# Who eats shark?



## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

Up here in Yeppoon, sharks are a pretty common catch. I'd go as far as to say they are the second most reliable catch in as far as I can go target them and be fairly sure I will catch one (bream being the moist reliable).
I've kept a few for the table now and find them to be a pretty good eating fish. 
I caught one out on the islands on the weeknd that would have been about 1m long, weighing about 3kg. We got 3 meals out of it as there is little waste in shark compared to most other fish.
Now I've seen on here not many people keep them, I'm sure some of that is due to not wanting a shark on the yak but there is a fair bias against them.
So who eats shark (flake)?
Do you have any tips for filleting them? Not that they are hard especially once they get over a couple of kg.
I pretty much just split them in half, cut the spine out and skin them.
Good recipes?


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## doddsj (May 24, 2010)

G'day,

Many years ago i was fishing on a Charter Boat out from Hervey Bay. Managed to snag a small Bronze Whaler Shark that we brought onboard. As i don't eat fish it was offered to the other folk on board the charter. Nobody wanted it. That was until the skipper asked if anyone ate Flake! A couple of people responded with a yes, to which the skipper replied well you like eating shark then! needless to say it was then eagerly accepted by one of the other fishermen.

Cheers,
Steve.


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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

I like them if they are under 4-5 foot trunk length. Down here i have eaten gummies and small seven gills. Prior to moving down here i would take a small hammer or whaler. Some of the bottom feeding sharks are nice, i was always very partial to shovel nose, beautiful white meat which was quite sweet. I would always throw them in the freezer for a week as it was the easiest way of getting rid of the ammonia taste.


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Yuk! Dont like them. Even if I bleed them straight away. Go out and catch some coral trout, Yum!

My wife likes flake, no bones.


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## Guest (Aug 6, 2012)

It's a long time since I've taken one for the table. Nothing against them at all, i find them quite tasty but my wife turns up her nose. And we tend to have plenty of more desirable fillets grace our plates frequently. Possibly why she turns up her nose. Always enjoy hooking them though!


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## cheaterparts (Jul 3, 2010)

Digger said:


> Gummy Shark rates highest amongst the fish we catch around here.
> 
> Flake covers such a wide variety of shark and the appeal varies from species to species, but Gummy is the king IMHO. At $30 a kilo in the shops it's nice to catch them!
> 
> Dig


have to agree with you digger - one day you will have to come and fish in gummy heaven Westernport at the shallow end


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

ArWeTherYet said:


> Yuk! Dont like them. Even if I bleed them straight away. Go out and catch some coral trout, Yum!
> 
> My wife likes flake, no bones.


I had coral trout for the 3rd time on the weekend. Each time I've eaten it, I've been very disappointed. It's almost tasteless and the texture tends toward the mushy. The rest of the family like it though.


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## Guest (Aug 6, 2012)

Junglefisher said:


> ArWeTherYet said:
> 
> 
> > Yuk! Dont like them. Even if I bleed them straight away. Go out and catch some coral trout, Yum!
> ...


How was it cooked? Trout tend to be best cooked whole


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

Scott said:


> I like them if they are under 4-5 foot trunk length. Down here i have eaten gummies and small seven gills. Prior to moving down here i would take a small hammer or whaler. Some of the bottom feeding sharks are nice, i was always very partial to shovel nose, beautiful white meat which was quite sweet. I would always throw them in the freezer for a week as it was the easiest way of getting rid of the ammonia taste.


We ate shovel nose up at Broome. People were horrified that we were eating a pest fish - they steal your baits when you are salmon fishing.
We found it quite tasty but it was not unusual to see dead shovel nose that had been chucked into the dunes.


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## cheaterparts (Jul 3, 2010)

Junglefisher said:


> Do you have any tips for filleting them? Not that they are hard especially once they get over a couple of kg.
> I pretty much just split them in half, cut the spine out and skin them.
> Good recipes?


I do my gummies like this guy except I blead and gut my fish straight away
so the only difference to skinning and filleting is i ge 2 belly stips instead of 1 belly flap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qod7hnwz ... ults_video


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

nad97 said:


> Junglefisher said:
> 
> 
> > ArWeTherYet said:
> ...


Whole  Scaled, gutted and in the frying pan within a few hours of being speared.


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## Guest (Aug 6, 2012)

I like mine Baked in foil with a bit of soy, oster sauce, mirin, lime, ginger palm suger and chilli. yum


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

I brought a bull shark home once with the intention of eating it. I don't know if they are a tasty species or not but I had trouble trying to get my knife into it. The skin was like sandpaper and bluntened the knife really quickly. Maybe my knife skills aren't that good.


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWVYiOHcAAB/fgAAQQIOwCAAkEAA//9+gMACqwaqfk0TU8TBPVAZqeo0ITSbSM1PUGQGgAamp+hT1ENpoIBmiEBCuCWOPa8u4blmC2DUa8+789TJ0N0yiwrGe1BQGrzzWJzkU2A0iG6uj4OiskRtDEMgRl7UPlgQ8cHoxScmQ+V/Nvxq++9rDVsaz0dYGEkRckFKVJky+gUyvhmtSgqSA7yE8LmQXG+dVXAZkRzpGgy5SmMVIMkx9kyzV69wruwRAzzKocmZxOn4ytEUH0/xdyRThQkFYiOHc


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Goes to show your taste is in your bum JF.



RedPhoenix said:


> Love 'em.
> 
> I don't keep many above 1.2m though; I'm a little concerned about top-predator heavy metal bioaccumulation for the bigger/older beasties - though I don't have any local moreton bay studies to tell me whether I'm just being paranoid or not.
> 
> Red.


Eat some pond scum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorella


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## Guest (Aug 6, 2012)

eric said:


> The closest thing I can see that fits Red's concerns is either Def Leppard or Steel Panther.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


http://predatortheband.com/


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

Barrabundy said:


> I brought a bull shark home once with the intention of eating it. I don't know if they are a tasty species or not but I had trouble trying to get my knife into it. The skin was like sandpaper and bluntened the knife really quickly. Maybe my knife skills aren't that good.


I use a very sharp knife and a steel. Once you nick the skin, you cut from the inside out, just like skinning a sheep.


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## FishinDan (Jul 3, 2006)

Junglefisher said:


> I use a very sharp knife and a steel. Once you nick the skin, you cut from the inside out, just like skinning a sheep.


They're harder to get on a soft plastic though... :lol:


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## crag (Nov 8, 2010)

Love a nice gummy or schooly, bleed them straight away,dont worry about skinning just off with the head, tail, fins and guts then chop em across ways into cutlets,yum!


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

I like shark, all sorts so far have been quite good.



Barrabundy said:


> I brought a bull shark home once with the intention of eating it. I don't know if they are a tasty species or not but I had trouble trying to get my knife into it. The skin was like sandpaper and bluntened the knife really quickly. Maybe my knife skills aren't that good.


Con, 
To reduce bluntening the knife, try making a knife point entry first. Then turn the tip over and cut from the inside to the outside.

Cutting through the normal way as with other fish will sure blunten the knife, as the skin is composed of 'denticles', being similar structure to the teeth.



crag said:


> Love a nice gummy or schooly, bleed them straight away,dont worry about skinning just off with the head, tail, fins and guts then chop em across ways into cutlets,yum!


Haven't tried cutlets, but for filletting them I don't skin them either. As with all fish, the flesh comes away easily after cooking.

trev


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Don't they need to be cleaned, skinned and chilled immediately to prevent that awful ammonia smell and taste. That would stop me keeping them, even though I rate flake very highly.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

Ado said:


> Don't they need to be cleaned, skinned and chilled immediately to prevent that awful ammonia smell and taste. That would stop me keeping them, even though I rate flake very highly.


Nah, just knock the fins and tail off right away to bleed them then treat them like any other fish. Freezing for a week or two is a good way to get rid of any residual ammonia smell.
Had some tonight with lemongrass, ginger, ****** lime and pickled ginger wrapped in alfoil and steamed. Very yummo.


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## Guest (Aug 6, 2012)

Love cooking Asian dishes with shark its one of the best fish for Malaysian Mamak Style fish Curry It wont fall apart if cooked in chunks .


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## Marty75 (Oct 23, 2007)

First one I kept (a hammer of about 1.5m) tasted great but the 2nd I kept (another hammer around 1m) tasted crap due to the ammonia build up, even after a week or so in the freezer. Not sure I'll keep the next one though.

SWR are full of them.

Marty


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## SharkNett (Feb 20, 2006)

In my opinion best around here are small makos and small hammers. Both have nice firm sweet white flesh. Can do just about anything with them. Pan fried, stir fried, battered or in curries. As others have mentioned it seems to improve after a week or so in the freezer.


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## RackRaider (Nov 10, 2010)

Junglefisher said:


> Scott said:
> 
> 
> > I like them if they are under 4-5 foot trunk length. Down here i have eaten gummies and small seven gills. Prior to moving down here i would take a small hammer or whaler. Some of the bottom feeding sharks are nice, i was always very partial to shovel nose, beautiful white meat which was quite sweet. I would always throw them in the freezer for a week as it was the easiest way of getting rid of the ammonia taste.
> ...


They're Great; I caught a big one last year and unfortunatley he'd swallowed the hook; we shared him around the caravan sight with the label "Cod". Everyone enjoyed it and the only people that figured it out were an elderly victorian couple.


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## WayneD (Jul 11, 2006)

I intend to keep a few this year (1 at a time under 1.5mtrs to keep within bag limits in Qld) to feed the masses at work. Everyone says I am mad to target them and then throw them back.


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## mudpat (Feb 21, 2011)

Lots of bronzies down here. Like them under 1.5m and the rello's love a bag of boneless cutlets. I freeze them for 2 or 3 weeks before eating and have yet to get any bad ones.
Like gummies and mako's the best though.


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## Breambo (Apr 19, 2006)

I used to like the odd wobegong before they were protected. When I was in Indo we used to get black tip reef sharks in plague proportions, speared a few, but couldnt get rid of the ammonia, was really strong, bled them skinned them, washed the fillets etc, nothing seemed to work, maybe i was doing something wrong or that species is no good ?


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

SharkNett said:


> In my opinion best around here are small makos and small hammers. Both have nice firm sweet white flesh. Can do just about anything with them. Pan fried, stir fried, battered or in curries. As others have mentioned it seems to improve after a week or so in the freezer.


Now we're talkin, substitute thresher for hammer. Mako veal is some of the best grilled fish. Nice and meaty like a lean steak.
Sharks are a big PITA for me. I like to eat it but don't think it's worth the work over other fish. An average 80lb thresher is a heap of work, to subdue and dispatch, and bleed, then as quickly as possible to keep the meat best paddle to shore, transport, field dress, chill it in a lot of ice (when you finallyy clean up your fishing gear and maybe self), and then cut it all. It could reach 12hours of work and a chest freezer (don't have one) full of meat in the end. It's catch, kill, clean, eat to the n'th, and the ordeal is too big for me to target sharks.

Jungle is right, good knife and stone, and attack it like a large animal. A few cuts at the skin and you will go dull.

One of my favorite, simplest shark recipes is plain old bottle of cheap Italian (not creamy) salad dressing. Marinate chunks/steaks for an hour or so and toss them on a hot grill to medium. I'll eat that as fast as it comes off the grill.


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## bunsen (Jan 2, 2009)

Yep. Yum. Bronzes, hammers, makos all good eating. I'm sure I've eaten other under various names though. Funny, I've never had a problem with ammonia taste/smell but I have only eaten small sharks caught from a boat where they can be subdued and butchered quickly. I think the longer the fight, the more ammonia smell there is, so maybe that's why some of us here don't like them?
Skinned and on the BBQ, cubed and made into ceviche, or on skewers and grilled. Or deep fried. Is there anything that doesn't taste good when you deep fry it though?


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