We launched my buddy’s flats boat into what turned out to be perfect conditions—light winds and glassy seas. The seas were so flat that instead of inshore fishing, we went beyond the flats to target sheepshead. One after another, my buddy pulled the sheepies from the bottom to the surface where I netted them. “Great job, great job, great job,” I said.
Eventually, I hooked a sheepshead, too. It yanked the tip on my trout rod straight down as I battled the fish to the surface. “It’s tank. No, never mind. I don’t need the net.” It was a dink of a sheepshead, but I took a picture of it because it looked interesting.
Later, I texted the photo to my elderly Uncle. He used to fish a lot and loves seeing my pictures. He responded, “Beautiful fish, just the right size for your aquarium.”
After catching a few small grunts that weren’t worth keeping and a few baby gag grouper, I caught a brown slimy oyster toadfish. Nasty.
The only thing that made me feel better about the day was watching my buddy catch a remora. A remora is probably the only thing worse than an oyster toadfish. If you bring a remora on board, it will crap all over the place. If you are smart, think of remora as a “hangover.” Hang them over the side of the boat as you unhook them. Your boat will stay much cleaner.
We were getting ready to head back to the boat ramp, but my fishing buddy found one last shrimp hiding in the ice bag. He put it on his quarter ounce jig head and lowed it below the boat. Immediately, he hooked into something big. Was it a sheepshead, a grouper? It was a hogfish. Like I said, my buddy took me fishing and hogged all the fish, including a hogfish.
In total, our cooler held four sheepshead, two or three large grunts, and one hogfish. A great day on the water.