Sheephead

Delima: Sheephead are very good for the eradication of zebra mussles. Sheephead proliferation as a competitor to the walleye. I catch 10 to 1 sheepies over walleye on any given day. I do not have any good info to share on the statistics of the effects that the growing population of sheephead has had as a direct competitor to the walleye. I would really like to see a study on this. I would have to believe as agressive as the sheepies are that they will eventually, if they already have not, affected the populations of walleyes. Just wondering if oters have any opinions on the subject, or any directions to studys of the effects of the competition between the two. Thanks

I wouldn’t worry about it… walleye populations are very strong on the Miss. following a few good year classes. And walleyes and drum do not necessarily compete against each other. The two species have co-existed in the river for thousands of years.

Yeah, I second what that guy said!
Good post Big E

I think the sheepies are just more agressive in the summer than walleyes are. Is it me or do sheepies get lock jaw over the winter? I’ve never caught one in cold water and I don’t recall too many reports on it either. Fishing for bass in the winter is harder than some other species too and I wonder if that accounts for their more aggressive behavior in the warmer months? Granted, it seems all species are more aggressive in warmer weather months but I think this varies a quite abit between species. Believe it or not, I’ve had days where catching a walleye is much easier than tracking down a sheepie. Other times, they’re everywhere……………so I keep moving until I find other fish or change up the techniques in hopes of finding something the sheepies won’t take or don’t want.

ive caught a few sheep during the winter in deep wintering areas below dams, they are right in with the small saugers and channel cats, by the way, I have not met a river fish that I don’t like. It really frustrates me to see people killing so called “rough fish”, I saw someone recently that was catching sheepies. He would catch them, unhook them, then bang them on the side of the boat as hard as he could and let them float. I have seen so many times where shore fisherman will leave sheep, carp, and suckers to die on the bank, bad choice they end up stinking up the area and it tis just not sportsman like. When asked, most say, “they eat all the walleye eggs” along with many other myths, lastly and the most disturbing was a time when i saw two kids fishing from a dock on the river, they were having fun catching fish, I could tell, they caught all sheepies, and you guessed it, they were banging them on the dock, tossing them like rocks, and doing surgery on the proverbial rock in the brain, I asked them if they were having fun, they said yes, then I asked them why they were abusing the fish, one said, “because we want walleyes” I thought, when I was 7 years old, just getting the rod bent was what counts, but the most disturbing thing was, One kid said, “my dad said that we have to kill all the sheephead we caught” any thoughts out there on this, I hope this is an isolated incident and I hope there are not a bunch of fathers out there teaching this, Teach kids to respect fish —-all fish

The sheepshead, like dogfish, walleye, gar, buffalo, catfish, ect, are all native to the Miss. and they have their place and purpose in the system. Wanton waste is against the law but try to find a warden to write it up unless they catch them in the act of throwing them on the bank to be wasted. The buzzards and coons can’t eat em all. I used to work summers for the F&W service at Lansing as a teen and we had to make weekly trips to the dams to bag up all the rotting throw aways. Such a waste. They make darned good natural fertilizer at the very least. That’s what I put in the hole whenever I plant a new tree in my yard. They’ll feed on those carcasses for 6 months to a year. But as a lot of folks are finding out sheepies are great eating if taken care of right after being caught and properly cooked.
Please don’t waste them! The Lord put them in the river for us to use.

it would take a “filter” feeder to eat walleye eggs… a filter feeder thats actively feeding during the spawn… there are not many of those… not till the asian carp get here that is…. paddlefish are fliter feeders… they rake in phytoplankton and zooplankton and the like…..

Sounds to me like ommeDeNord just had a tough weekend catching walleyes. Hey I had a ball catching all those drum. omme you’d better get it together in the next two weeks, DON’T FEAR THE SHEEPHEAD and remember the H is silent

MrMarbleeyes nice to see that you can visit us once in awhile. Probably fishing alot of walleye angler trail tourneys and other walleye tourneys being that you placed 9th in the Cabellas National Championship and were in the money. Hey! Is Spoonchucker still carrying the boat as the REAL MrMarbleeyes in the boat? The last time I talked to you, you said that if it was not for spoonchucker this year, you would have caught very few fish in the tourneys you guys have been in. Does he get a 60/40 split on the winnings since he catches most of the fish? Well as all great teams know you need one good boatsman and one great fisherman to make a great team! Well I had beter go and start studying on walleyes so that one day I may be as great of a fisherman as the spoonchucker. Look who is getting a bit jiggy now. And yes I do need to get my game face on real quick, with spoonchucker in our little tourney….I am a BIT nervous. Hope to hear from you soon. omme

Omme yes he does get a 60 split an in awhile he’s going after your 60 also. Maybe we’ll have a DRUM tourney I have some good photo’s of you holding lunker sheephead and your smiling, I’d put them on if I knew how? Remember DON’T FEAR THE SHEEPHEAD and the H is silent.

60/40 split huh
to be honest the first two years mrmarbleeyes caught everthing
the last two years i have done the best, one of these days we’ll both be on and then watch out! but then again maybe we won’t thats what i love about walleye fishing
mrmarbleeyes what are the odds on omme showing up this weekend

O he’ll show up, nobody could spew that much B/S an not show up. Besides he has his knew toy. Hope he does’nt beach it this weekend. PS. were coming to get you this weekend omme.

I don’t eat them,I’ve tried them smoked. I caught more last weekend on the south end of Pool 4 then I have caught in three years total. It’s the warm water I guess, they were hitting crank baits in 20-30 feet.

And along the rip rap too!

Lets face it there everywhere. I for one see nothing wrong with that. I took my 10 year old daughter out the other day an before we hit the beach we stoped at my favorite sheephead hole. We trolled cranks and caught 4 or5 in no time. They hit as hard as any fish out there an what a great way to turn a small kid to a little bit bigger fish other than the typical panfish. So I say hooray for the SHEEPHEAD