can you, or i should say do you eat tarpon?
 

people fish for tarpon all the time but unlike dolphin and tuna you never ever see any recipe for cooking tarpon so whats the story on that?

the tarpon rodeos catch and kill a lot of these fish so are they just wasted and if so why? is tarpon just a trash fish that's just caught and released or is it a good eating fish and if so why are there no recipes I see anywhere around for cooking tarpon?

from google searching I heard they were very boney so that's why its not popular to eat but with such a big fish I find it hard to believe the bones aren't big enough to easily be cut out or at least I would think so.

Looks like a dang over grown mullet to me. I'm not wasting my time or $ to fish for something I can't eat or use for bait to catch a fish I can eat. This is just my personal view. There are a lot of folks that enjoy tarpon fishing and more power to them.
I thought their meat has a toxin in it. I may be completely wrong though.

You're thinking of barracuda re the toxin.

Just like eatin a giant shiner!!

I always wonder what they do with those tarpon they catch. It would be a shame if they just kill em just to take a picture with it for bragging rights.

They ride them, that's why it's called a rodeo.

Come on guys

I know they do research on them I would assume they take tissue and otolith samples from them.

Spend 1 1/2 hours fighting that big SOB and watch the jumps and you will understand why people target them.

Im glad they make people happy. Fillets in the freezer makes me happy. Drop the hamma on em and have a ball :)

I and I think everyone else understands the "battle" and the targeting of them for "sport" but I think I and most others just wonder why in the world are they even taken out of the water and brought to the scales for tournaments? many "sport fish" are catch and release only which is how tarpon should be if indeed they aren't considered worth eating.

shark and bill fish regularly have catch and release tournaments where they measure, tag, and release fish on the spot and weights are measured by the size and not dragged to a scale where the fish dies to just become fertilizer

Gah dam baw, errbody know dat..

Marlin are often brought to the scales in a lot of big time tournaments. Such a small percentage of tarpon that are caught are actually killed, that I seriously doubt that it hurts a thing. Tarpon are normally brought to the scales only if it is a record class fish or if it is for a tournament.

In Florida, they are not even allowed to be brought into the boat for a picture.

granted, it just seams so wasteful for that many pounds of fish to be wasted is all.

I am in no way suggesting killing them hurts the fish stocks because I have no reason to believe killing a few has any impact but when you take a 100+ fish to the scales for pictures I would just like to think they put that meat to some useful purpose and not just kill it for the sake of killing it to take pictures.

I never thought about the marlin, :confused: is that a trash fish not worth eating as well just like tarpon?

I grew up with the rule that if you aint gonna eat it then don't kill it and release it in a way so you don't hurt it if you do catch it

Marlin is good to eat, you can find it in sushi restaurants at times

ok, thanks

well then what they do with marlin is not a fair comparison to the question of why kill and waste tarpon if you don't eat it.

not sure what they do with the tarpon at some of the tournaments like GI Tarpon Rodeo, but have heard spearfishermen will shoot them and eat them


i subscribe to the don't kill it if you ain't going to eat it also, hardhead catfish/gafftops/gar go right back where I caught em

It's kind of hard to weigh a 150+ lb fish on a boat. I'm with yall on not keeping what you aren't going to eat, but like someone else said, I'm sure at a lot of these events their are biologists and such there to take samples and study these fish.

By the time a fish is that size, they have probably already lived the majority of their life, and have done their fair share of spawning and laying eggs.

I have never kept a tarpon and was also thought that you should not kill something you do not intend to eat. Probably why a safari does not interest me the least bit.

They have formulas to estimate the weight of tarpon and other big game fish. Basically several measurements can taken before bringing a fish in to be weighed.