly and safely and his belief in conservation should be applauded. If their catch inspires other people to target sharks in close, hopefully those anglers absorb Russ Mack and Lucas Holloway’s level of respect and concern for shark survival.

 “I was swimming out there that day. I was swimming 40 yards from where I dropped that bait,” he said. While many are scrolling their phones, Russ is likely on a dark beach with his friends, catching, releasing and laughing, fearless to a point, respectful and curious.”Now that we have that hammerhead, imagine if we caught a big tiger or a white next? I don’t want one of those, it would be fun but I don’t want to deal with that.” Russ and Lucas have been back to that beach and have caught another brown shark. That makes 25 or so this year. Or maybe 30. He’s not really keeping track.

Russ Mack is ready for the next fishing adventure, here or anywhere.

“I would one hundred percent do it again. One hundred percent.”

Lucas Holloway with a scalloped hammerhead shark