editors note: these were actually Atlantic spadefish, not sheepshead as originally thought. So, I changed the title but left the article and picture captions as written by Reggie, author of this post. -JDF
At the Crabbing Dock, Judy Drew Fairchild threw a cast net on the side facing the rice trunk. She pulled up 5 sheepshead, each one was 5 to 7 inches in length. She released them so they can grow into a bigger, tastier meal. When asked if she always catches sheepshead with a cast net, she replied, “that’s the first time I’ve caught one!”
About 30 minutes earlier Art Moser caught one sheepshead the same way. He also released the fish for another day.
Neat!
Except the catch appears to include Atlantic Spadefish, not Sheepshead.
Spadefish are a common cast net catch at the Pipes.
JEL
Jonathan is right. The fish Judy caught are in fact Atlantic Spadefish (click to see images from Google Image Search).
On Friday, I found Marika Lapham on the crab dock with a beautiful live sheepshead in a bucket of water. She caught it with a cast net. It was definately a sheepshead and not an Atlantic Spadefish. I have pictures on my iPhone, but they’re not good enough to publish.
She also caught two puffer fish (or the same one twice).
I caught three spadefish in a castnet in the estuaries just south of Hackberry, LA. Once, I netted a small souther flounder the same way. It’s amazing what you can catch in a cast net.