Jackets One Day

I guess the winter weather is here and we can expect cold windy days mixed in with some nice calm days that make you appreciate the warm calm weather that recently passed. With the cold weather comes a great bite for two inshore species that we can all catch and with little effort. The species I am writing about are trout and sheepshead. Both are fun to catch, great to eat and can be caught several ways.

Here is a trick if you think you can out smart the convict fish. The fish got this name for two reasons, their ability to steal your bait and the stripes common with olden days prison wear. This trick is for the fisher persons that think they have more skill than most and can trick the fish. We all know you can catch sheepshead on fiddler crabs, shrimp, clams, blue crab and oysters. How about trying an artificial bait or a bait you have tied like a fly or a small jig type bait. Before you try this, think about what sheepshead eat. What is crawling or swimming around the rocks and docks where these fish live and feed. The consensus of most fisher persons as to the best bait to get a sheepshead to swallow your hook is a fiddler crab. Now think what a fiddler looks like and see if you can make it from the stuff you have hanging around. Now it you are like me, you will have a good supply of fly tying materials at your disposal. If not go to the local fly or craft shop and see what you can get to make a fiddler. Once you have made your interpretation of a fiddler, go out and try it. The most you will have to lose is a little time and probably not more than a few dollars. Shrimp are usually a little more difficult to make as they usually are made with epoxy and if you are not skilled in working with this, you can expect a great deal of frustration and usually some curse words to follow.

Once you have several fiddlers or shrimp made, head out to the jetties and give them a try. I like to add a little weight to my flies to get them down a little. You might also want to add a split shot or two to your line to help the fiddler get near the bottom. Your best bet will come on the lower end of the tides, say about half way to low or half way to high. If you have a trolling motor on your boat, you can get right up on the rocks and fish the areas with little or no current. If you do not have a trolling motor, try to get as close to the rocks as you feel safe. If you are on anchor, get an eye out for large boats going by. Even the large slow moving ships will have a suction effect on the water, drawing you away from the rocks then pushing you up on them. Just be careful and keep your wits if you do end up on or close to the rocks.

If you are like the rest of us that would like to catch a few sheepshead rather than maybe one or two on the flies you tied, try fiddler crabs or clams. When I fish the inside of the inlet rocks, I usually anchor because the constant wave action makes it tough on days that are anything but clam. Try to pick a spot where the water flow is coming trough the rocks or you can see water boiling up from under the rocks. There are two rigs that seem to work with the beast baits for the sheepshead. There is the conventional Carolina rig or the lead head jig. Both are pretty much fished the same way. Send out the bait and sort of jig it very slowly up and down just off of the bottom. As long as your jigging motion is very slow and usually the movement is not more than a foot or so up and down, you should catch a few. The bite is usually almost like the bait got heavy or you might feel a slight tap. Be ready to set the hook or lift up on the rod tip with a little force to embed the hook in the fish. Now that you have one of these darn good fish hooked, you will have your hands full as the pull long and hard. If you are like most novice sheepshead fisher persons, you might have caught one before or maybe not. No that you have the hang of this, you are on your way to many more sheepshead and lots of GOOD EATS. The limits are 15 fish per person with a minimum length of 12 inches. In the past week, I have also caught redfish, trout, black Margate and various TR's while fishing for sheepshead.

Now how about the trout. As of this writing, they are pretty plentiful in most of the creeks off of the ICW. The best bait for trout is now and is always going to be a live shrimp but they have been successfully caught on a plethora of other baits both natural and artificial. During the cold months there is one thing to keep in mind to help you catch a bunch. The water is COLD and the fish are cold blooded and live in the water SO they are not real motivated to chase your bait very hard or long. SO fish your baits SLOW. So slow that mold might start to grow on them if fished very long. Look for the light bite and do not react to the bite with a largemouth bass hook set. With artificials, the fish usually likes to almost act like it is tasting the boat before it commits to eating it. When I feel this almost sort of a bite, I get up all of the slack in my Power Pro line and sort of try to feel for the next reaction by the fish. Sometimes it is another tap of a gentle pull back heavy feeling. At this time a lift up on the rod tip with a gentle but forceful motion. If the fish has committed to eat your bait, this will most of the time produce a hooked fish. You know what to do from there.

Other real good artificials are the MirrOlure 19MR, the Bomber Long A and Gotcha Trout Killer rigged on a 5/0 X-Point hook. These are slow sinkers and sort of suspending lures that work extremely well in slow or no current water. They are also best fished with light line like 10 or 15 pound test Power Pro, which has the diameter of 1 or 2 pound test monofilament. With the light (thin diameter) line, these lures will sink better and the thinner the line the more strikes you usually get.

The ocean is back to big catches of snapper and grouper and with the colder water will come Wahoo in the Gulf Stream. The snapper and grouper like live bait best but will willingly eat most dead and cut baits. Keep an eye on the regulations as they look like they a fixin to change. With the cooling water temperature, you do not have to make long runs to find the tasty bottom dwellers as they will be visiting all of the close in reefs and rock piles.