My Father-in-Law Jerry and I did another Hopedale trip Wednesday, leaving BSM at noon to catch the warmup and incoming tide. We first stopped at our sheephead hole in St. Malo, and they were thick. We filled up 2/3rds of the icechest in an hour with twelve 3-4 lb sheephead and three 4-5 lb drum. We decided to then check on the trout. Trout sometimes start getting funky and inconsistent by mid-December, and we found them to be slow even on live shrimp and a perfect incoming tide. We just found a few keepers in Loutre, Stump Lagoon, Mussel Bay, and Pete's Lagoon with a higher throwback ratio than normal. We picked up more huge sheephead, drum, and an 8-lb red along the way to finish filling up the ice chest.
Unless one is a trout fanatic, the sheephead is a great plan B. They are the best eating inshore fish. They school up in December with big females, then head offshore to spawn from January-April. Cleaning them takes a little longer but once you know the tricks it's not so bad. We just used fresh market shrimp for them, no live shrimp needed.
Unless one is a trout fanatic, the sheephead is a great plan B. They are the best eating inshore fish. They school up in December with big females, then head offshore to spawn from January-April. Cleaning them takes a little longer but once you know the tricks it's not so bad. We just used fresh market shrimp for them, no live shrimp needed.