South NJ Sheep herding!

[jmurr711]

Yesterday Devon & I fished with Captain. Scott out of Longport,NJ for NJ Mutton Mouths and the trip was even greater than we could’ve imagined. Capt. told us tides looked best between 10:30-3:00 so we had a gentleman's sail time of 10:00am which already made this trip awesome as we left home at 8am versus the usual 3:45am lol

Arrived to a beautiful marina with a koi pond and friendly people greeting us everywhere we turned. Loaded the boat and headed out. Arrived at the first drop & Capt. Scott does some wild stuff to hold you in place but boy does it work. Capt would tell ya where he saw the sheeps at in the water, well before I could click my bail dev was hooked up with a brute of a fish. That’s pretty much how it went all day!

We ended up going 12-18, Devon landed 9 jersey Sheeps up to a 25 inch, 13.5lb monster! Yours truly went 3-6 but I landed 15 keeper tog! If you dropped your jig to deep past the sheeps a blackfish would annihilate your crab. A highlight for me was playing a double digit sheep out from under a dock in an incredibly stressful 10 minute brawl. We released everything for the day, I really wanted to kill a sheep as they are delicious but this fishery needs to be protected by us anglers as there are no regs in place yet for these phenomenal fish that grow slow & fight like a tog & a falsie had a baby!
Big thanks to Mikey Jigs for the rods he won on seaside boardwalk as they were absolutely perfect for the fishery & we matched them up with shimano stradic 3k & Vanford 4k with 20lb braid & flouro leader! Now to Capt. Scott, thank you thank you thank you what an amazing day & his hustle is incredible, dude works hard like physical labor holding that boat I never saw anything like it!

Devon got to tag her giant & name it after her cousin who passed away which meant the world to her & that’s all that matters. Even though I am exiled Point Pleasant will always be home but it felt good to be back in South Nj & it was the absolute trip of a lifetime & better than we ever could’ve imagined!

[Jigman13]

That's dope. Good stuff, man.

[Broad Bill]

I never knew we even had Sheepshead in New Jersey. Awesome report, great job on the releases. 13.5 lb. Sheepshead is a monster right? So are Sheepshead suspended and not on bottom? Very cool Devon got to tag the big girl in honor of her cousin, very thoughtful gesture.

Great job to Capt. and crew!

[Gerry Zagorski]

WOW

I think that's the biggest sheep I've ever seen and some Blackfish bonus too! Can't beat that...

Surprised you didn't at least keep a few for the table to try but I hear you on conserving the resource.

[jmurr711]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

I never knew we even had Sheepshead in New Jersey. Awesome report, great job on the releases. 13.5 lb. Sheepshead is a monster right? So are Sheepshead suspended and not on bottom? Very cool Devon got to tag the big girl in honor of her cousin, very thoughtful gesture.

Great job to Capt. and crew!

they can be all over the water column but majority seemed mid depth which made it even more difficult to target! Mr. Z seeing how slow they grow and reproduce, & knowing what i did to tog populations the last 35yrs made me release em

[NoLimit]

What do they feed on? Winter flounder?

[AndyS]

There is a fleet out there of 100 boats fighting over a few 3 pound bluefish, boat traffic looks "light" in the photos.
I gave it 5 stars !!!

[BigRock44]

wow! great post and pics. what an awesome trip and kudos on the releases!

[june181901]

Maybe they'll be moving further north as they once were here. Sheepsheads Bay got its' name from the fact they were once abundant in this (NY Bight) area!