Bull Shark for sure. I've eaten Blacktip, blackened, grilled, and fried. Good stuff. Be glad you didn't keep it and have the bunny cops catch you. You would have gotten several tickets. BTW, sharks spawn in the marshes in the spring to early summer. I learned this a couple years ago. We were fishing with live shrimp in the ponds along MRGO by Bayou Bienvenue. We kept getting bites, and the floro leader would break off. After 5 of these in a row, I tied on a 50lb Power Pro leader. Caught a little 20" baby Bull Shark. In all my years, I had never caught a shark like that. I had caught plenty out in Breton Sound and at the end of the MRGO rocks, but none that far in. So I did a little research and learned a lot.
Here are the regs:
[SIZE=2]Shark: Closed Season-AllLouisianaState waters out to the seaward boundary of the Louisiana TerritorialSea shall be closed to the recreational and commercial harvest and possession of all sharks between April 1 and June 30 of each year.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Atlantic Sharpnose and Bonnethead[/SIZE][SIZE=2]: The aggregate daily take and possession limit for recreationally [/SIZE][SIZE=2]caught Atlantic Sharpnose and Bonnethead sharks within or without Louisiana waters shall be one fish per person per trip and in possession.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Other Sharks[/SIZE][SIZE=2]: The aggregate daily take and possession limit for all "Small Coastal," "Large Coastal" [/SIZE][SIZE=2]and "Pelagic" sharks combined, caught recreationally within or without Louisiana waters, shall be one fish per vessel per trip and in possession with a 54 inch minimum fork length, except that there is no minimum length limit on bonnethead shark and Atlantic sharpnose. Recreational harvesters may not take sandbar or silky shark from the "Large Coastal" species group.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Small Coastal Sharks [/SIZE][SIZE=2]- [/SIZE][SIZE=2]Atlantic sharpnose shark, bonnethead shark, blacknose shark, finetooth shark[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Large Coastal Sharks [/SIZE][SIZE=2]- [/SIZE][SIZE=2]blacktip shark, nurse shark, smooth hammerhead, bull shark, sandbar shark, spinner shark, great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead, tiger shark, lemon shark, silky shark[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Pelagic Sharks [/SIZE][SIZE=2]- [/SIZE][SIZE=2]blue shark, porbeagle shark, thresher shark, oceanic whitetip shark, shortfin mako[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Prohibited Species - No person shall take, possess, purchase, sell, barter, exchange or attempt to possess, purchase, sell, barter, or exchange any of the following species or parts thereof: Atlantic angel shark, Caribbean sharpnose shark, sand tiger shark, basking shark, dusky shark, sevengill shark, bigeye sand tiger shark, Galapagos shark, sixgill shark, bigeye sixgill shark, largetooth sawfish smalltail shark, bigeye thresher shark, longfin mako smalltooth sawfish bignose shark, narrowtooth shark, whale shark, [/SIZE][SIZE=2]Caribbean[/SIZE][SIZE=2] reef shark, night shark, white shark.
[/SIZE][SIZE=2]Sharks taken under a recreational bag limit shall not be sold, purchased, exchanged, bartered, or attempted to be sold, purchased, exchanged or bartered. A person subject to a bag limit shall not possess at any time, regardless of the number of trips or the duration of a trip, any shark in excess of the bag limits mentioned above. The practice of "finning," that is, removing only the fins and returning the remainder of the shark to the sea, is prohibited within and outside Louisiana waters. Notwithstanding other provisions of this part, a person may fish for, but not retain, white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) with rod and reel only under a catch and release program, provided the person releases and returns such fish to the sea immediately with a minimum of injury.[/SIZE]
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