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Fish & Game: Sheepshead

“It's very tasty fish to eat and you can fix them anyway you want.”

NEW ORLEANS — When it comes to fish, beauty is sometimes in the eye of the beholder.

With a front coming through, dirty water trout are hard to find and redfish are up in the shallow water where you can't get to them. What's left? Sheepshead!

“Usually you can find sheepshead near where there's any kind of structure it could be pilings, rocks that type of stuff when they start schooling up that's what they're looking for, the stuff that's got the barnacles growing on it the slime on it cause that's what they eat,” Capt. Daryl Carpenter with REELSCREAMERS.com said.

Some people call them "convict fish" and that's because of their dark black stripes something that a convict might wear, Rondeau Seabream, Sheepshead, Bay Snapper, lots of names.

"I like to use a jig head," Carpenter said, They're not swallowing the lead and you're not hooking them deep, crimp the barb just don't give him any slack when you're reeling him in."

One thing you've got to remember about sheepshead is you 've got to be careful handling them if they don't get you with those human-like teeth they've got sharp spines on the dorsal fin that can ruin your day.

“It's a beautiful white meat,” Carpenter said. “It's very tasty fish to eat and you can fix them any way you want.”

One of the really good things about fishing sheepshead is there are no limits, not creel limit no size limit.

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