# I found sheepshead, how do I catch them?



## Silver Bullet (Sep 15, 2012)

Gentlemen,
I have found a grass flat that is ate up with tailing sheepshead and I want to catch a few real bad.  I have heard that mussels, barnacles, and fiddler crabs are good baits, but I also heard that they have a soft bite.  To compound the problem, I'm in grass with few open pockets to cast to them.  We threw some small shrimp pieces at them today (it was what we had with us), but we couldn't get bit.  Does anyone have experience fishing for them on flats like this?  Is there a better hook style or size that I need to be fishing?
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
SB


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## odielite (Sep 15, 2012)

Bro they Don't call em convicts for nothing. I use small treble hook with a split shot. And they still get the bait more than I get them but once u figure out the difference with their bite enjoy the fight


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## Ronbow (Sep 15, 2012)

*Fidler crabs and hang on says Ronbow*


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## Silver Bullet (Sep 15, 2012)

10-4.  Appreciate it.


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## Anvil Head (Sep 16, 2012)

Just set the hook right before they bite.
Use as light a weight as you can cast. Fiddlers work well in that kind of situation. I use long shank hooks to keep them from biting through the leader.


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## fishmounter (Sep 16, 2012)

Live fiddlers on a 1/8 oz light wire jig. go to 1/4 oz if its windy.
The bite is a "tick,tick" like a small bream. I always put 2 fiddlers on my jig. after initial bite, set hook on second bite.
I fish for them A LOT.


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## Mweathers (Sep 16, 2012)

Sounds more like black drum than sheeps to me.  This time of year we catch them in the grass.  Usually sheeps are around pilings, wrecks, or jettys, not sure I have ever caught one in the grass.

Drum are fine fare, we catch em with live shrimp.


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## fishtail (Sep 16, 2012)

Mweathers said:


> Sounds more like black drum than sheeps to me.  This time of year we catch them in the grass.  Usually sheeps are around pilings, wrecks, or jettys, not sure I have ever caught one in the grass.
> 
> Drum are fine fare, we catch em with live shrimp.


I agree!
Grass flats and tailing are two terms I've never heard of with Sheephead.


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## wharfrat (Sep 16, 2012)

fishtail said:


> I agree!
> Grass flats and tailing are two terms I've never heard of with Sheephead.



I have seen as many as 10-15 sheepheads tailing on the flats at one time in north Florida and Georgia. Some folks have caught them with a fly. I have got close enough to poke them with my rod. I haven't figured out how to catch them with spinning gear yet but some kayakers told me they caught them with freelined small live shrimp. I was thinking of dragging a small cork with about 6" of leader and a small hook with 2 or 3 fiddlers packed on. They can be spooky. I have dragged plastics by them and they ignore it. The ones that are on the flat are big too!


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## Showman (Sep 16, 2012)

Rare, but they do get on the flats from time to time.  I have caught a few by accident.  The ones I have caught on the Flats have usually been about a pound and I caught them on Fiddlers.  The BIG ones I have caught all came from around Bridge Pilings. Hard buggers to clean also.


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## Anvil Head (Sep 17, 2012)

Stiffer rods, sharp hooks and tight lines make a difference.
I've seen a lot in the grass flats on the large side. I have one on the wall caught in less than 2' of water that weighed in at just under 13#'s. Not the norm by any stretch, but that's where he was showing a lot of dorsal. Live fiddler and almost an instant hit (threw a bit closer than planned).
We managed to take several more in the 3 - 5# range before things changed. We did think they might be black drum when we eased in, but were pleasently surprised.
Yepper...hard to clean but worth the effort.


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## Silver Bullet (Sep 17, 2012)

Appreciate it guys.  Any hook size recommendations?


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## declemen (Sep 18, 2012)

I really like the Gamakatsu 1/0 live bait, or the Owner SSW 1/0, or the Gamakatsu octopus 1/0, need a strong hook, I have caught lots of them and they will bend or break a hook that is not heavy


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## Silver Bullet (Sep 19, 2012)

Thank you sir.  I plan on giving it a shot this weekend...


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## Lineside Fever (Sep 21, 2012)

I fished for them from the piers in Mt Pleasant SC, to me fiddlers are too easy to steal, my suggestion would be mussels in the 1 1/2" to 2" range tear a small hole in the outer edge of the shell and bury a small circle hook in them. They will crush them and usually hang on to them a little longer, great fight an good eating!!!


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## GLS (Sep 22, 2012)

I've been flyrodding on foot the spring tides for reds for almost 20 years and often see convicts prowling in the grass.  I have only caught two-- both on crab patterns--a Merkin and a Bauer permit crab.  They are hard to fool.  One was 9 lbs.  The fight wasn't as good as a red half the size.  There was no current in the grass to use the fish's wide sides against.


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## Rodsmith (Sep 22, 2012)

I never would have thought the sheeps would visit the flats either, but saw a few with wharfrat the other day and again on another flat I visited solo . They looked to be in the 4-6 pound range. I did watch the one I was close to turn and eat the snails off of the grass as well as stand up and tail. Don't know much about catching them on the flats but maybe a small live shrimp rigged weedless would attract his attention pretty good. The flat wading is new to me, but I do know I love it!! Can't wait til the next flood!


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## GLS (Sep 22, 2012)

Rodsmith said:


> The flat wading is new to me, but I do know I love it!! Can't wait til the next flood!



I've always thought that wading the marsh for tailers with a fly rod was the best game in town.  It combines hunting and fishing.   Stealth and accuracy of casting are important. Nothing beats it as far as I'm concerned.  The opportunities are limited to a few days a month compared with other fishing and if numbers of fish caught are important, take up another sport.  The excitement of seeing a tail waving 200 yards away from the nearest creek in shin-deep water me pumps me up.  Another giveaway is a geyser eruption which can be seen for hundreds of yards.  Nothing in the grass sends a 4'-5' geyser into the air other than a red.  The best fishing is when most bait fishermen stay home--spring tides.


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## Anvil Head (Sep 23, 2012)

Well you have a very fine point there, but I've always thought the best fishing was when I was fishing.
Another thing, which is obvious to those that have a closer relationship with fish.........something is feeding all the time, you just got to figure out what, where and how.
"Tails" get my vote as a natural high anyday. Pretty exciting when one slides up behind you and blows when you lift your elbow to start a cast on his little brother.
Biggest problem I've run into is curious lizards. Some are getting downright chummy.


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## GLS (Sep 23, 2012)

Anvil Head said:


> Biggest problem I've run into is curious lizards. Some are getting downright chummy.


Rarely have seen them bigger than 6' in the marsh and they are pretty shy in the remote areas we fish.  But there was one cruising the flats that topped 10' that put chills in my spine.  We were in the boat when we saw that brute.


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## Anvil Head (Sep 23, 2012)

The water I normally fish is brackish, and they know how to use it to their advantage. They are all predator and once they get in the 8' + range they tend to lose their shyness. There's one big resident female that has passed the 12' mark, but she's never been a problem. Still.......best to stay on guard.


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## Rodsmith (Sep 23, 2012)

Anvil Head said:


> The water I normally fish is brackish, and they know how to use it to their advantage. They are all predator and once they get in the 8' + range they tend to lose their shyness. There's one big resident female that has passed the 12' mark, but she's never been a problem. Still.......best to stay on guard.



WHAT!?!?!? Gators on the flats!?!? Hopefully not around the St.Simons salt side....I would look funny with my wading shorts and a shoulder holster with my 357 strapped on out there...better to look funny than to look like gator scat


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## GLS (Sep 23, 2012)

I'm not fishing brackish water. I find the tailers that I can wade fish  in the short Spartina alterniflora which is more salt tolerant than the grass found in brackish waters which is usually much longer.  Some of the gators I see are from the freshwater ponds on the barrier islands.  I understand that the bigger ones will sometimes move to the marsh.  I like finding the fish in the open fields typically with patches of Salicornia, a short peppery-tasting succulent that mixes well with salad greens and ox-eye daisies which have stopped flowering.   These two plants are very salt tolerant.  These fields are often dotted with small cedar (actually junipers) hammocks and are as beautiful as any place on the planet.  While we don't have the vertical majesty of the mountains, we in the low country have spectacular horizontal sweeps of green and brown.  Since mid-August, the Gulf Coast Fritillaries are migrating through and are clustered in wax myrtles.  The arrival of these butterflies is a signal that big reds are moving in to spawn on the offshore bars.  The short grass of the wading fields is flowering with stalks 3-4' high which can play havoc to a fly rod backcast.  It's a great time of the year to be in the marsh.


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## Surfmonster (Sep 23, 2012)

YEH!!! What he said.


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## wharfrat (Sep 23, 2012)

GLS said:


> I'm not fishing brackish water. I find the tailers that I can wade fish  in the short Spartina alterniflora which is more salt tolerant than the grass found in brackish waters which is usually much longer.  Some of the gators I see are from the freshwater ponds on the barrier islands.  I understand that the bigger ones will sometimes move to the marsh.  I like finding the fish in the open fields typically with patches of Salicornia, a short peppery-tasting succulent that mixes well with salad greens and ox-eye daisies which have stopped flowering.   These two plants are very salt tolerant.  These fields are often dotted with small cedar (actually junipers) hammocks and are as beautiful as any place on the planet.  While we don't have the vertical majesty of the mountains, we in the low country have spectacular horizontal sweeps of green and brown.  Since mid-August, the Gulf Coast Fritillaries are migrating through and are clustered in wax myrtles.  The arrival of these butterflies is a signal that big reds are moving in to spawn on the offshore bars.  The short grass of the wading fields is flowering with stalks 3-4' high which can play havoc to a fly rod backcast.  It's a great time of the year to be in the marsh.




For those of you  who skipped class to go fishing, and are not quite as well versed as GLS in the flora and fauna of the marsh, here are two pics of my pet Gulf Fritillaries taken today.  Great marsh description GLS!


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## GLS (Sep 23, 2012)

Yep, those are the butterflies.  Gulf Fritillary.  I mistakenly added "coast".   They are smaller than the Monarchs but are sometimes mistaken for them. By me.


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