Hey all. A few weeks back I had the opportunity to do some canoeing down in FL on a spring fed river. If you’ve never been to one, they are crystal clear water that comes from a source that looks like a big pool. There is constant current as the spring is constantly feeding the river.
Anywho, one of my brother-in-laws tells me that he has seen Sheepshead as he’s canoed this particular river many times. I think he must be mistaken. As we get going, I start seeing fish that look a lot like mullet, but I convince myself it can’t be because we are in fresh water. Then, an hour or so later, I catch a glimpse of a convict swimming right by me, then another and another!! Sure as shootin’, there are Sheepshead in this river. I even saw a few blue claws.
We were on the Weeki Wachee, started seeing Sheeps at about this location. N28 31 42.86 W82 36 01.75
Now, yes we were about 3 or 4 miles from the coast, but the water was not at all brackish. I swam in it, tasted it, and so on. Not a hint of salt that I could detect. Not to mention like I said, there is constant current where I was because of the spring.
I’m wondering if anyone else has seen such a thing. I mean, I now know that Sheeps, mullet, and crabs can be in fresh water now because seeing is believing right, but all my so called “common sense” still tells me I was seeing things.
I was in Weeki Wacchee with my family in April and again in July. We saw huge sheeps in the river and what really blew my mind was that no one down there seems to be interested in targeting any of them. I am talking BIG. You definitely were not seeing things, those were sheeps.
i have seen such a thing one time, and it’s the fish in my avatar. we were 20 miles from the coast in the south santee a couple summers ago, using cut shrimp on the bottom next to a downed pine tree looking for catfish. we caught a few small channel cats and were avoiding the yellow-bellied sliders. everything screamed freshwater, and then the rods went off. this guy and another one gut hooked themselves on our rigs, and i’m thinking they were so homesick for some shrimp that they just jumped all over it. never seen such a thing- i tasted the water too. could’ve been a little salty on the bottom, but surface was all fresh.
have seen some blue claws in the edisto in all fresh lately too.
The sheeps I saw were so big and so close that if I were proficient with a bow, I could get them that way. I just couldn’t believe none of the locals seemed all that interested.
Yeah, DF, the fish I saw would have constituted a good day here in the Low Country. I know what you are saying. And the Striped Mullet I saw were HUGE!!! I just couldn’t believe it, and a part of me still thinks I’m nuts!
