We have never target dog fish or large sharks in the bay, only caught them as a bi-catch. Does anyone have any experience targeting sharks? Where, when, what equipment and if so are there any species that are dinner worthy?

for giants go to the ocean with a 12/0 and tuna head

it is illegal to shark fish in virginia beach so i geuss you mean cobia fishing

No, I did not mean cobia fishing. As far as I know, shark fishing in the bay is not illegal although there might be a local virginia beach ordinance that prohibits shark fishing from the shore. I know I wouldn't want to swim in the middle of a chum slick or fresh tuna heads. The VMRC has a possession limit of one shark per person and paper for anything over 72". I'm interested in the citation!

it was just a joke as in if a cop came up to you and asked what ya was fishuin 4

Dogfish are easy to catch atleast in the delaware bay, just go deep over 50 feet and up to a 100 or so should do it. I know the channel by the CBBT is pretty deep. The eat bunker chunks or eels but they are much harder to hook on the eels. It may be illegal to chum em up around virginia beach because of obvious reasons.

They do not taste very good but are edible, and somebody may have a good recipe. The funnest way to catch em' is to go to some inshore structure in the summer and drift while chumming mackeral. use only 3 or 4 rods with floats and a small fillet on a small hook. In no time you will have sharks in the slick and you can anchor and catch em all day.

If you want something tasty for the dinner table your in a whole new league, and that is mako sharks. You must run farther and work harder to catch them but it is well worth it.

Not that this answers your question but I heard a dude call 'em horndogs or fish and chips for slang. He is a commercial fisherman.

I think you have to be 1 mile off the Beach to Chum in Va...There are some large sharks off the Eastern Shore.Try 700 lb. Tigers,huge sharks have been caught over there.I have caught 250lb Sharks while Cobia fishing off false Cape more than one time.We usually cut the line now instead of blowing the whole Day on one large Nurse or Sandbar Shark.Mako , BlackTip maybe Thresher are the only Sharks that have that Sporting type fight the others are like pulling in a sea anchor.Those Spinner Sharks are fun also they are a real trip.Its like fighting a 60lb drill bit.

Yeah I have seen that shark fishing is not allowed off some piers. I think they are just trying to limit people from attracting sharks close to shore.

I love shark meat, I hope they dont like me

dog fish or sand shark is edible and actually pretty good *IF* you cut its head and guts off imeadatly after landing. otherwise the dogfish's piss will soak into the meat and make it have a smell and tatse of ammonia really nasty. any how hang him from a tree skin it with pliers just pull the skin off. cut into steaks*FRY* it. use lots of lemons. and cocktail sauce if desierd.
I havent eatin any in years since i was a commecial fishing in my teenage years we would send thousands of them to market. my brother and i would race to see who could de head and gut them i could do it in one second from grabbing the fish and thowing him down minus head and guts.
we looked like somthing from a horror move coverd in blood holding large knives. and i can still smell the stink

When we went out deep sea wreck fishing for sea bass, we caught a ton of dog sharks. We were told that it's illegal to keep 'um ???? Is this true, and if so why?

We were also told that they were used for "fish and chips" and that they are "scarce"--which is certainly not what we saw.

The dogfish that are caught comercially are mainly sent overseas to Britain for "fish and Chips" along with Skates. The fishery has picked up for these in western Atlantic waters because the Brits have overfished them. There are two main species in our water, Spiny and Smooth (also known as the Sand shark in the Delaware bay). Smooth dogfish are the ones mostly caught in the bay and can get to around 3' or so but I have seen them around 4' occasionally, though most of the ones caught fishing are juveniles. Spiny dogfish occur in deeper water usually offshore but I think they can be occasionally found inshore. I remember a few years back there was a run of them along the beach off Wallops Island. I don't recall there being any limits on them but I could be wrong. I usually don't keep or kill any sharks due to their slow growth and importance to the ecosystem, even the so called trash species. I know the watermen don't like the dogfish because one of their favorite foods is juvenile blue crabs but most scientists say that their effect on the blue crab fishery is miminal at best.

Just checked the VMRC website, it is illegal to possess any Spiny Dogfish after the Federal quota has been reached. So the limit must have been reached when you were sea bass fishing.