The sheepshead fish has human teeth, but it's okay because it won't give you a psychedelic crisis - Scientific American Blog Network The sheepshead fish has human teeth, but it's okay because it won't give you a psychedelic crisis By Becky Crew on March 21, 2013 Share on Facebook Report Ad Credit: VA Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) Despite the way it looks, the sheepshead fish (Archosargus probatocephalus) has at least one thing going for it. While other members of the Sparidae family are trying out various forms of hermaphroditism, including changing from female to male (protogyny), doing the opposite (protandry), or being unisexual (gonochorists), the sheepshead is just sitting at home watching cartoons and leaving its genitals where they are. So that’s something. Sheepshead incisors. Credit: Glen J. Kuban Another good thing about this huge creep is that, unlike one of its relatives, the Salema porgy (Sarpa salpa), you won't risk having a terrible trip when you eat one. Apparently they taste great!

The Salema porgy, also of the Sparidae family and nicknamed the dreamfish, was reportedly used for recreational hallucinogenic purposes in the Mediterranean during the Roman Empire and has played a role in traditional Polynesian ceremonies. Along with a handful of other fish, the flesh of the Salema porgy can sometimes inflict ichthyosarcotoxism on those who eat it, which is a very rare form of poisoning caused by the toxins of a tiny species of marine plankton called Gambierdiscus toxicus. This poisoning from contaminated fish flesh prompts intense hallucinations and terrifying nightmares that can last for several days. As reported by Luc de Haro and Philip Pommier from the Centre Antipoison of the Hôpital Salvator in Marseille, France, in a 2006 issue of Clinical Toxicology , a 90-year-old man ate a Salema porgy in Saint Tropez in 2002 and two hours later was hallucinating and having nightmares about people and birds screaming, which lasted a further two nights. He literally thought he was losing his mind. "Fearing that these symptoms might signal the beginning of a major mental illness, he did not tell his friends or attending physician.

The manifestations abated three days after he had eaten the fish," de Haro and Pommier report. Prior to that, a 40-year-old man also fell victim to ichthyosarcotoxism while holidaying in the French Riviera and had hallucinations of screaming animals and giant, menacing spiders surrounding his car. In 2009, a fisherman named Andy Giles caught one in the English Channel, which is unusual because they usually keep to warm waters of the Mediterranean and African west coast, and told the Daily Telegraph , "Now I realise what it was and the effects it can have, perhaps I should have taken it into town to sell to some clubbers!" Andy lol. So the sheepshead fish doesn't do any of that stuff. But it does have human teeth. Sheepshead fish are a common North American marine species that span from Cape Cod and Massachusetts through to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to Brazil. Preferring coastal habitats around rock pilings, jetties, mangroves, reefs and piers, they can grow up to around 91 cm in length and weigh up to 9.6 kg.

They have five to seven distinctive black, vertical bars running down their silvery bodies, which is why the sheepshead is also called the convict fish. And true to their name, sheepshead fish are notorious for stealing bait and somehow being in cahoots with the Joker . Look at these criminals. Credit: mentalblock_DMD; Flickr A fully-grown adult sheepshead will have well-defined incisors sitting at the front of the jaw, and molars set in three rows in the upper jaw and two rows in the lower jaw. It has strong, heavy grinders set in the rear of the jaw too, which are particularly important for crushing the shells of its prey. As with humans, this unique combination of teeth helps the sheepshead process a wide-ranging, omnivorous diet consisting of a variety of vertebrates, invertebrates and some plant material. Credit: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department When they’re young, sheepshead fish will eat marine worms, bryozoan ‘moss animals’ and pretty much anything soft-bodied they can catch in the seagrasses.

Although thick, sharp teeth begin to appear when a sheepshead is just 4.5 mm long, it will have to wait until it's about 15 mm long before all the incisors have come in and the back teeth begin to develop into adult molars. Once they reach around 50 mm in length, the sheepshead will advance to eating more robust, armoured prey such as echinoderms, barnacles, clams, crabs and oysters, using their highly specialised teeth. During this stage, its jaw musculature is also developing, and this keeps improving right through to old age. So an old fish living around a good supply of hard-shelled prey will end up having much greater jaw crushing power than a younger fish in a less rich environment. “Evidence strongly suggested that oral jaw crushing force was an important determinant of diet in these fishes,” said L. P. Hernandez from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University and P. J. Motta from the Department of Biology at the University of South Florida in a 1997 issue of the Journal of Zoology . Hernandez and Motta had been observing the oral crushing performance of sheepshead fish from birth through to adulthood.

“There was a significant correlation between increased force production and increased durophagous [shell-crushing] habit. Studies such as this one speak directly to the relationship between maximum functional potential and actual patterns of resource use.” It’s not clear why the sheepshead is called the sheepshead, but it’s been suggested that it refers to how its teeth look like sheep’s teeth. A quick Google and cursory glance over some disgusting farm teeth, and I don’t really see the comparison, but another suggestion is that the name relates to their silhouette. And there’s something to be said for a sheepshead fish that has managed to keep its silhouette looking as non-offensive as it does, because look what happened to the Asian sheepshead of the Labridae family. Here's a video of some very American men with a live sheepshead: **** My book, Zombie tits, astronaut fish and other weird animals, will be released in the US next month, and is available for pre-order from Amazon now . The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. Advertisement | ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S) Becky Crew Bec Crew is a Sydney-based science writer and award-winning blogger.

She is the author of 'Zombie Tits, Astronaut Fish and Other Weird Animals' (NewSouth Press). Recent Articles Sheepshead on the Rocks - Carolina Sportsman Content, NC Sheepshead on the Rocks Anglers have to be quick on the draw to catch 'convict' fish. CRAIG HOLT June 29, 2010 at 7:29pm Tweet Fishing partners Lewis Emery and Larry Essick of Wilmington enjoy chasing a couple of species that are plentiful in their area, but they often take a break from red drum and sea trout to challenge sheepshead. What probably whets their appetite is seeing small to magnum sheepshead in the same areas they fish for reds and specks. Then there's the challenge - few people actually target sheepshead, because to do so successfully takes patience and skill. The old bromide that in order to catch a sheepshead an angler must set the hook "just before he bites" isn't totally true, but it's not far from accurate.

"I got interested in sheepshead fishing when I was fishing for speckled trout at the rock wall south of the Fort Fisher boat ramp," said Emery, who runs Tails Up Charters and works at Carolina Beach's Island Hardware & Tackle. "I'd put my boat in at the Fort Fisher access, then fish the incoming tide along the rocks. Early in the morning is the best time to fish for topwater specks, but I kept seeing sheepshead there, too." The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the rock wall in the 1890s to prevent sand from now-closed Corncake Inlet from filling in the Cape Fear River channel and making navigation for large boats difficult. The rock wall now protects what locals call "First Bay" (properly known as "The Basin") and two other bays: Second and Buzzard's. Zeke's Island, No Name Island and North Island also are protected behind the rock wall. While trout fishing, Emery used the trolling motor on the bow of his Carolina Skiff to maneuver near the wall and cast topwater lures, but he often noticed striped fish feeding on crustaceans along the rocks.

"A lot of times, I could see fish tailing, just like red drum," said Emery, who discovered upon closer scrutiny scads of sheepshead, some of them quite large, eating barnacles and other crustaceans on and near the rocks. Then his problem became how to catch them. "Part of it is like sight-fishing for reds," he said, "but you need the tide right - not too high so it covers the rocks, but not too low so you can't see where you're dropping your baits." Emery uses a 7-foot rod fitted with a spinning reel spooled with braided line and a 20-pound leader for sheepshead on the opposite side of the crumbling, jagged rock wall, which varies from three to eight feet wide. "Most of the time, you'll see sheepshead on the river side of the rock wall, so if you're fishing on the inside, you have to fish over the rocks and try to lift hooked fish over the rocks or through an opening where the water is flowing," he said.

"And, yes, it's kinda tough; I lose more fish than I land." Casting a fiddler crab without a weight is difficult in such conditions, especially if it's windy. But as a part-time sheepshead fisherman, Emery doesn't have cane poles in his boat. Such tackle probably would be perfect for this type of fishing if he were dedicated to sheepshead instead of fishing for them only when he tires of chasing red drum and specks. "I look for tailing fish, and the rock wall helps, I believe, because they can't see me so easily because they're on the other side of the wall from my boat," Emery said. "The way they feed, with their heads pointed down, also gives you an advantage, and you can get pretty close to them. "I try to put a fiddler crab right in front of a sheepshead's face. When he hits it, I try to get him across the wall as quick as I can." Emery also likes to fish the rock wall because it generally holds some of the biggest sheepshead in the area, sometimes weighing as much as 10 or 12 pounds.

"It's not an easy way to fish for sheepshead," he said, "but it's sight-fishing, and you can pick and choose the fish you want to try for - and that's a lot of fun for me." When his goal is to fill his cooler for a meal instead of trying for a trophy, Emery bypasses the rock wall, obtains a load of sand fiddlers to put in a 5-gallon bucket whose bottom is filled with wet sand, then heads for other structures. Sheepshead will eat just about any type of creature that attaches itself to structure: dock and pier pilings, logs, shipwrecks, reefs jetties and rocks. But they prefer crabs, including mud crabs that live among oyster shells. Sometimes they'll also eat cut pieces of larger crabs, such as blue crabs. While they'll also chomp sand fleas (mole crabs), the gold standard for sheepshead is fiddler crabs, the small crabs with over-sized pincer claws commonly seen in salt marshes. The best time to catch fiddlers is at low tide when they gather in great numbers in marsh grass near mud flats.

Anglers can gather fiddlers by walking through a marsh and throwing a fine-mesh cast net over them or even trapping them with a dip net. Some anglers simply herd them against planks and use their hands to scoop them into buckets. Bait-and-tackle stores also sell fiddler crabs. "Fiddlers can pinch hard enough to draw blood with their big claw, so the best way to pick one up is to hold the pincer arm against his side then put the hook through the shell," Emery said. "I like a 2-drop bottom rig for sheepshead with a 1-ounce bank sinker and 2/0 Owner octopus hooks." With a bucket of sand fiddlers in the boat, Emery headed across the Cape Fear to a ship navigation beacon supported by 10 encrusted metal pilings. The beacon helps ocean-going ships navigate the river channel on their way upstream to Wilmington, but the poles that support the beacon serve a secondary purpose - the legs are home to barnacles that attract sheepshead. The pilings may be only six to eight feet deep, depending upon the tide stage.

Low and high tides are the best times to fish the pilings, although most anglers avoid low tide because navigation can be treacherous. Emery prefers high tide for another reason, however. "Like all kinds of fish that live in these bays, when the tide is up, they run up into the marsh grass and get around these pilings, too," said Emery, who knows the shallow bay well enough to find oyster-shell mounds that hold sheepshead when covered by water. "Those little black crabs, mud crabs, live in the oyster mounds, and sheepshead like to eat them almost as much as they do fiddler crabs," Emery said. "Sometimes I'll fish oyster mounds and catch my share of sheepshead. You also sometimes catch black drum and maybe even a redfish." Other places to catch sheepshead include pilings that support ocean piers, highway bridges or inshore docks. Some anglers have favorite pilings that produce consistently, but most fishermen know they'll have to change locations frequently because sheepshead usually move from one piling to another, probably triggered by the supply of barnacles on a given piling.

If sheepshead have worked a piling, it may be bare of food, so the fish simply move to a more productive spot. It's fairly easy to spot sheepshead at piers when the water is clear because they'll circle a piling, moving up and down, crunching on barnacles. Some pier anglers even use barnacles as bait, which can be highly effective. Emery uses 2-drop bottom rig with a bank sinker at the bottom. It allows him to detect the slightest tugs of a sheepshead bite. "I keep my line tight," he said, "and wait for two solid hits, then set the hook on the second hit. If you feel rapid-fire, machine-gun-like hits, that's usually pinfish." When the bite slows, savvy anglers often use a hoe, boat hook or metal gaff to scrape barnacles from the side of a piling. Pieces of barnacle floating in the water often trigger a feeding frenzy.

Related Articles Sheepshead Fishing in Winter - Florida Sportsman Florida Sportsman You are Here: Home : Features : Sheepshead Fishing in Winter Sheepshead Fishing in Winter by Frank Sargeant • January 22, 2013 • 5 comments Reef fish closures gotcha down? Warm up to this black-striped, white-fleshed culinary treat. Bridge angler was quick on the hookset on an eating-size sheepshead. You won’t be taking home any 20-pounders, as you might with gags or red snapper, to be sure, (the all-tackle sheepshead record is 21 pounds, 4 ounces) but a stack of 1- to 3-pounders is likely, and if you fish offshore rockpiles during the March/April spawn, you may add some fish of 5 to 8 pounds to the box. Sheepshead remind me of a sort of giant saltwater bluegill, and as such, they ought to be very easy to catch. To be sure, they are abundant panfish of the saltwater kind, but catching them can at times be a challenge.

However, if you’re interested in eating bottom fish—and who isn’t—they are becoming one of the few games in town, so tightly are the feds limiting our take of grouper and most snappers. The limit on sheepshead, on the other hand, still allows you to take them home by the flock; the rule is 15 daily, which means if you have two or three anglers aboard and happen into a swarm of hungry ‘heads, you can actually fill the cooler, a rarity with any species these days. So here are a few tips on sheepshead fishing in winter and the rest of the year, too. Dilapidated docks are top-notch hang-outs for the biggest wary species. Don’t expect any line-class record ‘heads, either; the IGFA does not extend their respect to the species by keeping class records, though they do provide this honor to the mighty rock greenling of Alaska, which reaches a massive 4 pounds, 11 ounces, as well as the very sporting black sea bass (all-tackle record 10 pounds, 4 ounces, not half the size of the biggest sheepie.) Sheepshead are not wimps, either; they’re remarkably powerful critters for their size.

A 5-pounder caught on the flats is a match for a redfish of similar size—though it’s rare to catch ‘em on the flats because they are so much more wary than redfish (see below). And when you hook up with a heavy one around a piling, he’s just as quick to wrap up and cut you off as any snook. First, a quick scoop of biology; Archosargus probatocephalus is a member of the porgy family, thus his shape. They are named for their teeth, which do look somewhat sheeplike, and enable them to crunch up the shellfish and crabs which are their primary diet. Inside the mouth are hard, bony nodules which complete the crushing operation; they can grind up anything from oysters to mussels to barnacles—if you’ve ever tried to scrape barnacles off a boat bottom, you have to truly admire the power in the sheepshead jaws, because they nip them off like carrots. Sheepshead this big are real battlers. Catching sheepshead is a learned art.

It looks as if it should be very simple; toss a piece of fresh-cut shrimp in front of them and they eat it, most of the time. But that parsimonious mouth is very stingy when it comes to ingesting hooks; often they nip off the bait and leave Mr. Mustad hanging naked. First, it’s essential to use a hook small enough to fit the relatively small mouth of the fish; size 1 or 1/0 is the ticket to admission. Actually smaller hooks work even better, but the teeth are so strong that the fish can occasionally bite right through the light wire of smaller hardware. (They can also bite through mono or fluoro leader and line, and there’s not much you can do about that if the hook goes in far enough for them to chomp on either. Adding wire leader is not an option—they’ll rarely eat even the tastiest bait suspended on wire.) You usually need a sinker of some sort because ‘heads are most often found in holes, channels and cuts, usually around rocks, concrete or other hard structure where shellfish can fix and grow and where small crabs live.

One good way to rig is to put the hook on a dropper made of 20-pound-test hard mono or fluoro (both have more resistance to teeth than standard mono) and then hang the sinker on the bitter end of the line about 18 inches below. With this rig, you can immediately feel it when a fish starts nibbling on the bait; if the sinker is above the hook, as in a standard rig, the fish has to bite hard enough to move the sinker before you feel anything—and by that time the bait may be long gone. Anglers firing up the bite by scraping live barnacles. Another rig, used effectively by Capt. Mark Thomas of Tampa among others, is a 1/8- to ¼-ounce jighead with an oversized hook, size 1/0 or so, on which a piece of fresh cut shrimp, about thumbnail-sized, is impaled. With the jig, you feel the bite immediately, and it casts more easily than a separate sinker/dropper rig.

While fresh shrimp is by far the easiest bait to come by, sheepshead also readily take an assortment of other natural baits; oysters, fiddler crabs and tubeworms are all high on the list of sheepshead aficionados. Dave Hack of Venice, who loves ‘em so much he goes by the nickname Mr. Sheepshead, scoops up sandfleas, takes them home, boils them and then freezes them. The process toughens the baits and also makes them readily available anytime he feels like heading for the jetties. (He now sells these, too—check him out via Google or Yahoo!) On Tampa Bay, one of the more popular baits has become the exotic green mussel, an invader from Asia first brought to the bay in the bilge water of ships about 15 years ago. These days the mussels jam many pilings and docks, and sheepshead love them. They stay on the hook better than oysters, too.

(By the way, the traditional tactic of putting an oyster on a treble or double hook to catch sheepshead is no longer legal; it’s single hooks only for the species.) Whatever the bait, the trick is to hold light tension on the line when you feel that first bump. If you can sense weight there as you take up the slack, go ahead and set the hook; you miss some, but you hook most once you develop the touch. Microfiber line helps, a lot; better sensitivity and more authority to set the hook. Rows of shell crushers behind primary teeth. You can often visually locate sheepshead in clear water; they tend to hang near the surface, and you can spot them as they turn and flash. But even if you don’t see them, you can often stir fish up by chumming around crusty pilings and riprap; use a hoe or spud to scrape the barnacles. As this stuff showers down, sheepshead will smell it and move in from considerable distance.

Larger ‘heads congregate on rockpiles and ledges in 8 to 30 feet of water to spawn in March and early April; the channel edges on Tampa Bay inside the Skyway are a favorite spot, and many nearshore reefs also hold them at this time. There is also a limited flats fishery for sheepshead on Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor during late fall and winter. On the lowest tides, it’s not uncommon to see them up in the shallows waving that gray tail as they root out an oyster or a shrimp. However, a sheepshead seen in this way is not a sheepshead caught; they are paranoid on a level that makes bonefish seem like carp. If you land an artificial lure anywhere in the same zip code, they will instantly vaporize. The only tactic that has ever worked for me is to cast a whole shrimp, unweighted, on a light spinning rig uptide from the fish and let it sit there. Sometimes the fish smells it, swims up and eats it—when that happens, you have achieved one of the pinnacles of flats angling. They put up a nice battle in the shallows, too, with some fast, powerful runs.

Oddly, these same fish may travel to nearby potholes when the spirit moves them, and then they become dumb as catfish; most of the large winter catches are made by finding these backcountry holes. They also settle into rocky holes in many coastal rivers during cold weather. Sheepshead are in the same gang as the pinfish, which explains something about their physiography—they are armed with some of the sharpest, longest spines in fishdom—sort of the uberpinfish, if you will–and the armament sprouts in all directions, from the back, the chest and the nether regions; there is hardly a safe way to pick up a sheepshead except with tongs. But pick up a sheepshead you must, because that’s what it takes to extract those wonderful white fillets. As you might expect of a creature that eats only shellfish, the taste of sheepshead completely belies the barnyardian name; it is among the finest of all fishes, right up there with hog snapper—another critter with a nasty name and a wonderful taste, come to think of it.

After years of being wounded by ‘heads, I finally came to the conclusion that the only reasonable way to deal with them was to disarm them. These days, when I catch one it goes on ice immediately to “put it to sleep”, as we like to tell the grandkids, and then out come the poultry shears. I systematically nip off every pointed spine on every fish—if you leave even one, I can assure you it will find a way to bury itself in your finger. Once the spines are gone, sheepshead fillet pretty much like other fish, but they do have a thicker hide and tougher scales—run the point of a sharp fillet knife up each side of the backbone to make a channel before you start the filleting cut and it will go more smoothly. You have to cut around the base of the dorsal spines, too; they extend well into the meat. Now strip off the skin and you’re ready to cook. On small fish, trim off the rib cage because it doesn’t have much meat; on larger ones, you may find it better to leave the rib meat in place and deal with the bones once the fish is cooked. Sheepshead are delicious any way you care to cook them.

One of my fishing friends, radio host Mel Berman of Tampa, likes to cube the meat, boil it briefly in crab boil spices like Zataran’s, and then dip in melted butter and lemon juice—tasty as lobster, and more tender. Of course, you can’t beat breading and deep frying, and simply putting them in a fish basket, adding a little non-stick oil and plopping them on a hot grill is also a great way to go. FS First Published Florida Sportsman Jan. 2010 Excellent article -very good read! sea bass tackle Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks. Guy Jones No absolutely not, this is not the same species as the the Patigonian Toothfish, not even close. Like the article says, The sheepshead is related to the Pinfish, and they are not a threatened species. Actually, I would be willing I bet they are not even found as far south as Antarctica. bob debuilder sea bass.It has nothing to do with a toothfish. Guy sorry to tell you that you missed also.

Sheeps are members of the Porgy family and in the article the author was comparing the spines to those of a pin fish. floridaBRED No Braces Necessary for the Sheepshead Fish With Human-like Teeth! | Featured Creature No Braces Necessary for the Sheepshead Fish With Human-like Teeth! Posted by Carly Brooke | Aug 14, 2013 | sea , weird | 6 | photo via: forshorefishing.blogs.theledger.com Habitat: Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States Status: No Conservation Concerns I can honestly say that I would be completely shocked if I was diving along the Atlantic coast and came upon this smiling fish. It’s a Sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), otherwise commonly called a convict fish due to the black and white bands that wrap around its body. Sheepshead use their human-like teeth to grind up the hard shells of crustaceans, small shellfish, and barnacles. They have incisors, molars, and grinders much like we do. Hey, at least they’re straight. Imagine having crooked teeth like this? I mean, it’s not like fish can get braces to fix their smiles.

photo: Claire Sunquist Apparently, these are extremely tasty fish with its white flesh and mild flavor. Though, I can’t imagine killing this thing as its smiling up at you. The guilt would never end! Want More Creatures? Join our mailing list and get incredible creatures delivered straight to your inbox. Never miss a post again! YES! Yes! You have successfully subscribed. We just sent you an email with a link to confirm you really want those creatures. Go ahead and click it so we can start getting wild! Share: Asian Sheepshead Wrasse | Endless Ocean Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Underwater Ruins of Mo'ia Atoll (EO), Cavern of the Gods (EO2) Forms: Adult only The Asian Sheepshead Wrasse is a large fish that can be found in both of the Endless Ocean games. Contents [ show ] In-Game Description "This fish has a distinctive face formed by a large lump on its head and a large, thick chin, both of which are smaller in females. Young fish are orange and look nothing like adults.

This fish is fiercely territorial, which leads to violent confrontations between males." Location Sheepshead, ##, Mississippi saltwater fish profiles from GCRL Status: "Not evaluated" on IUCN Red List Description Sheepshead have a stout, deep body with an elevated back and a short head. Their overall coloration is light grey, dull silver, or greenish yellow with five to seven distinctive black vertical stripes on each side. The fins are dusky colored and both the dorsal fin and anal fin have strong, sharply pointed spines. The caudal fin or tail is slightly forked. The pectoral fins are quite long. The gill covers have very sharp edges. The name sheepshead is related to shape of the fish's snout and it's teeth. The molars resemble those of a sheep. The front teeth or incisors are unsettlingly similar to human incisors. The sheepsheads teeth enable the fish to seize and crush shelled prey such as crabs and barnacles. Anglers regularly catch sheepshead in the one to eight pound range, while the largest fish can reach 20 pounds. There is little external difference between male and female sheepshead. Sheepshead. Photo by Jim Franks.

Click for larger image . Sheepshead mouth showing the distinctive incisor and molar teeth. Photo by Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Click for larger image. Similar Species Several other species of saltwater fish have light and dark vertical bands and might potentially be confused with sheepshead, most notably small black drum. But sheepshead are easily identified by their unmistakable teeth and the sturdy sharp spines in their dorsal and anal fins. The freshwater drum, Aplodinotus grunniens (gaspergou in Louisiana) is sometimes called sheepshead. The sheepshead minnow, Cyprinodon variegatus variegatus, is unrelated to the sheepshead. Occurrence Sheepshead are found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia through the northern Gulf of Mexico and south to Brazil. They are absent in Bermuda, the Bahamas, the West Indies and Grenada. They tolerate a wide range of salinity and thrive in most of the habitats of the northern Gulf of Mexico, including bays, bayous, canals, other brackish waters, and occasionally fresh water rivers.

Sheepshead can be found further offshore in on hard bottoms and structure to depths of about 120 feet, particularly during the spawning season from February through April. They commonly associate with submerged structure with marine growth, such as piers, pilings, oil and gas rigs, oyster reefs, jetties, and wrecks. Life Cycle & Reproduction Adult sheepshead spend the warmer months in inshore waters and move to offshore spawning grounds in late winter when water temperatures drop. They remain offshore to spawn in early spring and then the majority return to inshore waters. Some adults remain offshore year round. Spawning Spawning occurs in February, March, and April when sheepshead congregate around reefs and other hard substrates. Peak spawning takes place during March and April. Both male and female sheepshead may begin spawning at age two. All sheepshead are capable of spawning by age three for males and age four for females. Sheepshead spawn several times during each spring, with groups of fish spawning synchronously. Females lay an average of 87,000 eggs per spawn, with a range of 14,000 to 250,000.

Eggs Sheepshead eggs are planktonic, with a clear yolk, and a single yellow oil globule. After hatching offshore, larvae are transported by currents to inshore waters where they mature into juveniles. Larvae Sheepshead larvae begin showing adult characteristics at a length of less than 1/4". By the time the larvae reach about 5/8", the vertical bars are distinguishable and the body is covered with scales. At a length of 3/4" to a little more than one inch, the larvae have taken on the general configuration and coloration of adult fish. Fork Length vs. Age for Sheepshead in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Juveniles After transforming into juveniles, sheepsheads settle into seagrass beds. As the juveniles develop, their fins change colors, with some becoming white, black, and blue-black before finally reaching the adult coloration. A dark spot appears on each side, behind the gill on the second dark bar and the adjacent silvery space. It gradually fades as the fish matures. In late summer or early fall of their first year, the juveniles move into areas with structure and hard substrates.

The shift may be related to development of adult teeth that allow them to feed on the sturdy organisms that inhabit those areas. In some areas, including south Texas, sheepshead may remain in grassbeds, even as adults. Adults Sheepshead grow rapidly during their first three to four years and reach about 80% of their maximum size by age five, as shown in the graph. Growth rates and sizes vary from location to location. Click the graph to view a larger version with legends identifying location represented by each line. There is little difference in the growth rates of males and females, although some sources suggest that females grow slightly more rapidly. Other studies showed that sheepshead in Louisiana grow more rapidly than in Alabama and Florida, but don't grow as large. It has been determined that sheepshead may live to 20 years of age or more. Diet and Feeding Behavior Sheepshead have a richly diverse diet. They eat almost any organic material that can be grazed from the bottom or from vertical hard surfaces, including plants. Studies have found that adult sheepshead feed on as many as 125 different species.

In Mississippi, researchers found that fish six to 14 inches long ate mollusks and plants. Larger sheepshead ate mollusks, crabs and other crustaceans, bottom worms, and fish, mostly anchovies. When sea grasses or algae were plentiful, sheepshead occasionally feed heavily on them. Similar studies in Louisiana and Texas showed a greater dependence on plant material. Sheepshead in the Florida Everglades were found to eat mostly mollusks. A sheepshead caught during a 2013 GCRL Summer Field Program course taught by Stephen Curran, Ph.D. The vertical black bars become less distinct as the fish matures. Their diet varies with location and with the seasons as the availability of specific prey items changes. Mollusks and crustaceans are consumed year round. Small fish are eaten in spring. Plants and detritus are eaten in summer, and polychaete worms are eaten during spring, fall, and winter. Newly-hatched larval sheepshead are carnivorous and feed on zooplankton.

Small juveniles continue to feed on zooplankton and add bottom-dwelling organisms such as polychaetes, chironomid larvae, mysids and small mollusks. Large juveniles and smaller adults eat mollusks, crabs, other crustaceans, and small fish. It's likely that sheepshead are important in regulating the populations of fauna on submerged hard surfaces, both those species that are attached and immobile, such as barnacles, and species that crawl on or swim near the surfaces. By consuming the more abundant species, sheepshead may contribute to greater biodiversity of species. Predators Larvae and juveniles are eaten by larger predatory fishes. Adults may be taken by sharks. Happy young angler with a sheepshead. Click for larger image . Fishing for Sheepshead Sheepshead are widely distributed in many types of habitat and relatively easy to locate, since they prefer structure such as pilings, seawalls, and jetties. Baits such as shrimp, small or cut crabs, oysters, and snails are fished on or near the bottom. Sheepshead are delicate feeders and notorious bait stealers.

Careful attention and a delicate touch are needed to detect their bite and set the hook. Sheepshead are targeted by fly fishermen using crab and shrimp flies fished along the bottom. Sheepshead have sharply pointed and very strong spines in their dorsal and anal fin spines and sharp edges on their gill covers. Use caution to avoid puncture wounds and cuts. Regulations Mississippi saltwater fishing regulations are available on the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources website. Sheepshead are not regulated in Mississippi for either the recreational or commercial fishery. Louisiana places no limits on recreational fishing, but imposes a 10" minimum total length for commercial catches. In Alabama , the limits are 12" minimum fork length and 10 fish/day for recreational anglers. Florida's recreational fishery limits are 12" minimum total length and 15 fish/day The current Mississippi state records for sheepshead are 19 pounds, 10 ounces for conventional tackle and 7 pounds, 12 ounces for fly rod . Sheepshead on the Table Photo by Marc Grove, Wefings Marine .. Click for larger image .

Sheepshead are excellent food fish, but are scorned by many anglers because of the difficulty in cleaning them and their relatively low yield of meat compared to other species. Sheepshead meat is white, firm, and flavorful. It resembles snapper meat and has no oily character. Almost any preparation used for snapper or red drum can produce good results with sheepshead. Fabulous Ways to Prepare Sheepshead , WWL TV, June 23, 2011 - An excellent guide to ten methods of preparing sheepshead. Conservation Status and Management History The status of the sheepshead is listed as "Not listed" on the IUCN Red List . Populations are described as stable. Resources and References Sheepshead on the Menu , LSU Ag Center, Louisiana Sea Grant, March 2009 Sheepshead Videos Boat Trips : NYC Parks Activities and Facilities > Marinas > Boat Trips Boat Trips Hire a charter boat at one of our marinas and enjoy a day of fishing, lounging, sightseeing, or diving with friends and family.

Search for Boat Trips Near You ZIP Code or Borough Above All Cruises / Paddle Wheel Queen Location: World's Fair Marina Number of Passengers: up to 500 Phone Number: (212) 571-3304 Hours of Operation - Notes: Public cruises, private charters, events Captain Rick Mendez Number of Passengers: up to 6 Phone Number: (718) 956-5000 Hours of Operation - Notes: Power boat trips. Maximum of 6 passengers Marco Polo Cruises Number of Passengers: up to 500 Phone Number: (718) 779-1188 Hours of Operation - Notes: Public cruises, private charters, events. Multiple boats. Never Enuff Fishing Number of Passengers: up to 70 Phone Number: (516) 322-7442 Website: Hours of Operation - Notes: Public fishing trips. $80 per person if under 7 passengers.

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to 5:00 p.m. Cash buffet and bar on board. Available for private event charters. Brooklyn VI North Carolina sheepshead fishing on the rocks - North Carolina Sportsman Print Fishing partners Lewis Emery and Larry Essick of Wilmington enjoy chasing a couple of species that are plentiful in their area, but they often take a break from red drum and sea trout to challenge sheepshead. What probably whets their appetite is seeing small to magnum sheepshead in the same areas they fish for reds and specks. Then thereï¿½s the challenge ï¿½ few people actually target sheepshead, because to do so successfully takes patience and skill. The old bromide that in order to catch a sheepshead an angler must set the hook ï¿½just before he bitesï¿½ isnï¿½t totally true, but itï¿½s not far from accurate. ï¿½I got interested in sheepshead fishing when I was fishing for speckled trout at the rock wall south of the Fort Fisher boat ramp,ï¿½ said Emery, who runs Tails Up Charters and works at Carolina Beachï¿½s Island Hardware & Tackle.

ï¿½Iï¿½d put my boat in at the Fort Fisher access, then fish the incoming tide along the rocks. Early in the morning is the best time to fish for topwater specks, but I kept seeing sheepshead there, too.ï¿½ The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the rock wall in the 1890s to prevent sand from now-closed Corncake Inlet from filling in the Cape Fear River channel and making navigation for large boats difficult. The rock wall now protects what locals call ï¿½First Bayï¿½ (properly known as ï¿½The Basinï¿½) and two other bays: Second and Buzzardï¿½s. Zekeï¿½s Island, No Name Island and North Island also are protected behind the rock wall. While trout fishing, Emery used the trolling motor on the bow of his Carolina Skiff to maneuver near the wall and cast topwater lures, but he often noticed striped fish feeding on crustaceans along the rocks.

ï¿½A lot of times, I could see fish tailing, just like red drum,ï¿½ said Emery, who discovered upon closer scrutiny scads of sheepshead, some of them quite large, eating barnacles and other crustaceans on and near the rocks. Then his problem became how to catch them. ï¿½Part of it is like sight-fishing for reds,ï¿½ he said, ï¿½but you need the tide right ï¿½ not too high so it covers the rocks, but not too low so you canï¿½t see where youï¿½re dropping your baits.ï¿½ Emery uses a 7-foot rod fitted with a spinning reel spooled with braided line and a 20-pound leader for sheepshead on the opposite side of the crumbling, jagged rock wall, which varies from three to eight feet wide.

ï¿½Most of the time, youï¿½ll see sheepshead on the river side of the rock wall, so if youï¿½re fishing on the inside, you have to fish over the rocks and try to lift hooked fish over the rocks or through an opening where the water is flowing,ï¿½ he said. ï¿½And, yes, itï¿½s kinda tough; I lose more fish than I land.ï¿½ Casting a fiddler crab without a weight is difficult in such conditions, especially if itï¿½s windy. But as a part-time sheepshead fisherman, Emery doesnï¿½t have cane poles in his boat. Such tackle probably would be perfect for this type of fishing if he were dedicated to sheepshead instead of fishing for them only when he tires of chasing red drum and specks. ï¿½I look for tailing fish, and the rock wall helps, I believe, because they canï¿½t see me so easily because theyï¿½re on the other side of the wall from my boat,ï¿½ Emery said.

ï¿½The way they feed, with their heads pointed down, also gives you an advantage, and you can get pretty close to them. ï¿½I try to put a fiddler crab right in front of a sheepsheadï¿½s face. When he hits it, I try to get him across the wall as quick as I can.ï¿½ Emery also likes to fish the rock wall because it generally holds some of the biggest sheepshead in the area, sometimes weighing as much as 10 or 12 pounds. ï¿½Itï¿½s not an easy way to fish for sheepshead,ï¿½ he said, ï¿½but itï¿½s sight-fishing, and you can pick and choose the fish you want to try for ï¿½ and thatï¿½s a lot of fun for me.ï¿½ When his goal is to fill his cooler for a meal instead of trying for a trophy, Emery bypasses the rock wall, obtains a load of sand fiddlers to put in a 5-gallon bucket whose bottom is filled with wet sand, then heads for other structures.

Sheepshead will eat just about any type of creature that attaches itself to structure: dock and pier pilings, logs, shipwrecks, reefs jetties and rocks. But they prefer crabs, including mud crabs that live among oyster shells. Sometimes theyï¿½ll also eat cut pieces of larger crabs, such as blue crabs. While theyï¿½ll also chomp sand fleas (mole crabs), the gold standard for sheepshead is fiddler crabs, the small crabs with over-sized pincer claws commonly seen in salt marshes. The best time to catch fiddlers is at low tide when they gather in great numbers in marsh grass near mud flats. Anglers can gather fiddlers by walking through a marsh and throwing a fine-mesh cast net over them or even trapping them with a dip net. Some anglers simply herd them against planks and use their hands to scoop them into buckets. Bait-and-tackle stores also sell fiddler crabs.

ï¿½Fiddlers can pinch hard enough to draw blood with their big claw, so the best way to pick one up is to hold the pincer arm against his side then put the hook through the shell,ï¿½ Emery said. ï¿½I like a 2-drop bottom rig for sheepshead with a 1-ounce bank sinker and 2/0 Owner octopus hooks.ï¿½ With a bucket of sand fiddlers in the boat, Emery headed across the Cape Fear to a ship navigation beacon supported by 10 encrusted metal pilings. The beacon helps ocean-going ships navigate the river channel on their way upstream to Wilmington, but the poles that support the beacon serve a secondary purpose ï¿½ the legs are home to barnacles that attract sheepshead. The pilings may be only six to eight feet deep, depending upon the tide stage. Low and high tides are the best times to fish the pilings, although most anglers avoid low tide because navigation can be treacherous. Emery prefers high tide for another reason, however.

ï¿½Like all kinds of fish that live in these bays, when the tide is up, they run up into the marsh grass and get around these pilings, too,ï¿½ said Emery, who knows the shallow bay well enough to find oyster-shell mounds that hold sheepshead when covered by water. ï¿½Those little black crabs, mud crabs, live in the oyster mounds, and sheepshead like to eat them almost as much as they do fiddler crabs,ï¿½ Emery said. ï¿½Sometimes Iï¿½ll fish oyster mounds and catch my share of sheepshead. You also sometimes catch black drum and maybe even a redfish.ï¿½ Other places to catch sheepshead include pilings that support ocean piers, highway bridges or inshore docks. Some anglers have favorite pilings that produce consistently, but most fishermen know theyï¿½ll have to change locations frequently because sheepshead usually move from one piling to another, probably triggered by the supply of barnacles on a given piling.

If sheepshead have worked a piling, it may be bare of food, so the fish simply move to a more productive spot. Itï¿½s fairly easy to spot sheepshead at piers when the water is clear because theyï¿½ll circle a piling, moving up and down, crunching on barnacles. Some pier anglers even use barnacles as bait, which can be highly effective. Emery uses 2-drop bottom rig with a bank sinker at the bottom. It allows him to detect the slightest tugs of a sheepshead bite. ï¿½I keep my line tight,ï¿½ he said, ï¿½and wait for two solid hits, then set the hook on the second hit. If you feel rapid-fire, machine-gun-like hits, thatï¿½s usually pinfish.ï¿½ When the bite slows, savvy anglers often use a hoe, boat hook or metal gaff to scrape barnacles from the side of a piling. Pieces of barnacle floating in the water often trigger a feeding frenzy.

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Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Mar 29, 2013 Amazing Sheepshead fish has human teeth. The second photo is courtesy of Brian Lockwood of Jet Ski Fishing and Adventures, Inc. (757) 342-5780 Category

Question: A sheepshead is what type of creature?
Answer: Fish