Making an effort to up my sheepshead game this year. Anyone know where I can get the clams or mussels that are popular bait? Crosbys? Do they have to be live? Frozen ok? If I do get them what’s the best way to keep them? Thanks in advance! Tight lines!
Justin
Oysters work great, so do barnacles. I collect mine my self from oyster beds, the marsh and scraping them off structures like rocks. If you try to find clams while oystering look where the oysters meet the grass line and look for were they are less dense and there are mud patches. Now look for old clam or mussel shells and search around them. Often the clams will be completely under the mud but there are usually 1 or 2 on top where you can see them. You can look for lumps or feel through the mud for clams. They are usually right at the top just enough to cover your hand in mud. Where you find 1 search that area good because there are usually more. I honestly think oysters work better than clams or mussels. I do catch a better mixture of drum and sheep on mussles. I bring gloves, a rag, a hammer and a quality oyster knife. I shuck the easy ones, bust the hard ones and salvage the scraps of oyster and chum with the shells. I make so much noise you would think I would scare everything away but I get 10 x the action busting them up on the spot than not and I usually fish as close as I can get to the structure I am fishing. If you fish pilings don’t scrape the d out of them to the point they are bare. I fish a few spots that other people do that at and its a good way to ruin a fishing spot. If the sheep’s are there it just takes a little bit to get them fired up. Size number 1 owner ssw or number 1 beak hooks. The cheap ones off the internet work but they don’t hold a point like the ssw’s.
Wow man I really appreciate the response! Pumped to put some of this to work!
I like oysters as well. I just go to the nearest public bed and pick up a bucket full. I do exactly as 40inch does. I’ll shuck them and put them in a small container. The small ones, I’ll bust them up with a hammer and use for chum. Mussels and clams work well, but as 40inch said, I think oysters are best. I’ve never used barnacles, but I always scrape the sides of bridge pylons or take a hammer and bust up the barnacles and let them sink down. It’s chumming with barnacles. Just don’t get too carried away with that.
As far as keeping them, oysters, clams, and mussels can be kept for several days, not shucked, in a cool place. Fresh is always better than frozen. If I have a supply at home, the day before I go I’ll shuck a bunch to have ready and bust up a small bucket full to use for chum.
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How do you guys hook the oysters on the hook? Tried a few weeks back and couldn’t feel the bite and they kept cleaning me. Switched to fiddlers and did better. Saw a guy break the tails off live shrimp and do well.I know fiddler time is almost over.
On the oysters (where ever you get them from) I take small board and claw hammer. Gently smash the oyster. The tricky part is keeping it on a hook. Sometimes you can get it through the muscle hard part and kind of wrap it. This can work for slack tide but any current and not so much. get a pair of panty hose and stuff a wad of oyster in it and use a rubber band to help secure it to your hook.
Also a bread tie will work to keep a wad of oyster on your hook. This is teriffic bait for sheeps and mother-in-law fish. If any toads are around you’ll catch em on this. 
I’ll use the shells I crushed up as chume. I don’t rake the pilings.
Good luck Justin! Don’t rule out a deep small creek with a dead tree in the water to fish by for sheeps.
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Folly Beach & CHS
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If you let the oysters sit for a few days to like 2 weeks outside in a cool dark place they will dehydrate shrivel up and become tougher. Just make sure they do t smell bad. Some drum fishers swear by a stinky to rotten clam. They call them pussers.
quote:
Originally posted by 40inchredsIf you let the oysters sit for a few days to like 2 weeks outside in a cool dark place they will dehydrate shrivel up and become tougher. Just make sure they do t smell bad. Some drum fishers swear by a stinky to rotten clam. They call them pussers.
No on the pussers… And I don’t use stink bait for catfish.