sheepshead for dinner

[awthacker]

Went spearfishing off Jacksonville today and got some flounder and sheepshead. The sheeps on our wrecks are huge, right now. For reference, the smallest flounder in the grass at the bottom of pic 3 was 13.5" (he was the only fish measured, although the littlest sheep was barely legal, too). My buddy, John is holding up the two bigger flounder and that's me with two sheephead.

 

[randlemanboater]

Awsome!

 

[RWilson2526]

Man those are some nice size fish....

 

[Steplift 72']

Not a thick fillet on sheepshead, but really good to eat. The nearshore oil production platforms around here are stacked with them all the warm months. It's hard to get them to bite, but it's easy to stick a bag full of them with a pole spear. No famous chef has ever made a name for them so they're still plentiful.

 

[Destroyer]

Great looking fish... I'm totally jealous.

Interesting names for the flatfish. In northern waters those Flounders would be called Flukes. Up here a left sided fish is a Fluke and a right sided fish is a Flounder. Fluke have teeth and a large jaw, Flounder have no teeth and a small mouth. Fluke are sometimes called Summer Flounder.
I call them delicious.

 

[spareparts]

read this about flounder
http://www.mrl.cofc.edu/edrpt/edrpt20B.pdf

 

[Destroyer]

read this about flounder
http://www.mrl.cofc.edu/edrpt/edrpt20B.pdf

Damn that's a good article.. Thanks Spare!!!
I found it interesting to note that the methods described by that author for catching southern flounder are similar to the way we catch Fluke up here in the north. Even the authors own special rig is very similar to the rig I tie when I fish for them, although he uses 2 three way swivels and I tend to use dropper knots and a different hook instead, the basic configuration of the rig is identical. The trolling and drifting sections are also similar to the way we catch them up here. What is different is the part about gigging them. I don't know of anyone that gigs Fluke up here, although I suppose that it could be done in Barnaget Bay due to the shallows and flats in some areas there...., but for the most part the water here is simply too deep to be able to do that, so we drift or troll for them. Live Killies with a triangular squid pennant are the favorite bait around here, (we call it ham and eggs). I know a few people that use artificials (some type of bucktail mostly) to catch them, but 95% use the aforementioned bait. You can buy live Killies at the various bait shops, but I like to catch my own since it'a a LOT cheaper. A few Killie traps, a 5 gallon bucket and a 6 pack are a great way to while away an afternoon the day before you go fishing.. If you know what you're doing and have a good spot you can catch several quarts of good sized Killies in about 3 hours.. more than enough to last you and your friends for a day of fishing. I take them home, put them in a holding pen (5 gal bucket with small holes in it) in the river across the street from me and I'm good to go in the morning.
As to the eating part, although I know a lot of people like to bread them and then fry them, my personal favorite way is simply to fry the fillets in real butter without any breading. Damn... now I'm getting hungry!!

 

[Blue_Runner]

Is the pic below the same as the killfish you use? We have those down here too but also have what we call mud minnows. Like a killfish without the stripes.

One of the biggest flounder I've caught was on a striped killfish I caught in the thrownet.

killfish

mud minnow

 

[fishingwithblue]

Is the pic below the same as the killfish you use? We have those down here too but also have what we call mud minnows. Like a killfish without the stripes.

One of the biggest flounder I've caught was on a striped killfish I caught in the thrownet.

killfish

mud minnow

Those are two different species, I have caught the mud minnows inshore and killfish gather along the beaches. Both are flounder candy.

 

[Destroyer]

Is the pic below the same as the killfish you use? We have those down here too but also have what we call mud minnows. Like a killfish without the stripes.

One of the biggest flounder I've caught was on a striped killfish I caught in the thrownet.

killfish

mud minnow

The one in the hand looks like what we call a Killie, although most killies up here tend to be more of a green upper body with either a silver or yellow belly.... and yes, they are Fluke candy up here also. We live line them with a long triangle piece of Squid body or Fluke belly (like a baseball pennant) first put on the hook and then we hook them on through the lower lip. Like I said earlier, if you ask someone up here what they are using for bait and they say ham and eggs, that's the setup they are using.