Video: DP Thresher Shark

[Salty]

Posted earlier this week about my buddy's thresher shark in Dana Point. Got some decent gopro footage and made a quick edit today. Hope you enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dJxFm3nT-o

[FISH11]

Awesome. Threshers are so cool looking and graceful! I especially love their airial displays.

[OneDropWS]

Pretty new to fishing. What's the etiquette on keeping/releasing sharks? I know people are more likely to release given how much longer it takes for a shark to reach maturity. Cool video!

[Tigermidge]

Not me. nice video!

M

[the dude]

Cool vid. Nice to have a buddy with a gopro!


As far as keeping them, they're delicious but don't even whisper it on the boards or you'll get destroyed in Commiefornia.

[Salty]

Originally Posted by the dude

Cool vid. Nice to have a buddy with a gopro!


As far as keeping them, they're delicious but don't even whisper it on the boards or you'll get destroyed in Commiefornia.

LOL thanks! Always keep the gopro on hand, just in case shit like this happens! (...or so I can hit record before I get run over by a boat and my family can use the footage to find the person who did it)

[Salty]

Originally Posted by OneDropWS

Pretty new to fishing. What's the etiquette on keeping/releasing sharks? I know people are more likely to release given how much longer it takes for a shark to reach maturity. Cool video!

As long as you're not fishing in a restricted area, you can keep a thresher. Whether or not you should is a matter of opinion. My friend didn't keep this one for a few reasons:
1) We weren't set up to process something that large (no large kill bag in the truck, etc. Why harvest if a lot of the meat would go bad?).
2) We determined the shark was a younger female. It a takes a long time to reach maturity and they have low pupping rates (2-4 pups per pregnancy per year). We'd rather let a female go to make more threshers to catch!
3) The shark was foul-hooked in the pectoral fin. Even if we WANTED to keep it, it didn't feel right to put one on the gaff that didn't get a real fighting chance.
4) We both have a lot of respect for sharks and it was cool enough just to get that close and see her swim off after an awesome fight!

All that said, I would never judge anyone negatively if they decided to keep one. Apparently the meat is good and you can use the skin as leather to make things. It's a legal fish on hook & line. Personally I'd rather save room in the freezer for some jumbo bluefin and a few YT!

[OneDropWS]

Got it. Thanks for the info.

[FullFlavorPike]

I ate a ~180lb thresher one time because I thought it wasn't going to make it if I tried the release. In hindsight, I bet it would have been fine. Sharks don't die easy. I'll never try to eat and give away that much shark again. I still haven't gotten back a taste for thresher (or swordfish, or mako, which taste damn near the same) after eating nothing but grilled thresher tacos and thresher en escabeche for a week longer than I care to.

They're awesome to hook up on though. I bet you had fun! The aerial shenanigans are a hoot. I am not surprised by the foul hook. Lots of them get landed that way, as the tend to chew you off otherwise when you hook them on your 30-40# YT rig.

[Salty]

Originally Posted by FISH11

Awesome. Threshers are so cool looking and graceful! I especially love their airial displays.

Yeah, it was super fun to watch. I love the way they swim. So much power with such little effort.