Thread: Bay Scallops for sheepshead bait

Just wondering if anyone has ever caught sheepshead on bay scallops, clams, mussels, sandfleas or oysters and how you rigged them? I have never been on the pier during a late March chew down so I want to have an alternative to live shrimp, fiddlers or ghost shrimp.

I was talking to someone a few days ago about Sheepies and he said he has pretty good luck with pieces of freshly shucked oysters. I have no experience using oysters for bait.
In fact, if I had some nice fresh oysters, they would probably go on a saltine and then down the hatch!

Originally Posted by FinChaser

I was talking to someone a few days ago about Sheepies and he said he has pretty good luck with pieces of freshly shucked oysters. I have no experience using oysters for bait.
In fact, if I had some nice fresh oysters, they would probably go on a saltine and then down the hatch!

I think that it would be difficult to keep clams or oysters on the hook. Bay scallops would be interesting, but they'd have to be super-fresh, I'd think. I've never heard of anyone using them. I've heard of people catching them with sand fleas, but the people I saw using them weren't successful when everybody else was tearing 'em up on fiddler crabs and live shrimp. I think that the problem with alternative baits is "how do you rig them", where the presentation looks, smells, feels natural to the sheepshead!

I once toyed with the idea of using alternative baits and holding the bait together and on the hook with an orthodontic rubber band. Never did try it. Maybe one day I'll experiment with it....

I was thinking about brining the oysters or clams in salt sort of like cut pieces of shrimp for pompano. I had some fried oysters(first time) at Wintzell's in Huntsville the other night long with some gulf shrimp and scallops and got the idea of using them for bait. I can only imagine eating raw oysters has to be an acquired taste since the fried ones were still kind of slimy.

I can't stand fried oysters but love raw. I will say they are an acquired taste. The first few times I tried them I thought they were awful, but now raw oysters are one of my favorite seafoods.

I've wanted to try clams for pompano bait. Apparently florida pompano fisherman use them with success. Where do you find them?

I've tried raw oysters several times and tried to keep an open mind each time but get past that it's like eating a big ole piece of snot with hot sauce. Steamed and fried isn't bad though, it's pretty good. Just my measly two cents for today...

Alternative bait for Sheepshead?
#1 on my list are Ghost Shrimp, they're candy to Sheep & alot of other fish.
I've seen it several times where they'd bite on nothing else.

Oysters, anyway you can fix them.
New favorite is grilled Au Gratin.

Publix has fresh clams for $4.99/lb but it appears that 90% of the weight is shell. They have live mussels (also mostly shell)for .49 each. I was thinking that Billy's may have them a little larger and maybe cheaper. I was thinking about gathering some freshwater mussels but you need a license to harvest them and there several different types and size limits. Freshwater clams are essentially all protected by law against harvest according to what I've read. I guess I will have to limit out on red worms, night crawlers, dough balls and cave crickets when I come down in March.