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I am curious to learn from those of you that target and or keep and eat shark. Seems like this time of year, they are easy to catch. I was fishing form my kayak this weekend at St. Teresa and caught a three foot black tip. I released him to grow up as is my practice with all fish I catch and dont eat, but I was told they make good table fare. That got me thinking maybe I should have kept him. I'm not sure which sharks are better to eat than others. I am sure the larger they get, the less desirable they become for consumption. So, I have a few questions:
1) what is the ideal size to eat
2) what is the best tasting shark
3) is there some immediate prep work to the shark that will help keep the meat tasting good? ie., cutting the heads off, gutting them?
4) what is the best way to cook them: grill, smoke, fry etc. I imagine that is a preference issue

In my case this weekend, I fished for 4 hours and caught him early in the process. I didnt have a place to keep a four foot shark while fishing.

I've eaten a ~2' blacktip.

It was MEH and I marinated it overnight to dial out some of the fishy flavor. I toss them back.. Always.

Yes, they are good to eat but need to be gutted and on ice as soon as possible….like minutes after catching. We fry everything! I'm some what confused as to the species to keep with in the law so you'll need to educate yourself on that. Now days we catch better fish to eat so throw them back.

They are very good to eat but require a lot of prep first. To clean them I cut all the fins off so he will lay flat on the table. Then fillet it like you would any other large fish, being careful not to get close to the skin where all the red meat is. Soak the fillets in briny water a couple days to remove all the strong taste. I like to change the water from one day to the next. By then, the meat is ready to either fry or grill. My family loves fried shark cut in small strips. We usually keep blacktips, but have eaten small bonnethead and hammerhead and they are good as well. Only 2 allowed per boat per day.

I just looked all the regulations up.
http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/sharks/

Florida State and Federal Regulations

Regulations Gulf State Waters Atlantic State Waters
Minimum Size Limit 54 inches fork length*
Daily Bag Limit 1 per harvester or 2 per vessel

*Excludes Atlantic sharpnose, blacknose, blacktip, bonnethead, finetooth and smooth dogfish.

Sharks are to be landed in whole condition, this includes landing sharks with heads and tails intact

I stick to sharpnose, bonnethead or blacktip, cause I don't want or need a 54" shark. Just have a taste for it every once in a while. I like it on the grill. I realized I had better be able to tell the difference between a spinner and a blacktip so I did a google search and checked them out, just to be safe. I am not sure I have ever caught a spinner, but maybe we just thought they were blacktips.

Must bleed the shark ASAP. Gut it also and ice down ASAP. If you can't do those things, you may as well release (IMHO) for eating.

I watched a show the other night and they took the shark, skin on, and used a huge butcher knife and cut it like chops (1/2" thick, whole shark, only gutted) and grilled it just like that. I may try that in a year or two when I want shark again!

One of my favorite swimming meats to eat!

2.5-3' Blacktip are ideal. Once caught, immediately get on ice to "put the shark to sleep..."

After a nice little rest, make sure she's "sleeping" (aka dead) and go to town. You're pretty much field dressing a shark. Slicing the top of the head, at the tail, and the gut. bleed her out good (makes a hell of a chum line!).

Once back, I fillet part and steak the rest. I'll rinse down and pat dry, then soak in lightly seasoned milk for 4-5 hours prior to cooking. I like to blacken/grill my sharks.

So freaking tasty!

Love me some blackened blacktip, and I'm not the biggest fan of "fishy" tasting fish. I soak it a day or two in cold milk (in the refrigerator). Meat is perfect fro grilling. Has tighter muscle fiber than other more flaky fish, so it's not nearly as prone to falling apart on the grill.

Do want to be careful consuming shark meat too often. Generally speaking they are a bit higher in mercury than is ideal for daily/weekly consumption.

BBG and GalantNole are right on... Black tip is awesome.
Trim off all the red meat and your flavor will be better- and the mercury level will be lower (More on that in a longer post soon)

Grilled or fried is fantastic!

I ate fried shark at a buddies house once and it was delicious. He told me what to do. Bleed the shark on the water, then soak in milk for a day, then lime/lemon juice the next day, (after 24 hours in lime juice, it's pretty much cooked already).
I tried it myself a while later with a bonnethead and the results were less than satisfying. It was the smell. By the time I was done cooking it, my stomach was turned and I could not eat it. My wife said it was good, but I don't think I'll be trying it again unless someone else cooks it for me

Hey, bluefish is good grilled also. It has to be prepared much the same way shark is, and takes a fairly big one to get 2 nice fillets from.

Did it smell like ammonia Red?

Sharks don't urinate, they pass the urea through their skin (I guess that is true of all sharks, but I am not sure). Bleeding and icing it down is they key as everyone said. I think I soaked my last on for too long in the lemon juice. I will try again with a one hour marinade as that was a whole lot better.

Soaked mine in lime margarita mix for an hour then put some Old bay on it.
Put it on a hot grill for about 5-7 minutes per side and it was good.
Could have soaked it longer.

Yes, it was the ammonia smell, both when I first cleaned it and when I took it out to fry it.
The one I ate, I caught from my kayak, where I have a relatively small ice-bag that does a less-than-ideal job of icing the fish down.
Maybe it would have been better if I had iced it better.

Shark is very good smoked as well if you like smoked fish or fish dip.

Blacktop is the best I have tried with bull being a close second.bonnethead and sharp nose aren't worth the trouble we bleed them by cutting the tail off while its still alive. As soon as its dead put it on ice and fillet or steak out ASAP and trim off any red meat. Fried or grilled its hard to beat but I have found that it needs to be eaten hot.