Caught a bunch of these on 4/18:
including some nice fish. For reference, the cutting board is 20 inches long. This wasn’t the largest one, just the one on hand when I remembered to take a picture.
Catching sheepshead nearshore this time of year isn’t weird, but I don’t fish for them. We weren’t really fishing for them this time either since no bueno at catching sheepshead. We saw fish on the sounder when trolling. At this area, didn’t find what we wanted trolling so decided to drop on the marked fish with jigs hoping to catch a weakfish.
Caught all the sheepshead but one on gold Hopkins smoothie casting spoon. One on a light red jig but the Hopkins was the magic lure. Any time dropped on target, a hit. A hit - no subtle take. Most hooked inside the mouth. No annoying fiddler crabs or oysters in socks needed. Go figure?
Left the sheepshead biting once we had enough to use all available patience cleaning them, less than a one-person limit. Let some of the smaller legal fish go along with the shorts.
Also caught Atlantic Bonito and Bluefish trolling. Many False Albacore - they were everywhere this trip.
Water temps 66.3 wherever we tried - 40 to 60 feet deep. You can probably guess where.
Need some sheepshead recipes.