This is my second post. For those that read my first, I'm a long time tournament bass guy that has gotten hooked on saltwater fishing and I've been devoting a lot of time researching how to catch the different types of fish that swim in the sea. Finally made it back over to CK Feb. 17-20 for a three day fishing trip with my two boys. My parents decided to join us. The main goal of this trip was to catch us some sheepshead. I had never fished for them before, but have been reading about how they are the winter time fish to target and how yummy they are so catching one was on my bucket list.
Day 1
We decided to fish inshore on Saturday due to the rain in the forecast. Half my fishing crew were fair weather fisherman and complained once the rains came so they were dumped off at the condo shortly after it started to sprinkle around noon. Our morning produced a pair of keeper trout, one barely legal flounder, and a bunch of little ones. My die hard 11 year old and I headed back out to fish in the remainder of the day in the cool wet windy weather. We mainly fished up by North Key, but also fished a little by Snake Key. North Key was by far the better area for us. We ended up the day with 10 keeper trout and the 1 flounder, with the biggest trout being around 19 inches. We caught 1 nice trout up shallow in a little ditch that ran between two oyster bars, but the rest came from grass in 3 to 5 foot range. I also caught my first bonnet head shark. For bait we used live shrimp, a tandem rig with DOA red head/ white body shrimp, and a whitish colored gulp. All were fished under a popping corks.*
Day 2
We headed out to my Mountain Dew Rock Piles (rock piles I found thanks to someone leaving behind their mountain dew bottle fish marker) that are in 30 foot of water northwest of CK. The area was loaded with sea bass, grunts, which we added to the cooler, and some under size gags. However, there wasn't one sheepshead present. Not sure why the sheepshead didn't make it out to this area seeing that it is such a nice rocky spot. Maybe some sheepshead experts know? Anyhow, I did end up with my first ever hogfish so that was a bonus for the day. After the kids caught their share of grunts and sea bass, we decided to try one of the cedar Key reefs and the king fish hole for sheepshead, but never connected with any. To end the day, boys and I dropped off mom and dad then ran over to North Key and caught us 5 keeper trout in about an hour or so of fishing. My 8 year old caught one over 20 inches, which was his biggest ever, so he was pumped. Almost all fish caught today were on live shrimp. A few were on gulps.
Day 3
After some advice from the bait store guy and obsevily thinking about things the night before, I decided to head out early to the same Cedar Key reef as yesterday in hopes of getting our first sheepshead. Dad had to stay home due to a meeting so it was just the boys, mom, and I. After struggling with the anchoring thing the day before, I decided to employ the milk jug bouy to mark the exact location I wanted to get the boat over, instead of trying to use gps waypoints. This was a much easier way to determine drift, anchor release spot, etc. We were able to get right on the spot, after a couple of tries that is, but hey we're new at this saltwater stuff. I then threw in some crushed barnicals I got from the sea wall behind the condo. In my first cast with a 1/2 ounce jig tipped with a live shrimp, I hooked and landed my first ever sheepshead. It was a nice big one at that. After cheering loudly and high fiving, everyone got back to fishing. Next was mom, then my oldest, and then my youngest. Four good size sheepshead in the boat in about 30 minutes. My oldest also broke off on two good size fish, but then a little later actual caught one of the ones he broke off while free lining a shrimp. When he got it in, it had the old hook and weight still in its mouth that broke off earlier Everyone got a good laugh on that one. After boating number 5, the sheepshead bite totally shut down. A boat that anchored close by didn't appear to catch any either, so I'm not sure if it was a morning bite, something to do with the tide, or we just caught what was available on the structure we were fishing. Around midday, we ran back to my mountain dew rocks to get the boys some steady fish catching action and a few more grunts and sea bass for the cooler. As I was reeling in a little sea bass, a huge fish that I thought looked long and skinny like a king, swirled at my fish but didn't eat it. I tried putting a bigger rod out with a small grunt on it but whatever it was never came back. We headed in around 3 p.m., cleaned up, and headed back home. Another fun trip to CK. Hope to get back there in a few weeks when kids go on sprbesting break.
Tried to post pics but I could not get them to upload??