Cody Treutel is pictured above with an excellent bonnethead shark he caught with a live crab near the mangrove shorline of Little Pine Island. These sharks are the smallest members of the hammerhead family and grow to a maximum size of about four feet and twenty pounds. They're a common sight on certain flats here in Southwest Florida and a lot more common down in the Keys where I used to target them heavily in the winter with fly rods when the bonefish were scarce. Bonnetheads are crustacean eaters and dragging a live shrimp or small blue crab in front of them will make them go ballistic. They do have a sharp set of teeth but I rarely bother with wire leaders since hooks usually wind up right in the corner of their small jaws. Thanks to their size they can be safely handled and make an a great photo before releasing them.
