CBBT (Where's the Sheep?) Sat 7-18-15

[tufnik]

Fished along the way up to the 2nd SBC. I had sand fleas and dozens of fiddlers; I was focused on finding sheepshead. Too bad, no sheeps; all I caught were a lot of croaker, toads and a skate. I talked to two other yakers who were also fishing for sheeps. Nothing, but one of the guys caught mackerel and other fish at the first island.

Met four yakers along the way; they caught flounder in the morning. One guy caught a 20" flounder. They were jigging or using minnows. I talked to other yakers in the afternoon, and they didn't catch any flounder.

When I was back on shore, Slap and another yaker said that several anglers were pulling up spades at the 1st island. Dang! If I knew about it when I was out there, I would have joined the fun (instead I turned around at the 2nd SBC and went back toward shore in the afternoon).

It was a very good day to yak fish; calm water, light winds, partly sunny. The current was not bad either.

Oh, as I was loading up the car around 5 pm, the rain came in. It turned out to be a bad thunderstorm with thunder, lightning, and hail, and it sure dispersed the beach goers.

[JohnE]

Thanks for the report. Conditions look great...making me jealous and very sorry I could not make it down this weekend. Very little time to fish lately--took the kayak with me to New England last week, but could not seem to make time to fish. Well, I did try trolling around for about an hour when I went clamming one day.

Surprised you have not had luck with the sheepies on your recent trips. Was going to try to maybe drive down early this morning, but my bro told me about the freak storm and decided conditions this morning would likely be not so great (he said some parts of VA Beach got up to 5" of rain very fast and had flooding conditions).

Have you ever tried head on shrimp or fresh blue crab for sheepies? Does not sound like they are going for the stuff people usually use to target them. I am going to try and swing a midweek trip soon. Thinking I will try the same stuff that works well for me on tog and see if maybe sheepies will fall for it. Will also bring clams and some smaller hooks for spades. Still have not caught my first flounder of the year yet, so will have to target them as well.

[tufnik]

So far this year, I caught one sheep about 5 weeks ago here; a 20 incher. Been trying again since, but I think most of the catching seem to be be beyond the 1st island.

They say fiddlers are "candy" to sheeps, but people catch them on sand fleas, green crabs and clams as well. I've caught them on fiddlers, sand fleas and pink Gulp mullet.

[Shady]

Thanks for the report. I tried for sheep's in Oregon inlet and instead caught many tiny tog, sea bass and other small fish. There were several spear fisherman out there said they saw a lot of sheep's and didn't spear them because they already had a lot in the freezer and were looking for drum or striper but they weren't biting my bait or many of the other boaters I talked to

[Slobber Bob]

It feels like it's the same way with sheepshead in OC. The fish are there, somedevil and I each got one a couple weeks ago, I've seen a charter boat pull two up when I was out, and there is at least a picture of one caught in the paper every week, but it seems like they just won't bite consistently.

[HokieDJ]

If they don't bite. go floundering!

[JohnE]

I think I am going to drive down there tonight and fish Fri and Sat. Had enough of this not going fishing stuff. Might just stay all weekend. Expecting some beautiful weather.

[Lucky_Frog]

Yea... think my buddy and I ran into you looking for sheeps. I tried but gave up on them. Did bag a few keeper flounder and some of the bigger croakers. We will be at it again and this time going to first island and will stay on the sheep/spade path. See you out there. We will be in the bright red hobie outbacks.IMG_0062.jpg

[Slap]

I can vouch for the storms, the rain water was 1/2 to 3/4 of the way to the top of the tires on my truck leaving dinner over in Lynnhaven. It was a blast to drive through though! Spanish seem to be in along the spans as well, a few guys got into them, and I saw a few skying on bunker.

I was there strictly for Spades/Sheeps and the spades didn't disappoint.

[tufnik]

Wx is looking good, but I can't fish this weekend. Good luck you guys! If you have don't have good reports on sheeps, I may just give up on them and go after flounder instead.

[Lucky_Frog]

My fishing buddy and I launched at 6:30 and headed for 1st island. About halfway to 1st island ..he landed a nice Sheep on clam. I tried myself but quickly starting to learn that this is a hard fish to find. Tog are at least on the bottom around structure but this Sheepshead can be from bottom, middle or just 5 feet under as we found out. I gave up and went to flounder and got a 19". Rest of the day was filled with croakers and 1 Spadefish. Will try again next weekendcbbt spade.jpgcbbt sheep.jpg

[Shady]

Nice Sheep, are spadefish good to eat?

[Lucky_Frog]

Not sure. The Spade got off the stinger when we put the flounder on. Guess those have to go directly into the cooler...must be the soft mouth they have. Didnt get a chance to eat. Buddy's wife prepared the sheep tho and both said it taste better than Tog. So I am now on full time sheep duty...He are some pictures.Sheep 1.jpgSheep 2.jpgSheep 3.jpg

[HokieDJ]

Hook the rod thru the gill and mouth. You'll never use a fish then.

Sauce looks good. Share the recipe!

[tufnik]

Yeah, the gills, man. Going through just the mouth is a no-no.

Meal-wise, I prefer sheeps over togs too. Sheeps have big scales though.