by Capt. Bart Marx
May in SW Florida is a great time to target sharks. One of the smaller that comes into our area is the bonnethead shark. Some people call them the shovelhead shark and most of the time these sharks get confused with the hammerhead. Why is that? They have a round nose and their eyes are out on the edge. Bonnethead sharks do not grow to be large, most that you will catch average around three feet. The best part about the bonnethead is they are great eating. Yes, sharks are good to eat if cared for properly. To harvest one you should have a cooler large enough for the whole gutted shark, plenty of ice to chill it down, till you return to port and prepare to clean it. To gut a shark, I tie the dock line around its tail, hang it outside the boat, tying it to a cleat and split it open from the anal opening to the lower jaw. Remove the entrails and let the shark hang for fifteen minutes or so, till you put it on ice. Try to cut the skin from the inside out, as to save the sharpness of your blade. Some anglers like to steak them or filet and skin them, either way is good meat. Blacktips also make good table fare. They can reach lengths close to six feet, and there is lots of meat on one of these. I usually harvest one around four feet, as there is plenty of meat to share with friends and family. These would be excellent fare for a Friday night fish fry too. With a couple of sides, like southern tomato gravy and rice and maybe some cornbread muffins, oh and sweet tea for shore! There some other toothy critters that come to visit also; hammerheads, bulls, spinners, even some tigers, too. Most of the bigger sharks follow the silver king tarpon as they are their main food source.
This is also the beginning of the tarpon migration that has billed Boca Grande Pass as the best tarpon fishing in the world. Yes, there are smaller passes north and south of Boca that will have fish too, but Boca is the King for silver kings. This is just in our own back yard and gets lots of attention from the angling community. All the on-water marinas have live baits that can reach three dollars and fifty cents each. Yea it is cheaper to catch your own, if you got the bucks and less time that works too. Though tarpon are not a desirable fish to eat, like the shark, they are very acrobatic fighters and are great to get on video. To harvest one, you must purchase a tag in advance and that costs fifty bucks