03 April 2009

I picked up Pat, Matt, and Dan at their condo this morning at 0700. The bay water has been inundated with freshwater over the past week due the the large amount of rain; turning it a dark coffee color brown. The rain water, coupled with nearly a week of South winds at 20+ knots, had the bay system filled with an extra foot of water. It sure made the Sheepsheads tough to catch. Our first attempts went unrewarded, hooks came back empty, or pulled free from the fish we did fool.

There is somewhat of an art to hooking Sheepsheads, they're able to pilfer bait in seconds, often before you even have a chance to feel them. Using a live shrimp, you may get tap,tap,tap,...a fourth tap if you're lucky (or the shrimp is really big). But, if you miss that window, your fishing rod has gone from "tool" to "accessory".

We "accessorized" quite a bit to start, some guys even seemed to prefer that; instead of using the rod for our intended purpose...didn't they Dan? ;P

Once we anchored over some shallow water rubble, rubble that had an appetite for hooks, we began catching a few fish; and doing battle with lots of rocks! A later move proved even more productive (with fewer snags), bringing our tally to 7 nice Sheepies in the 3-4 pound range, along with a few juvenile Gag Grouper and small Mangrove Snapper and a lone Catfish (yes, I'll admit to catching it), making for a nice mornings catch. The guys wanted to keep a few for lunch so 3 fish went into the live well, en route to the plate.

Thanks again Matt, Dan, and "The Barracuda Man" Pat, I had a great time, hope to see you again in the summer!

Capt Josh

Thanks for stopping by!