Thanks b, I wish I was still spry enough to get out on the rocks with a Calcutta pole and get a sheephead.Anybody still do that, I don’t get out to the jettys much anymore
This filleting process also works with, slot, Black Drum as well.
Thanks for posting your tutorial!
Nice fish, thanks for the lesson
Awesome post. Bookmarked it.
Nice job and instruction of fileting. Have not had much success in catching sheepsheads.
Hardest fish in the sea to catch consistantly.
After seeing your skills on the flatties making the jump to sheepshead shouldnt be that hard.
You havre to actively fish for sheepshead
I posted a few tips and tricks for sheepshead in this topic a while back that may or may not help.
Best of Luck
Mr. Fatrat, on the sheeps I’ve always done the best at slack low using a crushed small oyster or peeled shrimp. I must have been using the wrong fiddler crabs as I’ve not had as much luck with them. They have to be about the best fish for “stealing” bait, once you feel them they have most likely took your bait. I’ve not tried it, but a good friend of mine has started using Panty hose to wrap mushed up oysters in making a ball and running his hook through it. With your consistent ability to catch fish the way you do, you’d pick it up quickly.
You have to set the hook right before they bite…
Best thread of the newly updated site. Thanks BW. This technique is roughly the procedure I use for redfish also.
I missed Barbawings pic of the nice triangle cut out of the Blood line. I know several who don’t do this. I always do and like you said this same procedure with red fish. That extra time in cleaning and removing the red meat really makes a difference in taste.
thanks y’all,
sman, i never did it but my wife’s grandpa spent some time walking the jetties with a cane pole. put a brick in the rocks on the downwind side after rowing a wooden boat out there with the tide from Clark Sound, then ride it back in later. He raised his boy (my father in law) doing the same in the 60’s- wouldn’t let him have a motor till he bought his own. PaPa’s been gone a few years now, that man had some stories that I hope I am doing justice in repeating.
Sheepshead in my kids’ bloodline from both sides… ha
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and Mr FatRat, i’ve seen the slams you’ve put up- you could catch a sheepshead no problem. i tell folks that unless you’re specifically targeting them, you won’t catch them. and if you’re specifically targeting them, there’s still a list of about a dozen other species that you might catch too.
chum often with fresh stuff that’s from nearby, oysters/barnacles/mussels mashed up as well as is convenient (gloves and a small flat bar for me). drop chum directly behind a current break in 5-15’, usually a piling, better if piling is concrete- oldest, hardest structure you can find. fish a few inches from that current break and directly in the chum by lowering a light, short carolina rig to the bottom and then barely tightening up with your finger on the line off the reel. short shank, stout 1/0 j hook of a variety of brands is my go-to these days, but i’ve approached it from at least a dozen angles and had success with most. be ready for a drag race combined with a heavyweight fight on light tackle, usually when you’re surrounded by sharp pieces of structure. most fun you can have inshore IMO.
I’ll leave baits to be discussed here. there’s some stuff that everybody knows and a few things that very few people know.
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I’m going through some of mom’s pics looking for when Dad was stationed at Hunter Army AFB in Savannah. Before I was born and after my birth with his return from Vietnam he used to fish the Jetties around Tybee. Mom is helping me look but dad had several photos of fish taken with one he said weighed 19lbs… Fact or fiction I don’t know, but it would have been a record. Also many huge Spot tail (red fish was an unknown term then), door mat flounder, and Stringers of nice Trout. He would use barnacles, peeled shrimp and Sand Fleas. Wish I would have asked him how he hooked the Barnacles. Dad was also a fan of a single Squid leg laced on a hook. 
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Good thread on Sheepshead BW.
I know exactly what everyone else is saying about catching them, its a little tricky but doable as well as any kind of fush.
There’s a little creek I fished,it had structure, downed trees,docks and such.
I really didn’t target any specific fish, I was just happy to be on the water enjoying myself.
does it sweat?
Tides and weather worked against me, went to Abundant and picked up some sheepshead filets. At….$23/lb. Worth it. Question, how do the commercial guys supply quantities of sheeps?
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This is where SellsFish (paul) could chime in. Steady fishing and really knowing about Sheeps… and location. They don’t just hang around Pilings.
KC, glad you enjoyed it but damm, that’s more than i would have guessed!
resident commercial saltwater license is $25 which (i think) allows you to sell them to a wholesale dealer… or just become one for another $100. SCDNR - Commercial Saltwater License Pricing
shoot 'em on the reefs, stick 'em in the creeks, hook 'em in the lip… sell what you can catch, i think you’re just bound by recreational limits and laws. this is the legal disclaimer that reminds y’all that I have no idea what i’m talking about when it leaves the recreational realm. Code of Laws Title 50 Fish, Game and Watercraft
i’ll keep feeding my family and turning the rest loose, not that i think sheepshead are in any kind of trouble population-wise at the moment (except for maybe driving down max size and age by keeping the double digit fish on the winter reefs). my circle of fishing buddies has codes of conduct and self-imposed limits that strike the balance that i’d like to see in the fishery. can’t blame a fella for doing what’s legal either. by my math and the 27% yield from above, a limit of nice fish that averaged 5lbs each would be $310 over the counter when the work is all done.