Thread: A Legal Question, Tell me your thoughts, Please!!!

I personally frown on snatching Sheepshead. Just seems unsportman like especially during the spring when they readily can be caught with conventional rod , reel , live shrimp . Not sure why they are not considered a game fish. I know a lot of people disagree . Just my view .

I don't judge. Sure, most people can catch them with fiddler crabs or live shrimp or ghost shrimp in the Spring. But the circumstances of others may preclude them from being able to afford buying live bait. As long as it's legal, it's not my place to judge anyone for their catching methods. This is a good topic of discussion because it speaks of expectations of others who are obeying the law. It's my feeling that I can only reasonably meet my own expectations of myself. It's not especially reasonable or realistic for someone else to be expected to meet expectations of which they cannot possibly be aware, not that they would automatically comply with the expectations of strangers, anyway.

In other words, it makes sense for individuals to set their own sense of ethics for themselves only and to save judgement for those who are not in compliance with the law.

"Game Fish" is a protective label.

Originally Posted by CarlF

Nope, sheepshead is not a game fish. It is also commercially harvested, though not in large numbers. But many of the local seafood shops will have them.

150,000+ pounds a year is "large numbers" in my book. (roughly averaging 70,000 fish per year for the past 10). Mostly by gill net from Nov-Mar.
At least they didn't have any holes in them ;-)
The pier might average almost 10% of that (in a "good" year).

The average commercial landings was even higher 15 years ago...
over 500,000 pounds were reported in 2001 and the numbers have been falling almost every year since.
In fact the sheepshead that are over 8 pounds now probably were the ones that were spawned that year (IF their parents got the chance before being caught).

"And the beat goes on ."

with a disturbing trend...

Originally Posted by Pier#r

150,000+ pounds a year is "large numbers" in my book. (roughly averaging 70,000 fish per year for the past 10). Mostly by gill net from Nov-Mar.
At least they didn't have any holes in them ;-)
The pier might average almost 10% of that (in a "good" year).

The average commercial landings was even higher 15 years ago...
over 500,000 pounds were reported in 2001 and the numbers have been falling almost every year since.
In fact the sheepshead that are over 8 pounds now probably were the ones that were spawned that year (IF their parents got the chance before being caught).

Raw numbers don't always tell the story when it comes to commercial fishing. In recent years, with (up until very recently) regular increases in fuel prices, it's likely that the price-per-pound of sheepshead made it a less attractive target species for the commercial fishermen! That might account for the lower catch in total poundage - the commercial guys aren't fishing for them nearly as much because there's a tepid market. I caught 'em like crazy this spring and there were HUGE schools of Sheepshead like I hadn't seen in years. What we're talking about, primarily, is the sheepshead PIER fishery and I'm not convinced that a declining commercial market equals declining fish stocks for pier fishing. It may just be that there's not enough money in sheepshead to make it worth the fuel and manpower investment to harvest them, commercially. That suits me just fine, because their value to me lies mostly in their tugging power!

Question about the 4.0 reel size limit...that means that I am not able to use a Penn 550?

Originally Posted by Extra_Medium

Question about the 4.0 reel size limit...that means that I am not able to use a Penn 550?

No size restriction on spinning reels, just the large Senator style reels.

I think the designation for that reel is the Penn 113 or 113H. Been years since I looked at a new one. Looks like they've made a bunch of changes since I bought my last one.

I don't know the official story of how reels get to be named 3/0 or 12/0, but it seems from my observation that a reel holding approximately 300 yards of linen line (approximately same diameter as mono or Dacron) was described according to the pound test of that 300 yards. A 3/0 reel could hold 300 yards of 30, a 6/0 could hold approximately 300 of 60, etc. We also see reels and rods described as 30 lb or 50 lb tackle, relating to the size of line and amount of drag it can crank. Of course technology has changed so much that a tiny reel can crank far more drag than the old time reels and hold far more braid line than the old Dacron or mono. A penn 117 or 118 (the reel in Jaws that needed a bigger boat or some of the reels in Wicked Tuna), would be about a 14/0 or 16/0, but by that time the relationship I described has fallen out of sync.