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While fishing around the Wakulla Reef on Sunday afternoon, I hooked into something that seemed a lot bigger than the grass porgies and small seabass that I had been catching. When I got it to the surface, my catch turned out to be a barnacle encrusted Shimano Scimitar spinning rod with a Shimano Sahara reel. Anybody missing this?

The other kinda notable catch from Sunday was a 15" flounder that I caught on live shrimp. The lucky flounder rig was a Carolina rig with a 1/0 circle hook, 12" of 20 lb. fluorocarbon leader, a swivel, a red glass bead, and a 0.5 oz. bullet weight.

I went out to the near shore reefs in hopes of catching the sheepshead that people say are supposed to be congregating there this time of year. Sheepshead are on my list of fish that I have yet to catch. As I rehash my trip in my mind, I think my mistake may have been using our dropper rigs with live shrimp like jigs instead of letting the dropper rigs stay put beside or on top of the reef structures. If someone has a tip on how catch sheepshead, I'd be grateful.

Sheephead are almost always around rock piles. Once you find them, I have done best with a smaller sized hook and a piece of peeled shrimp. When you feel one take the bait, don't set the hook right away. Instead, slowly pick up on your rod time and apply a little pressure to the fish. The fish will immediately turn and move the opposite direction and begin to swallow the bait. When this happens, drop your rod tip and wait until the fish takes all the slack out of your line, then set the hook. You will almost never miss a sheephead doing this.

- Steve Stinson

Yes I am missing a reel like you described but I lost mine out of Econfina. It was hooked to something big enough to pull it out of the boat so I guess it’s possible he drug it to where you found it.

The Wakulla/ DZ reefs?

I would have thought there would be more than small sea-bass and porgies out there. I would have expected grunts, grouper and snapper in those depths ( 50+ )

Srbenda wrote:The Wakulla/ DZ reefs?

I would have thought there would be more than small sea-bass and porgies out there. I would have expected grunts, grouper and snapper in those depths ( 50+ )

The reef where I snagged the fishing rod is labeled on my GPS as WakullaRf2. But the official name of the reef is Wakulla #2 Big Bend Reef. It's in about 20' of water. We would have headed out farther, but the fog over the bay on Sunday afternoon limited the visibility and made me nervous.

John21:6 wrote:

Srbenda wrote:The Wakulla/ DZ reefs?

I would have thought there would be more than small sea-bass and porgies out there. I would have expected grunts, grouper and snapper in those depths ( 50+ )

The reef where I snagged the fishing rod is labeled on my GPS as WakullaRf2. But the official name of the reef is Wakulla #2 Big Bend Reef. It's in about 20' of water. We would have headed out farther, but the fog over the bay on Sunday afternoon limited the visibility and made me nervous.

Aha- that makes more sense.

The St. Marks Outfitters guide was catching quite a few sheephead in the river near the fort on Sunday. It looked like they were catching them on live shrimp near the bottom of the channel.

ugadawg wrote:The St. Marks Outfitters guide was catching quite a few sheephead in the river near the fort on Sunday. It looked like they were catching them on live shrimp near the bottom of the channel.

I thought they had gulps? But yes, quite a few sharpies and trout were caught by them.