TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Tasty sheepshead coming with fall weather

Staff photo by FRANK SARGEANT

Striped sides and sharp fins identify the sheepshead, one of the favorite winter targets along Florida's west coast.

ADVERTISEMENT

By FRANK SARGEANT

Tribune correspondent

Published: November 1, 2009

There are not a lot of fish left that people pursue strictly to hook and cook or catch and release into hot grease, as the net fishers used to say. But the sheepshead is one.

It is a species still abundant enough to allow a liberal harvest of 15 per day, wonderfully tasty and reasonably easy to catch most of the time.

With the first cool spells of fall, sheepshead by the hundreds move into dredged canals, particularly those with rocky bottoms. They stack up around riprap jetties, under bridges and piers, along barnacle-encrusted seawalls and over nearshore wrecks. They even prowl up on the flats, tailing like redfish in some areas.

One of the secrets to sheepsheading is to chum with their natural food - barnacles and oysters. Most expert sheepsheaders carry a shovel or hoe, used to knock the shellfish off pilings, creating a kibble of shell and meat that turns on the feed for any sheepshead in the area. The same tactic works for pompano, but they're more a summer species around the Bay area.

When fishing a bridge, the bait is suspended right next to the piling, because that's where the fish are looking for food. Land it a yard away and you'll get few bites.

Fresh-cut shrimp is the most common bait for sheepshead because it is cheap and easy to get. Anglers typically cut a shrimp into two or three pieces-putting a whole shrimp on the hook nearly always results in a sheepshead nipping the bait off without getting hooked.

A favorite rig of Captain Mark Thomas, who fishes the east side of Tampa Bay by airboat in winter, is a half-ounce jig head onto which he threads the body of a fresh shrimp. The 'shrimp jig' does not require a separate sinker, and Thomas says it's easier to cast than a lead-and-hook rig, and it also results in better hookups. He fishes it in shell-bottom potholes on low tides, when sheepshead that have been feeding on the flats gather in the only remaining deep water.

Captain Dave Hack of Venice, also known as "Mr. Sheepshead," has made a profession out of what was once his hobby. He devised a system of capturing, cooking and freeze-packing sand fleas and now he sells them commercially. They are found in many area baitshops, and they are outstanding sheepshead bait, particularly around rock jetties like those found at many coastal inlets.

Captain Jerry Williams of Tampa, now retired but for many years a top gun on the east side of Tampa Bay, caught tons of sheepshead on oysters, which he shucked and kept on the hook with a tiny mesh bag. More recently, the invasion of green mussels into the bay has added a bait much easier to handle and just as effective - the mussels stay on the hook much better than the slippery oysters. They can be found around sea walls and marinas throughout the bay.

Whatever the bait, it can still be somewhat challenging to hook sheepshead. Their mouths are lined with a hard, bony substance that makes it possible for them to crush the shells of barnacles, oysters and crabs, and it also makes it difficult to sink a hook. Use a small hook, size 1 or 2, very sharp, and fish it on microfiber line of about 10-pound test. That allows you to feel the bite easily and also gives the capability of a strong hook set.

Winter sheepshead average 12 to 14 inches long, weighing a pound or two, but four-pounders are not uncommon. (The minimum legal length is 12 inches.)

Wadefishers sometimes find winter sheepshead tailing at low tide. They're even more skittish than redfish in the shallows, but a small live shrimp cast well uptide of them could lure them in.

The greatest challenge to sheepsheaders is cleaning the catch. The species is armed with needle-like spines that seem to point in all directions, and it's tough to handle them without getting stuck. Those who pursue them regularly sometimes use poultry shears to nip away the stabbing points before starting to clean the fish.

Once the fish is filleted, boned and skinned, the white meat can be cooked in every imaginable way.

Frank Sargeant can be reached at franksargeant@bellsouth.net.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT