NC Angler Forums banner

Sheepheads, Sheepheads, Lovely little sheepheads,... Sheepheads, sheepheads eat 'em up YUM!

7K views 25 replies 21 participants last post by  robeward 
#1 ·
Decided to try my luck again this past Saturday, after my dismal outing in Swansboro the previous weekend, I had a container FULL of one armed bandits. (120+crabs) Now if you didn't already know this...these buggers are pretty hardy critters. I use a large plastic container that my coffee came in. It has a huge top, so you can see where you are putting you fingers...and it has a handle. I had some in this batch that had been living in my container for about 2 weeks. I left Greenville around 5am. Headed to the kayak launch off of Beaufort Rd near the airport across from Beaufort side of Radio Island. With the weatherman predicting winds out of the SW at 10-15, I was expecting warm sun and cool winds (off the water). Started out with a light breeze from the NE/E and the water was very calm. With high tide around 9am I decided to try my luck with the reds before hitting the bridge pilings. I worked around the north side of Radio Island for about an hour or so with only 1 sighting and no bites. The tide was close to slack so I moved to the bridges where I found several boats working the pilings, I saw no hookups. I moved to a set of pilings and immediately noticed the clarity of the water. Visibility was 10 feet plus down. Flash, there it was, the fish I was looking for...a nice sized sheephead was on the piling just ahead. I rushed to get a crab on and down in the water. 10ft down, thump! I threw all my weight into it. The hook was set. Now I fish for sheephead with a Tsunami medium 6ft spinning rod. It is pretty stiff, as it is missing the last 4 inches of tip from a prior accident/modification...tomato/tomaato. It makes a good topwater rod and an excellent vertical jigging rod. On this rod I have a pflueger reel with a 14lb drag and 15lb moss colored power pro. I use a carolina rig with a 1/2 oz egg weight with about 20 inches of 20# Mono leader tied to a 1/0 or 1 live bait hook. So I put the hammer on this fish and my drag is whirring. I will be honest I just started last year fishing for sheeps, and I don't know any other way to get these to the boat other than horse them in...and that is what I tried to do. I was able to get this fish in the net after 4 or 5 nice runs. A 3lb beauty. Excited I dropped another crab down, Thump! another fish on...this one took about 3 runs and shook off. Reset and THUMP!, another runner...landed this one and it was another 2-3lb'r. The tide was starting to pick up, so I moved my yak to leeward side of the pilings. The bite significantly slowed and the clarity of the water began eroding. Over the next 4 hours I hooked another 12 fish of which I landed 5. Moving from piling to piling, I noticed that the fall was starting to slow. After the previous slack tide frenzy I was getting excited. I had tried to chum for the sheeps by scraping the pilings with small success. I maneuvered my kayak close enough to scrape some barnacles off. I notice that they we falling rather than drifting away. I readied a crab and dropped it down. It was not a 10 secs and I had a fish on. I landed another 1.5 lb'r. Readied another crab and proceeded to hook and lose 3 fish in rapid succession. One broke the leader after 2 runs of taking drag. Over the next 30 mins, I boated 2 more fish and lost 4 or 5 shortly after being hooked. 100 crabs gone and 8 hours of fishing, I let the tide take me back the way I came. A SW wind didn't hurt either. So I caught 15 fish, kept 9, 3 in the 3lb range; lost at least twice as many as I landed. None under a pound. Best sheep head fishing for me yet.
 

Attachments

See less See more
3
#6 ·
great report and day on the water! i hooked up with my first ever sheephead at the end of october on a gulp! shrimp no less, lost it as it made a run at the front of the boat but saw enough of it to realize what it was. probably was 2.5-3lb and that fish pulled like crazy! now i really can understand why people fish for em!
 
#7 ·
Very nice job, and you did good IMO only to lose as many as you caught!! They're some tough suckers I hadnt tried yet this year but definately gonna be my next yak adventure as I'm already seeing the bait running around everywhere and GOOD EATIN
 
#13 ·
awesome, they will give you a test! looks like you did very good... the few ive caught have been around oyster beds and a couple where trout were running! i def see how around pilings they would be more then tough especially in a yak with less leverage
 
#14 ·
Get the urchins off pilons, port wall etc at low tide. Use a bucket or a dip net. Then break all of the spines off and hook him up. Some people poke wire thru the urchin and then tie a treble on and pull it back into the urchin. But this is mainly for the trophy hunters.
 
#19 ·
Do you think they would be around the bridge at Stella?:rolleyes:
We once caught a small sheepshead at the railroad trestle, so they are there. Not sure about numbers or size, but I bet it is worth a try there. There are fiddlers along the banks of the WO too but not as easy to get to.
 
#22 ·
I go at low tide. Find some exposed sand with crab hole mounds. I use garden tool for digging up weeds. It is about 12 inches long with a v shaped head at the end. I run it beside the crab hole pushing the dirt up under hole. Then I just grab the crab and throw it in my container. I can usually get my fill in 30 mins or so. They seem more sluggish in the mornings. The do pinch and it smarts but it does not break the skin. Good luck.


---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?oitrp0
 
#23 ·
I look for huge armies of the crabs...you've seen them. Then I throw my cast net on top of the whole army. Many will escape, but you'll have a good many to get out of the net and into the bucket. Works best if they're away from the grass and on an exposed sandy bank. You gots to be kind of sneaky tho to keep them from running for the grass. At which point the cast net becomes useless.
 
#26 ·
You don't need gloves. When you stick you hand in the bucket they will scamper. Just find one and pin him against the bucket. I usually fold the bit pincher flat against his face and hold it there. He can't do anything then. The way I was told is to pinch off his back leg. It is the smallest one. Then just hook him through there.

I think the most important is to try and get as much of the hook inside the crab so if a sheepheads does commit, hopefully he will get the hook. Don't be surprised at how many baits you loose though.

Hopefully this will get you started. I don't have a lot of experience at this so hopefully someone else will chime in if I led you astray.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top