Eating Shark
 

Last couple of trips to V-Bay I have been catching lots of Black Tip sharks 2' -4' ft long near the SW Pass reefs. Never kept any, always considered them a nuisance. Saw an add this week at Rouses that Black Tip shark Steaks were $5.00 lb. Are they worth keeping and whats the best way to cook them?

don't know anything about table fare but I'm pretty sure they have to be 54" and that inner jaw to inner fork length

Black tip is real good table Fare. Nice white meat.

They have to be 54" long and they don't have a bladder system so when they die they piss them selves and contaminate the meat it will smell like ammonia , best thing is to bleed em n haul butt in to land to gut em bcuz it illegal to gut em on the water.... Basiclly lots of work for no the best eats!

Last I checked they were out of season... federal regs... could be wrong though. And I think those are bulls in the picture not positive used to catch a lot of them by the oaks canal.

That's black tip

Could be but generally they have really defined black tips on the dorsal and tail fin and the don't have really flat/blunt noses.

Its pretty good eatin by my book. I have never kept any caught though. Shark meat in general maitains a fishy taste I find, but that dont bother me.

Not worth the trouble. Toughest skin you can imagine. Better to buy Rouse's shark and be done with it.

The skin cant be that bad, can it?

Don't know but, that foot in the water with the last one would make for nice revenge on his part! LOL Watched a show in Discovery about how agile they are and YIKES! By what I saw, you are in the red zone!

X2

X3

Man it drank your couurrsssss!!

Isn't it shark week??? Or was that last week?

FRIED!

Shark is good
 

When in season and allowed to keep some for the table I find shark very good eaten fresh. Never froze any meat. Cleaning is very important part of the process to insure good tasting meat. You clean them by using a sharp knife near the dorsal fin and head of the fish and continue toward the tail. Keep well away from the abdominal cavity of the fish. If you puncture the abd. cavity the meat will be ruined and will taste like urine. You're trying to essentially take the "tenderloin" of the fish by taking a select piece of meat along the backbone. That being said they are a fair amt of trouble to clean and I don't mess with them unless I have not caught any other fish for table fair that day.

x2! Its great fried.

Shoot, maybe next time you hook one and dont want to keep it you should give me a ring. I will gladly bring that sucker home and clean'em. Never cleaned one myself, but would love to try one fresh.

The meat smells bad bad when you clean it. I have had it many times fried like chicken and it's very good, not bad grilled fresh either. I'm pretty sure neither of the two in your picture are of legal size.

I was always told that the fish sticks in schools were shark meat.

Is there a season on "billy clubbing" them?! LOL

i dont think them pics are black tips

looks like a bull

Yep

like this one we caught when i worked offshore..


and no we didnt eat it, they are really a nuisance when you're bottom fishing in the gulf. imagine reeling in 200+ feet of line, only to realize its a shark again.

Most sharks excrete their urine through their skin. Black tip and mako do not. To be safe I always cut them gill to gill, gutted them and tied them off the transom for a hour before putting them on ice. Shark is great grilled. I treat them like tuna or ling. My favorite is grilled with a creole mustard, honey and dill vineagrette. To cheat just add honey mustard and dill to italian dressing or buy one of the fancy dressings at the grocery store.

Def bull shark and u better start being more carefull wit em. Bull sharks are widely considered as one of the three top man eaters with the oceanic white tip and the great white! Those in the pics would be happy to take your leg in less then 3 ft of water!!!

Quick fun fact bull sharks can live and thrive in less than 6' of fresh water. Now theres your river monster!!

54" fork length and you can gut them. gut them as soon as you catch them and rinse them out well. pack in ice. It is good eating

I guess using my foot to give a size comparison wasn't such a good idea. Next time I'll just use the beer can again.

Like stated above Mako and Black tip DO have a bladder and thus do not excrete urine through their muscle and skin. We used to catch them offshore all the time and they are excellent grilled with tony's and italian dressing. As far as cleaning them they are a piece of cake! Gut them and rinse very well. Then cut off fins (keep for soup or give to your asian neighbors). Lay shark on its belly and take your filet knife and cut them vertically into 1 1/2" steaks by starting behind the head working your way towards the tail. Once you have the steaks cut you can skin them very easily by simply fileting the skin from the flesh. Then season, grill, and enjoy!

x2...not black tips at all BT's have black tips on their pectoral fins those are bulls

pretty sure these are not black tips unless they are juveniles and have not developed their "black tips". See these two picture of black tips. Note that all fins have black tips.

Safety tip handling sharks: snatching and holding by the tail is not safe practice @ all!!:eek: Sharks can reach their tail with their mouths!!!:eek::eek::eek:

found this picture while looking for black tips sharks and bull sharks. Don't know what in the hell it is????

looks like a fetus, no teeth, and apparently not fully developed...just my guess...


how about this?

Yep

Screw the fish......look how many arms that dude has!!!!

If anyone wants to catch some of those sharks. The shallow exposed shell reefs along the SW Pass are loaded with them. I caught about a dozen on live mullets the last trip until I ran out of leaders. Caught a few reds and trout until the sharks showed up.

Cyclopse bull shark. Found that also while searching.

I think those are deff bull sharks though. Bull sharks usually dont have have black tip on the dorsal fins. Black tip sharks do.

LOL!