# Anyone ever eat hammerheads?



## johnf (Jan 20, 2012)

I was looking at the Alabama salt water fishing regs and it said hammers can be kept. Anyone ever eat it?


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## purple haze (Sep 2, 2013)

I may be wrong but I think hammerheads along with tigers are now on the restricted list to catch and posses .


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## weedline (Aug 20, 2011)

why would u want to im sure they taste like piss


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## noodlez94 (Mar 27, 2013)

Not to sure on Alabama regs but I know the FWC regs do state no hammers along with a few others so I have not tried hammer only blacktip so far


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

purple haze said:


> I may be wrong but I think hammerheads along with tigers are now on the restricted list to catch and posses .


In Alabama you are allowed to keep one hammerhead with a 78" min. fork length.


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## ChileRelleno (Jul 7, 2012)

weedline said:


> why would u want to im sure they taste like piss


Ignorance can cost someone a good meal.

Taste/smell like piss? Only if you don't process them quickly & properly.
Sharks must be bled, gutted, skinned and put on ice... Immediately.
Or the urea in their blood is converted back to ammonia and fouls the meat.

Take care of a shark promptly, and many species are prime eating.
Mako & Thresher is on par with any billfish an command similar market prices, Sharpnose is awesome, and a nice Blacktip is simply delicious.


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## lowprofile (Jan 6, 2013)

Urea is full of ammonia, it doesn't turn into it... You have to flush them before it expels through their skin. Hammers don't have very big urea tubes and don't take a lot of processing.


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## johnf (Jan 20, 2012)

Good to know.

How did you guys do today ChileRelleno?


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## ChileRelleno (Jul 7, 2012)

lowprofile said:


> Urea is full of ammonia, it doesn't turn into it...


Have to disagree on the technicalities of basic chemistry.

Ammonia is a toxic nitrogenous waste product, it must be expelled or converted to urea for safe use by the fish in osmoregulation.
While urea is converted from ammonia waste, they are different chemicals.
To say that urea is full of ammonia is incorrect, it is chemically no longer ammonia.

I edited my post to correctly state this process.



> *Osmoregulation*
> 
> In contrast to bony fish, with the exception of the coelacanth,[36] the blood and other tissue of sharks and Chondrichthyes is generally isotonic to their marine environments because of the high concentration of urea and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), allowing them to be in osmotic balance with the seawater. This adaptation prevents most sharks from surviving in freshwater, and they are therefore confined to marine environments. A few exceptions exist, such as the bull shark, which has developed a way to change its kidney function to excrete large amounts of urea.[30] When a shark dies, *the urea is broken down to ammonia by bacteria, causing the dead body to gradually smell strongly of ammonia.*[37][38]


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## weedline (Aug 20, 2011)

i know all about how a sharks body works.all but thrashers makos and whites piss through their skin and yes the best method is gut bleed and slush within minuites of catching the fish.still tastes like piss to me and damn i will eat a bluefish fresh. how the hell are u going to process a big hammer head in 5 mins. u want to eat it more power to u im fine with that but dont kill one and let it go to waste


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## ChileRelleno (Jul 7, 2012)

johnf said:


> Good to know.
> 
> How did you guys do today ChileRelleno?


Skunked on sharks, http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f41/fort-morgan-point-al-sat-06-21-a-375210/


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## johnf (Jan 20, 2012)

I caught a monster this morning.


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

ChileRelleno said:


> Ignorance can cost someone a good meal.
> 
> Taste/smell like piss? Only if you don't process them quickly & properly.
> Sharpnose is awesome,


How in the HELL did you pull this off?!? I tried for 4 or 5 years to eat those damn things. Tail bled them while alive, gut bled, iced immediatly. Soaked meat in fresh water, saltwater, sprite, beer, etc. I might have even soaked them in piss... I tried every method that I heard or read. We never could get the smell out. I even had to throw away a fridge once because we let some soak for about three days. We unplugged it for about three months and left the door open. It made the whole boathouse smell like piss. Three months later!!! Then I was later told ( I think by lowprofile) that you cant get the smell out of Sharpnose... Dont mess with them.

I would love to know how you do it. Because that is all we catch. And we can catch them till our arms fall off. Sometimes 50+ sharks a night. Of course of varying sizes.  haha


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## Justin618 (Aug 18, 2013)

NoMoSurf said:


> How in the HELL did you pull this off?!? I tried for 4 or 5 years to eat those damn things. Tail bled them while alive, gut bled, iced immediatly. Soaked meat in fresh water, saltwater, sprite, beer, etc. I might have even soaked them in piss... I tried every method that I heard or read. We never could get the smell out. I even had to throw away a fridge once because we let some soak for about three days. We unplugged it for about three months and left the door open. It made the whole boathouse smell like piss. Three months later!!! Then I was later told ( I think by lowprofile) that you cant get the smell out of Sharpnose... Dont mess with them.
> 
> I would love to know how you do it. Because that is all we catch. And we can catch them till our arms fall off. Sometimes 50+ sharks a night. Of course of varying sizes.  haha




A guy told me to soak them overnight on milk. He talked about it being so good like it was a steak or something. His mouth was practically watering as he was telling me.


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## foreverfishing (Nov 30, 2012)

Justin618 said:


> A guy told me to soak them overnight on milk. He talked about it being so good like it was a steak or something. His mouth was practically watering as he was telling me.


Buttermilk? that's what I do and I have never noticed a smell or foul taste out of black tip. sharpnose have always tasted a little funky so now they are 100% bait to me.


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## noodlez94 (Mar 27, 2013)

I might have to try soaking it in butter milk I always marinated them in basalmic vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper and man does it taste amazing


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## Justin618 (Aug 18, 2013)

foreverfishing said:


> Buttermilk? that's what I do and I have never noticed a smell or foul taste out of black tip. sharpnose have always tasted a little funky so now they are 100% bait to me.


He said just regular ol milk


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

I've tried milk and buttermilk. Sharpnose was still nauseating with both.
I feel badly, but I've wasted 6 or 8 sharks trying to get them edible by soaking in this, that, or the other... So I just stopped killing them.


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## devinsdad (Mar 31, 2010)

Me, BeerItSelf and some others caught an 8' 2" Hammerhead a few years ago and kept it. (Was legal then.) It was gutted, headed, washed out and then packed in ice shortly after. It was good but I didn't think it was as good as Blacktip. BeerItSelf made a dip from some of it and that was pretty tasty.

Read all the books you want and get scientific research from everyone in the world and you will get a different opinon from all. Most sharks are edible if cleaned right away and done so properly. Some are certainly better than others such as Blacktip, Spinner & Mako. With BT/Spinner being so abundant, I personally wouldn't kill another Hammerhead, even if legal, because the others are much better tasting.

I always soak in milk for an hour or two before cooking and have never had a bad taste or smell.


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## AgentWD40 (Mar 10, 2009)

I kept a ~9 ft hammer a couple years back. The only other shark I've eaten is Blacktip. Blacktip had a tougher texture and reminded me more of a chicken/pork meat then fish. The hammerhead was way more tender and reminded me of amberjack. They have been added to the restricted list in Florida though.


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## MoganMan (Feb 24, 2013)

Caught a couple blacktips sound side around a year ago. Bled them out through their tails immediately then removed their heads, gutted, removed the tract, washed thoroughly in the water then iced them down in the cooler. Let them soak for 24+ hours in saltwater in the fridge then made nuggets out of one and steaks out of the other, the nuggets one had an ammonia taste, wasn't cleaned well enough, the ones we grilled up were fantastic!


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## CComfort12 (Jan 24, 2012)

I you gut them, and saddle the meat off the carcass right away, ice it and you will be good to go. The key is get the meet off ASAP or it will have the horrid ammonia smell and taste and a waste of killing the fish. I marinate in the trusty Italian dressing and grill or makes great fish tacos. Enjoy!


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