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Went fishing out of St. Marks last Thursday, no luck on the shallower flats, oyster bars or creek mouths (was an outgoing tide), I mean NOTHING (except pinfish in full force), so we went to about 10 & 11 feet more or less straight off Slough Island, and started getting some fish. We were throwing red-headed jigs with white, and nuclear chicken, Gulp shrimp on them. No bobber, jigging deep mostly. Flats were very clear, but out there is was a little cloudy. We immediately started catching ladyfish, mixed in with some decent sized keeper trout, and we also got two bluefish. And two small sharks. The guy I was with eats everything, he wanted to keep the bluefish & sharks to eat. I think they were Atlantic Sharpnose sharks. The usual 2-3 foot sharks. One had some white spots on it, the other didn't, not sure if they were different species. I HATE the smell of sharks. It's sickening to me.

We gutted the sharks then & there. We fillet'd the fish normally (made two big fillets each with the sharks, of course cutting the skin and all reddish meat off), split the meat up and put -em in the fridge. A couple days later I broiled it all. To prep for broiling, I rinsed & then dried the fillets, finger-wiped 'em all with olive oil, ground some sea salt & some black pepper on 'em, put 'em on a grate over a drip pan and put 'em in a pre-heated oven with the broiler on & cooked 'em for about 6-8 minutes.

Bluefish: fishy taste. Not bad, but pretty fishy. Meat was not real firm.

Trout: decent. It's trout.

Shark: uh, it was ... good. I mean really good. Better than the trout. Firm, no fishy or "off" taste, very good. I've eaten shark before and the meat retained just a hint of that "shark stink taint" that nearly made me gag. Not these! I think maybe gutting (and bleeding) it right away, and skinning it by filleting one side of the shark like you'd do with a "normal" fish, and getting ALL of the red-tainted meat near the skin off, was the key. The one that had that stink taint that time, we had simply pulled the skin off (not easy!) rather than cut it off, and a lot of that sub-cutaneous red meat stayed on the fillets. I think the stink is all about the skin.

Bottom line, I am going to re-think this whole shark thing.

Oh yeah, the time before I ate a big sail cat (snot cat). Cooked it the same way. It, too, was pretty dang good.

Glad you liked the shark, they are a lot of work preparing them but we love them . I usually soak blues and sharks in salty water for a day, change the water and soak another day same way. The red meat on blues needs to be removed also, bloody and not good. Fried shark is good also.

I do like the blues grilled, i usually split the fillets to get rid of the dark red meat.

Absolutely love grilled black-tip shark! Next to mangroves and cobia... definitely my favourite.

- steak out the shark like you would kingfish steaks, I don't filet them
- I usually soak mine in milk overnight (usually starting late because I get back so late)
- take it out, pat dry
- coat with OO/butter, lemon juice, garlic, onions, and seasoning (let marinate 15-30mins)
- keep coated and grill both sides until completed (varies based on thickness)
- enjoy!

I totally concur on blacktip shark. Soaked fillets in milk for two hours before grilling in a mix of Worchestershire sauce/minced garlic/olive oil. YUM!!! Fish version of a good steak.

Regarding catfish: huge difference between blue gafftops and hardheads. The former eat as well as trout & reds. The latter are survival food at best.

So, do you go ahead and clean the shark right when you catch him?
Several years ago my oldest daughter caught a very nice shark. Blacktip I think.
Anyway, we were with a guide and he just threw it in his fish box and we took it home.
I cleaned it when we got home along with the rest of the fish and intended to grill it.
The ammonia smell was so bad I wound up throwing it away. I don't believe soaking in milk
or anything for that matter would have made that fish where I could eat it.

You have to at the very least bleed them out as much as you can before throwing in the cooler. I soak in buttermilk , gives a nice rich flavor.

If you clean fish before you head back to the ramp, you will get hefty fine if your caught by fwc. You can gut them, but the head has to be left on and you definitely can’t legally fillet in on the water. By all means, eat those sharks, there are more than enough

Salty Gator wrote:If you clean fish before you head back to the ramp, you will get hefty fine if your caught by fwc. You can gut them, but the head has to be left on and you definitely can’t legally fillet in on the water. By all means, eat those sharks, there are more than enough

I bleed them, gut them and pack the belly with ice and put it in the cooler. I did not care for the Sharpnose, but love a blacktip. In order to fit a larger one in, we cut the head, almost off, as well as the tail, almost off. Folded it back on itself in the cooler. Still attached and legal.

Nephew uses EVO and Lemon juice marinate. Then salt and pepper on the grill. Awesome!

onefishtwofish wrote:

Salty Gator wrote:If you clean fish before you head back to the ramp, you will get hefty fine if your caught by fwc. You can gut them, but the head has to be left on and you definitely can’t legally fillet in on the water. By all means, eat those sharks, there are more than enough

I bleed them, gut them and pack the belly with ice and put it in the cooler. I did not care for the Sharpnose, but love a blacktip. In order to fit a larger one in, we cut the head, almost off, as well as the tail, almost off. Folded it back on itself in the cooler. Still attached and legal.

Nephew uses EVO and Lemon juice marinate. Then salt and pepper on the grill. Awesome!

That’s a great idea about cutting the head and tail almost off. I had to fold a cobia to fit in a 96 qt cooler last weekend, and a little tail was sticking out. Be careful with that lemon juice marinade Doc, it will cook your fish if left on for longer than an hour

I was fishing the other day and didn’t have a cooler on the boat and caught about 6 large sails and probably that many black tips as well. Not that I would have kept the cats but I kinda wished I had something to toss a black tip in. I was thinking I put enough meat in the boat that day to feed a small African village.

Bluefish isn't bad, and the edible sharks are yum yum!!! Some sharks secrete rather than excrete so those icky things give shark a bad reputation.

I've also eaten a few sharks.
Knife them in the gills, to kill them as quickly as possible and bleed them. On ice ASAP.
Clean them at the boat dock, and don't wait until later to do it.

They filet easily- since the bones don't exist.
The carcass does smell- BAD. Get the meat separated as quickly as you can.


Grilled, baked, or pan sauteed, always delicious.

Lots of good shark suggestions already. But, here are mine. Sharks have urea in the body that makes them smell and taste bad if not properly handled.

Heading and tailing and gutting is best, but no longer legal on the water. So, cut behind the head, completely gut, and bleed out as much as possible over the side. Bury the shark in ice, a slurry if you can.
At the cleaning table, completely skin and cut out the red meat. Keep the meat on ice all of the time. Really cold.

Before cooking, you can also soak the meat in ice water with a little (1t/qt ice water) lemon juice or vinegar to counteract any remaining ammonia. I hardly ever have to do this part after bleeding and keeping the fillets cold, tho. The meat will not smell at this point.

Shark fingers, fried, are awesome. Grilled steaks are great, too, but it’s really easy to over cook them grilling.

Bluefish is excellent bled well, iced well, and eaten within 48hours, fresh only. Cut away the red meat. Pretty similar to any of the mackerels.

It isn’t grouper or snapper, but most fish aren’t.


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