Help with new Florida shark laws

Nobody brings up the pier big shark, unless they are irresponsible of they own actions. Doing so, not only may brake the fwc law, but the pier's policy from where he/she is fishing from. Many of us, take a picture and cut the line, OR if accessible, beach the shark, while in water, take pictures quickly and release alive the shark. No gaffing nor other methods needed to bring up the shark. The memories of big sharks stay alive forever when thous moments are captured with a digital camera. For harvesting, blacktips are plenty of meat to make a neighborhood cookout party and feed everyone invited. No need for a bigger shark to be harvested for meat. Killing sharks just for jaws trophy, is not only unethical, for all prohibited species is also highly illegal.

I agree with Boghy.
Ive eaten Blacktips, and Bonnetheads, which are pretty good eating but dont do so very often. Have you eaten shark before? If not prepared properly it will have an ammonia/urine smell taste to it. Kind of an acquired taste btw, some hate it some love it. I soak fillets in milk overnight, (kill, gut and ice immediately) to lose the ammonia taste. Then I either grill it with a bunch of lemonpepper and butter, or I bread it with Vigo Italian style breadcrumbs mixed with old bay seasoning and deep fried in my "fry daddy". Everyone has their preferences. Id rather fry up some redfish and trout though if Im given the choice. I like to release all my Sharks nowdays though .

What other sharks are a good catch and good to eat. I feel like this all the big game sharks. Since i will be fishing the pier I feel as like if i catch a monster i wont even be able to take any pictures because if I galf it and bring it up it may die and I will be in violation of the law.

Walk them down to the beach, if possible. If not, try to get some pictures from the pier down. Gaffing it will kill it, especially if it's a big shark, because you will need several ppl to get it up and it's not easy whatsoever.

Thanks for all the help. I have just seen a large amount of sharks brought onto the pier and released, so it was good to hear from you guys. Hopefully I will be able too hook up with a large shark and be able to beach it with help from the locals. If not I would enjoy just get too hook up with a nice shark and enjoy the fight. If I get it to the pier and see it I will be super pumped. I just enjoy being able to go to the beach and fish for a week. Catching fish or not.

Panama city pier should produce spinners, black tips, black nose, Atlantic sharp nose, bull, nurse, bonnet head which is all legal to harvest. Not sure about there policy but a large shark should not be beached during the day due to complaints. So maybe fish at night and leave the day time for the king fishermen. I use a head roap not a gaff. We put a head rope on the shark pull it on the pier take the hook out, tag it, put the rope on it's tail, attach a tag line to the loop, lower the shark back to the water and pull the rope off it's tail with the tag line. Easy release. Good luck.

Well guys I fished off the pier this week. I ran a whole spanish the first night of the county pier, not even a small run. So i went on wesnesday night to the city pier there was about 10 people shark fishing. So I rig up a whole bonita and ran it off the corner about 300yrd. Nothing for about 3hrs then a guy up there had a rotten bait so it floated back in and broke him off. About 45 mins after that a guy got alittle run but he spit the bait. After about another hour and a half slowly people started to leave. There was just a few of us left about 1am. At about 1:30 i got a super short run but gone quickly. I wish i would have been able to fish more than i did I would have really like to have been able to put that 12/0 to work. The locals were extremely helpful but one guy up there was a deck hand on a shark boat and shark fished alot himself that was super helpful. I guess you win some and you lose some but i really wanted to hook up atleast and experiance my first shark. This little bit of bad luck wont stop me though i am still learning and with some time and a few more fishing trips hopefully i will become good at shark fishing and will be able to hook up more often.

Its all trial and error, timing, and a bit of luck bro Keep at it, you'll hit your paydirt