EP 75: 10+ Sheepshead Tips That Actually Work

Sheepshead are one of the most addictive fish we chase in the mid-Atlantic, and they also humble more good anglers than almost anything else. So we keep it simple and useful here: real-world sheepshead fishing tips that help you catch more fish around docks, bridge pilings, bulkheads, and back bay structure without turning it into a graduate course. 

Paul, owner of Great Bay Outfitters, joins me to talk about what actually moves the needle. We dig into why shallow water gets overlooked, how shadow lines can be the difference between silence and a legit bite, and why floating docks deserve way more attention than they get. We also tackle a big mindset shift on timing: sheepshead show up earlier and stick around later than most people assume, and they don’t always live “right near the inlet” the way the internet loves to say. 

Then we get into the stuff you can apply on your next trip: why moving current often beats slack tide, where to position on a current seam, how to work the water column instead of dropping straight to the bottom, and what bite clues can point to bigger fish versus small pickers. We also talk gear without the hype: when to change rigs, how to rotate baits (fiddlers, sand fleas, Asian shore crabs, mussels, grass shrimp, blue crab, even clams and minnows), and how to use electronics as a time-saver instead of getting glued to the screen. 

If you fish New Jersey, Delaware, or the broader mid-Atlantic coast and want more consistent sheepshead results, this one will tighten up your approach fast. Subscribe, share it with a fishing buddy, and leave a review with your best sheepshead tip so we can build a stronger playbook together.

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Transcript

Memorial Day Welcome And Sponsors

Paul Ziajski 0:00

I would encourage you to start earlier and finish later. These fish are here earlier than we think, and they leave later than we think.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 0:18

Hello and welcome back to the Fat Dad Fishing Show. I'm your host, Rich Natoli. Tonight we're talking Sheep's Head. We're talking tips. We're talking mistakes. We're talking anything that has to do with Sheep's Head because tis the season to get on the water in the mid-Atlantic and start reeling in these fish. It is a fish that our guest Paul, you know, Paul, owner of Great Bay Outfitters, it's a fish that he loves. And it's a fish that I love, but I hate, I hate fishing for him. I don't have the patience. I'm just not that guy. Um, but I'll tell you what, when I do go and I hook into one, it's uh I forget all about that. So we're gonna talk about Sheep's head today. Gonna get in on the tips. Um let's jump in, let's do the sponsors and jump into this pretty quick instead of having me yap all day. Uh, want to recognize today is Memorial Day. So thank you for joining us. Also want to mention that uh this podcast, the podcast itself and the YouTube channel, but mainly the podcast has had its biggest month ever, and that includes after uh, you know, we had the the large break while I was out, and before that, we were rolling episodes for years, and uh this past 30 days is well in excess of that on a per episode basis. So it's not even that I released more episodes and and you know kind of cheated the numbers. So thank you very much. More followers, more everything that we've had. So it's great to see that. And I want to thank all of you because I'm I know for a fact that a bunch of the people coming in are people that you recommended. So here's our Memorial Day holiday edition of the Fat Dad Fishing Show. We're gonna talk about the sponsors, Great Bay Outfitters, Radio Road in Tucker Tin. Again, I mentioned Paul's here. He's in the back right now, just chilling out, waiting to come on. If you're looking for anything kayak fishing related, and especially if you want to buy a new kayak, you got to talk to Paul. You got to get down there, give him a call in advance, tell him the models that you're thinking about. He'll pull them out, he'll get them back on the lagoon, and you can actually test them out on the water. Single best thing that you can do. Ignore your friend who talks about how awesome his kayak is, ignore everybody else. Go out there, sit your butt in the kayak and pedal it around, paddle it around, motor it around, and see what's going to work for you. Check the stability, do all that good stuff. Paul will help you with that. Uh, so you're talking native old town. He's got he's got kayaks coming out his ears. Uh actually, he moves them very quickly, though. So every time he announces new shipments come in, that's your time to jump on it real quick because they move. They move out of there. Next one is Quad State Tune, Kevin Driscoll at 44633 5975. If you have a Toyota truck, even the Lexus 460 and 470, these are engine tunes. They're going to give you more torque, they're going to give you more horsepower, improved throttle response, smoother shifting, which is going to get you that better gas mileage. And look, if you're towing a trailer, if you're putting a kayak on a trailer, a boat on a trailer, you've got a Toyota. You've already got that great platform with the great engine. It can be even better. And it's just hundreds of dollars. We're not talking you're dropping five grand on these things. If it's not going to give you what you're looking for, Kevin will tell you. So reach out to him again, 44-63-35975. And then me, Real Estate, Southeastern Pennsylvania, primarily residential. I'm with Whykert Realtors Cornerstone. I work out at the Bluebell office, actually manage that office, as well as Collegville. You can also find me in Doylestown, Westchester. I'm all over the place. But I consider Bluebell my hometown office, even though Collegville is literally five minutes from my house. So if you're looking for anything, reach out to me. Really love working with all of you in your referrals, and I greatly appreciate it. So my number is 267-270-1145 or RichardNatoli.com. You can check out listings and all that other good stuff without going directly to me.

Why Sheepshead And Why Now

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 4:10

All right. So with that, we're going to bring Paul on right now. Paul, welcome. Good to see you.

Paul Ziajski 4:15

Good to see you. Been a while.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 4:18

It has been a while, and I hate this view. Let me fix this. There we go.

Paul Ziajski 4:21

Oh Lord. Maybe that's worse.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 4:24

Maybe I should zoom out again on us. Yeah, it is good to see you. It's been a really difficult start of the seasons this year because the weather, it's been terrible. Then it was awesome, then it's terrible again. And it looks like we're just coming out of the terrible and we're gonna head back into some nice weather, unfortunately, after the holiday. But I saw you were you were rewarding the first sheep's head, and that that happened.

Paul Ziajski 4:51

Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. I I kind of had a hunch. Ryan's such a good stick, he's such a good angler, and I kind of figure that he he may be one of the first, if not the first one, one of the first ones to to stick one. And and he came through. And he's such a good dude, too. Like I love him. He's he's just down to earth, you know, really nice guy. Good content. He puts out really good. Like it's stuff that you can actually learn from. So I enjoy watching his YouTube channel, and he's he's a customer. We've we've done some work for him. He's he man, he puts on a ton of hours on the water. I mean, I don't think I have a customer who has more hours on his autopilot than than he does. I mean, I we service his motorbike every year. Yeah, good dude.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 5:35

Yeah, I I was not shocked when I saw it was him. I actually kind of figured it would be him. There's one other person I was thinking it could be, but it wasn't. But I do know that that other angler came in the day after and was posting a whole bunch of picks. So yeah, so congrats to Ryan. Yeah, Ryan was first. So here we are, we're coming into late. I mean, it is technically shifting into late spring. It is a good time for Sheep's head, and I don't want to do just the the standard, you know, let's get on and just talk about all these crazy in-depth things. Let's just give tips today, right? I know sheep's head is your favorite, right? By far. By far, even more than Tog.

Paul Ziajski 6:17

By far, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 6:18

Even more than striped bass, your your absolute passion. The striped carp. Yeah, and we talk about those all the time, and we typically only do like one sheep's head per year, but we got to change that because there are just so many people focused on it. So rather than go in and do a full course on it, I don't think we need that. There's so many people catching them nowadays. I just want to get in and do the tips. So we're gonna go through, we're gonna call it 10 tips, could end up being nine, could end up being 13, whatever. I'll try to keep if I have a pen, I'll try to keep track of it so I can fix the title later. Why don't we start off with you? What is your number one tip, or not number one ranked, but what's the first tip that you want to share right now with people when they're gonna go out and target sheep's head?

Shallow Water And Shadow Line Fish

Paul Ziajski 7:06

Sure. So I learned this last year. Water depth. I think people are watching too much YouTube and they think that they have to be in, you know, 40 feet of water and fishing vertically, and that's just not the case. I I think you're overlooking a lot of good spots if you're just targeting deeper water. Last year I went out tagging with Joe from 609 fishing and the scientists from Rutgers, and we were catching sheep's head in less than four feet of water. So I think don't overlook those shallow spots. You know, look for the habitat, look for the for the water, uh, for the uh for the food. Just because it's three feet doesn't mean anything. And you don't have to jig vertically. I mean, we were pitching in between pilings and we were just nailing them. It if the water wasn't so discolored that day, I can get almost guarantee that we would have been watching those sheepsaad cruise because we were we were pitching into three, four feet of water and and nailing these fish. So don't don't discount to the shallow water.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 8:15

Yeah, I think that's one of the things. Like it it often becomes when it's a less known or less targeted species and it starts to get popular, it becomes like religion and law that there's one way to do it and it's the best way to do it. No, the first way that you heard about it is a way that works. Doesn't necessarily mean it's the best, it's it's almost guaranteed to not be. And all you have to do to kind of support that is what you're talking about is how they fish warm down south. So and it actually is a point that I was gonna bring up. So let me add on to it. It's the same point, but I was talking about depth and I actually zeroed it in on the spring specifically. And it it's maybe it's a a separate one, but the depth does enter into it. The depth is important, however, one of the things that you got to keep in mind is that they are temperature sensitive and they will react to a micro spot or a micro condition. So if you have a spot that has two degrees warmer water, they're probably going to sit in there rather than going in the cold 59 degree water that's rushing through a bridge or around a jetty or something like that. Which means, let's take it one step further, shallower water in the sun, up against a dark bulkhead over a mud flat, something like that. They're going to be drawn to that area. So I'm 100% with you. People just think it's got to be 14 feet, 20 feet, 30 feet. It doesn't. It really doesn't.

Paul Ziajski 9:49

Nope, I agree. And I'll I'll follow up on that. The the bridges, the pilings. I've also found that these fish behave like you know, like stri bats, right? So you're fishing a shadow line on the on a bulkhead or on a dock, and and that's where they hang. They may not be exactly in you know out front in in full sun, but they're gonna be hanging right on that shadow line. And that's that's another point that I picked up last year. I mean, literally, Joe was standing next to me, and in his shadow, we were like as soon as you know, we we pitched out, as soon as the jig made it back to where his what where his figure was casting a shadow over the water. This is this is where we get the strike. So it's it's it's funny. Don't don't overlook the the the shadow lines.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 10:41

Yeah, I I had that actually, that was my number one. I was sure that you wouldn't say it. Now I did it because a lot of people think that you can't catch them at night. You can. You can it's not ideal. They do react more in the daytime, they are very visual feeders. However, fishing the shadow lines, or as I put down here, the shadow edges of the structure is the number one tip that I was gonna give. So go just outside on a current seam in that shadow line, that's where you're gonna find them. So, very similar, as you said, to strip bass. That's where you're gonna find them. You're gonna find fluke in those areas if you're down all the way on the bottom. But they do hang out in those shadows. And and and I'll go into another tip that goes right along with this. So you had talked about fishing the pilings and everything. One spot that people never think about, and I've I've I I will say never, but I'm really just generalizing because I see people fishing docks for sheep's head. Invariably, Paul, they fish the vertical pilings. They move from one piling to the next, to the next, to the next, and they skip over that beautiful floating dock, which has the shadow lines, it has it has muscles on it, it has barnacles on the bottom, and that's really that's it's a perfect spot for them. And people just skip right past it and just go over to the other side and start fishing more vertical pilings. So I have I have that as a tip is fish those floating docks, especially if they have barnacles on now. Right now, you know, they're probably not gonna have too many barnacles on it this early in the season, but as we get into the season, they are going to start getting barnacles, you're gonna start getting mussels, you're gonna start getting crabs and growth, but you will always have the shadow lines off of there. So it's a great great spot to look. All right, what's your what's your next

Start Earlier And Fish Later

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 12:33

one?

Paul Ziajski 12:33

So another point that I learned sort of last year, uh, and granted I'm I'm cheating a little bit because I have some data from from Ruckers from the tagging program that that we're doing, but I would encourage you to start earlier and finish later. These fish are here earlier than we think, and they leave later than we think. I'm not gonna go into details because this data is still being cleaned up, but we've had we've had some real stragglers. Like if I told you when the last ping was when a sheep's head was leaving Great Bay, you'd be really surprised. So don't give up. Just because the top season opens and everyone's like, oh, you know, let's go togging. No, if you're enjoying sheep's head fishing, they're here a lot later and they start earlier and they go up rivers farther than people think. So again, just because you're seeing a ton of content on on YouTube that oh, you gotta be and listen, I was I was wrong for the first couple of years also, because I really think thought that you had to be within a mile or two of an inlet, you get that rinse and whatnot. They have a high tolerance for for lower salinity than than we we think. So I I think the point that I'm trying to make with my first two points is just break out of your norm, break out of what you've been hearing and and watching on on YouTube and social media. These fish are a little bit more you know flexible, for lack of a better word, and and they the their season is longer here in in southern New Jersey than we think.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 14:16

Yeah, that's a good point. A lot of people tend to now sheep's head's a little different, especially in New Jersey. There's no season, right? You can fish for them whenever you want because they're not regulated today. I think they're going to be regulated soon, but they're not today. So nobody's telling you when you can fish for them. So people just make these wild assumptions that they're not going to be there. But I could tell you that I have talked to divers who have seen them well into November. I have you know, they've seen them early in the season. They don't typically get in early, you know, when you're diving because it's a little cold in the spring where it's warm late into the fall. But November in the inlets, I've heard some, you know, thousands of them along jetties. So yeah, I think that that's a really

Current Wins Over Slack Tide

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 15:02

good one. I'm gonna give this one. I don't know, and I want to hear what you think about this. I went back and I really over the past week after we talked about doing this topic, I really looked at some of the videos I had, even ones that were unpublished. I found some old footage. I realized something. Slack tide sucks. I've actually caught all my best, not sucks, but I've caught all my best fish when the water is moving. It is not dead water at the time. And I always hear people slacks coming up, I'm gonna fish for sheep's head. And I think I've even said that in the past, but when I look back at my videos, that's not when I'm catching them. I'm catching them on the full moving tide, just and there's two things the biggest ones are just along the current seam, so right next to the heaviest flow, not in it, but next to it, that's where I'm catching the biggest one. So I'm gonna say tip is don't stop fishing just because that tide is moving. And as a matter of fact, I would suggest fish that first hour of the incoming, fish that last hour, you know, of both tides because you want the water moving. It definitely does help. These are not fish that are just gonna get lazy and sit there and not do anything until slack tide.

Paul Ziajski 16:16

Yep, agreed. These fish definitely like current. It just sort of depends. Like in Great Bay, some of the spots that that I fish, once a tide starts moving, it's just not fishable. Yeah, because I mean I'm in a certain spot in almost open bay with a little bit of structure. So, you know, if the current's ripping up four knots, I I just I I can't find a fishable spot. So, but for the most part, yeah. And I mean, the first time I spoke to Dan Schaefer, he told me this. He's like, dude, these fish love moving water, they love current. And it's true. And I think part of the reason is once the current, once the tide slows down, they sort of venture out outside of their area to forage for food. So the the action actually may slow down because they're not on that structure anymore. Once that current starts moving again, they come back to the structure to hide from the current. So I think that's one of the theories. But yeah, I totally agree. I I think that moving waters is important.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 17:24

All right.

Paul Ziajski 17:26

Oh, I see. Ryan jumped in here. Ryan, you know, you're late, dude. Like I was saying your praises earlier, and you missed it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 17:33

You missed it. You could have been famous. Yeah, yeah.

Reading Bites From Small To Big

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 17:41

All right. I'm gonna I'm gonna say this, and this goes directly in opposition to things that have been on this channel before. But again, this is from my personal experience and from talking to a few other people that have caught a lot more sheep's head than me. Again, I don't know if you agree or not, so let's just see it. I'm going to say that the larger fish, when they bite, there is no doubt about it, you're not missing that bite. They are hitting it, they're putting weight on it, and it's a it's a clean strike as compared to the little tap tap, and then there's nothing. I'm gonna say that those are the smaller fish. I I and I say that for this reason. I've caught multiple 10-pound plus fish, not a ton, because again, I don't go fishing for them a lot, but I I have almost a dozen of them. Every single one of them slammed the rod. There were there was no little, oh, I missed it. Oh, oh, I didn't see it. No. That does happen, but I'm pretty sure those are small fish. But every time that I've actually ended up hooking something, it wasn't on when I just reacted to the tiny touch. It's when I got slammed and I almost lost the rod because it almost pulled it out of my hand. Do you agree or disagree with that?

Paul Ziajski 18:56

So I I I I agree to a point. And and here's the reason why. In Grey Bay, for example, we have I think quantity over quality. So you know, I although I I catch double-digit fish in in Grey Bay, it it's a little bit different from you know, Stone Harbor and Avalon and Wildwood in those areas farther south where where double-digit fish are.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 19:21

Which is where I'm fishing.

Paul Ziajski 19:23

Yeah, exactly. But it's interestingly enough, I've had this conversation with with Joe, 609 fishing, and he's like, dude, like most of the time, I just get slammed. I don't have that little and and Joe Fish is mostly farther south. So I agree based on your experience, based on Joe's experience, based on other anglers' experience, uh, I I don't always have that just because uh we don't have a a large population of these, you know, double digit fish. I mean, the largest fish that I pulled out of Great Bay was just shy of 11 pounds. You know, that that kind of happens routinely down south. It just doesn't really have we have a ton of like cookie cutters, like 16, 18, 20-inch fish, but not really the 23 plus inch fish.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 20:10

Right, right. Okay. I I wasn't sure about that one, but it's look, that's my experience. And I actually looked it up, and from what I found, it's generally the larger the fish, the harder the bite, and it's not that you're missing them. However, the small ones are absolutely gonna rob you. They they just have that ability and that skill. The smaller ones are just they're like little houdinis. If you got a bait on there, they're gonna get it.

Paul Ziajski 20:37

And uh, some people just overcomplicate sheep's head fishing. You you feel the bite. Yeah, it it can be subtle, but you know, let me just demystify it. It's like once you catch one, two, three, you're gonna know what the bite is like.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 20:52

Yep, yep. All right. What's it what's

Work The Water Column On Purpose

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 20:55

your next one? I I've got a whole list of them, but I want to hear yours.

Paul Ziajski 20:58

I would say a lot of people don't work the entire water column. And what I mean by that, let's say you're fishing a seven-foot rod, right? And you have the rod up and you put a fiddler or samply or whatever on your jig and you lower your rod, you're already seven feet down. Now, if if you're if you're fishing, you know, 12 feet of water, you may have blown right past the strike zone. Like they they may be, you know, three or four feet under the surface. So that's what I mean by about being consciously working the entire water column. You know, go two feet at a time, not you know, drop your rod and then all of a sudden I mean they may see the bait, they may see a jig and they may chase it, but you could have blown through their strike zone. I have photos from you know my helm and bird, my my mega live, where it's empty, bunch of sheep said stacked, empty. So if you blow through that zone, you you you may not get. Bit they may or may not follow. So be conscious about working the the entire work water column, especially if you're fishing in skinny water.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 22:09

Yeah, I have on here to where how did I put it? I was just looking at it. Oh, here it is. Fish higher in the water column than you think you should. I again, this is something that I researched, and it looks like actually the bottom two feet, depending on how deep the water is, the bottom two feet that you're typically not going to find them. They're going to be above that. So you really need to be focusing near the top. Don't drop directly to the bottom. Start at the top and start working your way down because, as Paul just mentioned, they they're suspending fish. They're not going to be sitting on the bottom, typically. I mean, you can get them down there, but for the most part, you're not going to because that's not where you're going to start finding the barnacles and and all of that. And they have competition typically down there, which you know, they're they're like any other fish. They're they're not into the competition for food. They're going to go where they can, and it's typically going to be higher in the column.

Paul Ziajski 23:06

Yeah, if you drop your drink to the bottom right out of the gate and it's a togy piece, you you're going to get picked off by sea bass, by tog, by other nuisance fish. Sea bass.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 23:17

I hate sea bass. That to me is the worst fish ever invented. I can't I hate them. People go out on trips.

Paul Ziajski 23:25

Yeah, I mean, you can throw a pair of shoes at a sea bass and they'll hit it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 23:29

Yeah. I I hate, I I'll say right now, people go. I'm like right now, I'm looking at all the pictures of people holding up these nice sea bass. I hate them. Like I I have zero jealousy if I can't get on the water and you have a monster sea bass. I just think like you just caught a trash fish. I can't stand. I it's totally irrational, but it's me. I just don't I just don't like them at all.

Paul Ziajski 23:54

Yeah, they rank rank right up there with the striped carp striped carp in my uh in my book.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 24:00

Yeah, so I I like the I like certain striped carp. Right? Like the migration, I'll fish it, but it's I I've said this in the past too. It's not my thing. The migration to me is not I like hunting for fish. I don't like going out and just waiting for big ass schools of bunker to come through and just cast as fast as I can into it. It's fun, it's absolutely fun, but I get more out of it when I find them. So I do enjoy in the summer fishing for striped bass along the sod banks, and they're smaller. You know, I'm not fishing typically for 40 inches and plus 40 plus. I'm fishing for 17 to 30 inches typically, right? That to me is fun because I'm I'm hunting for them.

Paul Ziajski 24:46

Yep, I totally agree. This is a different ballgame. I mean, I've I've only been down south for you know four and a half years, so I'm I'm still sort of learning the ropes.

unknown 24:56

Yeah.

Paul Ziajski 24:56

But I can tell you that, you know, like I lived on Sandy Hoke Bay, Raritan Bay for 20 years. So I I I tell this to my to my friends like if I don't catch another stripe bass for the rest of my life, I'm fine. But what I've discovered is you know, backwater, back bass, skinny water bass fishing is is different. It's it's definitely more challenging and and it's more fun. I mean, you know, look, if if you can't catch a striped bass in Raritan Bay, just break your rods and take up crocheting or something.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 25:23

I mean, and you're it's true, yeah. Yeah, it's true. And I I to see, and and this is what I don't like. For me, when I'm fishing Raritan, it's about getting the biggest fish possible. It's not about catching numbers or anything like that. And I actually get disappointed if I don't feel that I'm gonna be able to catch a 50-inch fish. Yeah, because what's the point to me? Then it's like, well, what's the point? You know, if the if those schools aren't there, it's that battle that I want. It's not it could even a Paul, it could be a 48-incher. I don't care. I just I caught enough of them. I don't care, you know. But a 50 plus, okay. Yeah, it would be nice to you know go for a personal best, which is not the same with other species, you know. Tuna, I'll go footballs all day. Mahi, yeah. Even bluefish. I'm a dork. I love bluefish.

Paul Ziajski 26:17

Yeah, I'm not I've not been targeting bluefish in in a while. When I lived up north, I ran Atlantic Islands Marina. Oh my gosh. I mean, we had some gators when they were coming in. That was a lot of fun. Topwater, yeah, you know, 10 pu 10 plus pound fish. That was fun. Yeah.

unknown 26:31

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 26:32

Well, what about what about weak fish? Where are there are those coming into your your bees?

Paul Ziajski 26:37

Weak fish are there that we're we get we're getting more and more reports from from my area, you know, around Great Bay. And nothing ridiculous, but you know, it's encouraging that at least the reports are more consistent these days than than they happen. And again, I don't I don't have a great baseline because I've only been here four or four and a half years, but I just noticed in the past two seasons, for example, that weak fish are are becoming more consistent. I think Rob English just had one nice one while he was fluking. So it's encouraging.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 27:15

I I love targeting weakfish, uh, to be honest with you. But I didn't for so long because they were so threatened, you know. I see my brother in there calling me a dork. That's okay. See him next weekend, we'll have a conversation. All right, what's your next tip that you have?

Paul Ziajski 27:32

Uh, okay.

Change Rigs And Change Baits

Paul Ziajski 27:35

Vary your tackle and and your bait. I'm a creature of habit to a fault, and I get stuck in the same routine over and over and over again. And interestingly enough, one of my biggest sheepshead came on a very unconventional in a unconventional manner. I typically use a bottom sweeper, like most people do, and for some reason I decided to tie a knocker rig one day and sent it down, and boom, I had a double digit fish on on the first drop. So I I think it's it's important to like it if if you're not getting bites, change something. Don't don't just do the same thing over and over and over again. So uh if if you don't have different bait, change your change your rig, you know, go from from a single jig to you know knocker rig. I mean, God, I I've tied dropper loops and I like to experiment. I don't I don't have to do the same thing over and over again. I I try to consciously break out of my routine and and try different different techniques. And some work and some just fail miserably, but at least, you know, I I know what else is working in my area. And just because it's working in in Great Bay doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna work in Wildwood, uh, but I I feel like that it's important to experiment and and try different things.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 29:01

Yeah, you know, a funny thing is so we talk about using the bottom sweeper style jigs up here, and that's what everybody uses, everybody starts with. But you know, I remember going down to Rodanthi in the Outer Banks for a couple weeks, and I I went into a local shop and I told him I was going out for sheep's head, and all I needed was some bait, right? And they have fiddlers down there, which I'll talk about the bait in a second. But he was so excited that the the owner of the shop, he's like, You gotta see this, you gotta see this. Just found these. I was like, Oh, awesome. He's like, if you're going for sheep's head, you've got to try this. Don't don't use these rigs that we got. I was like, okay. And he pulls them out and they're bottom bottom sweepers. I was like, okay, what? He's like, he's like, these, these are these are the best thing. They're using them up north. I was like, yeah, we've been using them for years. He's like, oh, you must be from New Jersey. I was like, I was like, well, I fish up in New Jersey a lot, yeah. And he's like, oh, we just got these. He's like, I'm the first, I'm the first south, first south of uh whatever, south of Duck to have them. I was like, yeah, they they definitely work. But I actually wanted to use what they were using down there, and that's the thing. They just started using them down south, they've been catching them for hundreds of years down south, right? We've all been bottom sweepers are not like decades old. So yeah, I I agree with the point. There are other things that will work, and don't limit yourself just because bottom sweepers are popular, they are very good, but there are there are different applications, different situations where it may not be the best thing to be throwing out there. So think about the presentation of that bait.

Paul Ziajski 30:43

Yeah, I think that's that's another reason why you need you you just need to lay off social media from time to time and do your own thing because you go on YouTube and a vast majority of of the content that you're gonna watch are bottom sweeper style jigs, and that's it. And you think that's the that's the only way to catch sheep side. That's that's just not true. Try try something different.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 31:07

Yeah, and I I'll take it one step further then. So you said try different rigs and different presentations. I'm gonna say change the baits. The most popular, now this is just generalized. The most popular bait to catch sheep's head on is fiddler crabs from uh from the Carolinas and South. It is not the most common bait used north of the Carolinas. It actually gets into sand fleas, Asian shore crabs, and green crabs. And then people go into mussels where they start using mussel chunks. I think a lot of people don't use those because if you buy mussels, it's expensive because you have to get restaurant quality. And people just don't scrape. They don't scrape structures and and pull them off. So I think that might be why it's a little further down. But I I'll tell you what, sand fleas is what I've caught the best fish on because they're very popular or very common in the waters up here. But I will say this if you want to use fiddler crabs, and this actually goes, Tim Tim actually had this question, what's your go-to bait? Especially at this time of the season, I'm not using fiddler crabs because there's just no fiddler crabs, you know, there we don't have the numbers of them out there in the, you know, getting into the waters. So I am using sand fleas at this point of the year, or I'm scraping. You don't have a lot of barnacles at the moment, but you do have some muscles that you can you can pull off of there. So that that's what I'm doing with base. But I would switch it up and and this whole this whole whatever size fiddler, what was it? Dime size fiddler. Dime size the the joke out there, the meme. I don't think you ever need any fiddler crabs. I never bring fiddler crabs because I just don't feel like catching them before I hit the water.

Paul Ziajski 32:52

Yeah, I mean, I'm complete opposite. Like sand fleas are not readily available here. I have I would have to drive over the bridge to on the island and rake the uh the uh the line uh you know the ocean. And it you know, during the summer, that could be a 45-minute affair where I can just go to any creek that dumps into Great Bay in a low tide and pick up 300 in a matter of I don't pick up 300. So first of all, let me just say this don't pick up, don't gather more than what you're gonna use. I just really that was stupid of me to say that. You know, I I can get a three dozen or whatever I'm gonna use very quickly. But that's one of the reasons why I don't use sample's because I don't feel like going to LBI.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 33:35

Um see I buy them. I buy them. I it's I if I can't buy it, I'm not doing it because it's so much it's I'm not gonna drive two and a half hours. Well, I mean, think about it. I'm driving from Pennsylvania two and a half hours. So I'm it's it's either I pick it up on the way or I don't use it. You know, I'm not gonna be searching. Now, the the one exception is I will use Asian shore crabs in certain areas where there's partially submerged rock near where I'm fishing. I will pull over and flip rocks.

Paul Ziajski 34:06

Yep.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 34:06

But that's it. So there's some places near God. I don't know, I'm not even gonna say. Okay, there's some places there's some places where I will stop and I will get those. But fiddler crabs are a pain in the neck. And where I fish down near Wildwood, there are no, there are not a lot of good spots, and you have to hit it at the right tide. I'm going whenever I get there, you know? Yeah, uh whatever tide is at you know 6 30 in the morning, that's when I'm showing up, and that's if there are crabs there, they're crabs there. So yeah, I just buy them.

Paul Ziajski 34:38

I'll mention one thing, speaking of crabs. When I fished in uh Kipto Peak State Park, I picked up we we had blue crabs for for redfish. Yep. And I cracked off a piece of the leg and like around the knuckle, I smashed it just so some of the meat from the leg was sticking out, and I fished that, and oh my god, did that work? And it was it's tough. So they're they don't they just can't steal it like they can a fiddler. Right. Um so it they'll eat that too. So that's what I mean. Just vary your bait, vary your your rigs. Uh I mean I I don't think they have like that strict of a diet that, oh, I'm only gonna eat samples or I'm only gonna eat fiddlers. Crab is a crab, you know. They see the they see they s they they see the presentation, they smell that you know their scent from it. It it's a crab, they'll eat it. They're they're not Christ, like we were on Jupiter, I think people were throwing like handfuls of catfish pellets, and and the sheep's are going nuts. They're they're not you know, not that finicky.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 35:44

Right, yeah. So be willing to change them up. If you don't have fiddlers, you can still catch them. Absolutely. By the way, shrimp works really well too. The problem with shrimp is everything eats shrimp. So then you end up with this damn sea bass again, which I hate.

Paul Ziajski 35:59

So I did use two years ago, I was on a shrimp kick and I was using grass shrimp. If you're gonna do that, you gotta thread like five or six of them. It's very soft, they'll rip it off very easily. Uh so if you're not like really dialed into the bite, you you better thread on a whole mess of them. But they they do work. So if you don't have fiddlers, you don't have sand fleas, a lot of the local tackle shops, they they sell grass shrimp, so that'll work.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 36:25

It's usually frozen with freezer burn because nobody because nobody buys it.

Paul Ziajski 36:31

Up seeking bay, and not easy. Bait and tackle, they they both they both carry fresh grass shrimp. So I mean, there's a lot of churching. Oh, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 36:39

That's awesome. Okay, that's good. See, down down in the southern areas, we could never get any fresh grass shrimp at all. It was always frozen. Yeah, no, and you knew, like, I wasn't joking, you knew when you went into these places, they're all closed now. Smugglers Cove and whatever the one, Avalon, Bait and Tackle, like you knew they were frozen because they were so freezer burnt. I mean, yeah, yeah. It's like you're scraping off all the ice, you know. Yeah.

Paul Ziajski 37:05

So I'll just let me just comment. Bill said they should carry fiddlers. It's very funky in New Jersey with selling fiddlers. A couple of tackle shops got into trouble for selling fiddlers. You have to they're considered like endangered or something in New Jersey. So the fiddlers have to come from out of state, and there's paperwork and etc. So that's why a lot of it's just a it's a pain in the ass. That and that's that's why a lot of tackle shops don't want to bother with it. Uh the demand really isn't there and they don't carry it. But Scots had fiddlers last year from Virginia. Oh my god, were they beautiful? I mean, they were just great size, nice color, etc.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 37:43

So yeah, and that's but that's the point. They have to come from out of state, which is a pain in the neck. I mean, a lot of bait comes from out of state, but this is one where you know people always complain, just pay a couple kids to go down to the end of the street. You can't do that. Right. You can't, that that's illegal. So these shops cannot do it.

Paul Ziajski 38:03

Yeah, they can't who if if I'd said the names of the shops, everybody would recognize them. So these are like legit bait shops, and both of them got in trouble for selling fiddlers. Yeah. That they weren't supposed to. So that's the reason. That's why a lot of tackle shops won't carry them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 38:20

Yeah, and I gotta put this comment up because I love it. One more reason why New Jersey sucks. Yes, you are correct. I am right there with you. That's why one of the reasons I will never live in New Jersey again. Never. Uh-uh. Not gonna happen. All right. Let's see. Other tips, we've already done over 10, by the

Barnacles Bright Sun And Night Docks

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 38:40

way. Let's go. Yeah, I'm gonna say this barnacles are going to be, in my opinion, they're better spots than oysters. This is more for south of us, right? So where you have oyster beds, if you can find barnacles on on docks, on old structures, old pilings, those to me are going to be better spots than if you're if you're looking for a an oyster bed for sheep's head, right? We're not talking about redfish or anything like that. I'm talking about specifically for sheep's head. All right. So that that's mine. I don't know how you feel about that, but I definitely believe that's to be that to be true once you get to Delaware and north.

Paul Ziajski 39:25

Yep.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 39:26

All right. Man, we we're kind of doubled up on some of them. I think I meant I did mention this, but bright sun is a great time to fish for them. So kind of like the opposite of the striped carp, right? So it gets sunny. I know you got me doing it now. When it gets sunny, like during the day, that's the more difficult time to catch a resident striped bass, right? It's it's more difficult. They typically go deeper. Yes, you can still catch them, but it becomes it's not their prime time. It is the opposite. It is the prime time for the sheep's head. So when it's bright sun, there's no clouds in the sky, that is when they're feeding the most. That is a biological point about them. There's no need to even argue it. They will feed at night, as we mentioned before, but that is not the prime time to be fishing for them. And the the one big thing that I have heard in the past is they sleep like tog. They do not. They do not go into a catatonic state at night. They're up, they're feeding, they're along those shadow lines, so you can catch them all night.

Paul Ziajski 40:34

Absolutely. A friend of a friend fished for them, targeted him specifically at night, and he was pretty successful. I've never tried, I just don't see the need. I'm gonna die one day, but it's not gonna be on a kayak at night. So no need for it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 40:51

I I do enjoy fishing on a kayak at night in the bays along the ICW. It depends on where they are. So I I'll burn this area. I'll just say, because it's not a spot because it goes for miles. Paul, go and and just fish the back bays of brigantine at night, and you will find some, I mean, some really good spots for the sheep's head and the striped bass at night. Yeah, just and actually, fluke. Those docks along there, and here's the bonus, and I'm gonna tell everybody this fish in the fall the back bays of brigantine, right along the ICW, right? The further north you get in Brigantine, the more Karens that are there, and they will literally come out and start screaming at you. It is so much fun. It is so much fun to just watch them come out and yell at it.

Paul Ziajski 41:46

I should do that just for that.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 41:50

Paul, they they will come out and screaming. There was there was the one night drifting up. I'm drifting up on the out, so where it was, the outgoing was actually pulling us north, right? Because towards the the the inlet to the north of us. And we're going, we're fishing the outgoing. This must have been probably November, mid, probably mid-November. It was before Thanksgiving. I'm there. This guy, I just met him on the water, and we're just fishing and we're talking. It's probably 1 a.m. There's nothing going on, but people leave their lights on, right? So the lights are, and we're just fishing the lights as we're going. Once you know, like five houses down, all the lights turn on, and some lady comes out on her balcony. Like the like I think we weren't looking at the house before. I think like all the lights were out though. So I don't know how she knew we were coming. We were just talking. It wasn't the noise, it wasn't carrying. Paul, she was so loaded. When we got there, she is screaming and slurring her speech, and there's no fish, and we just sat there just fishing that dock forever. Oh, just it was so nice. It was so much fun. It was a great trip though, too, because those waters do so set up really well. You got a really nice flow, you got a lot of current breaks in there. But yeah, and that's just my my tip for anyone who wants to piss off some wealthy Karens, fish those docks at night.

Paul Ziajski 43:11

Yeah.

unknown 43:11

Yeah.

Paul Ziajski 43:12

Well, there's my golf for the summer.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 43:14

Yeah, do it. Well, it's better in the in the summer. I've never had an issue there. Nobody's ever yelled at me, but in the fall, they always yell, and they're always drinking, which makes it even more fun. So yeah, I I think we went through them all. Do you have any any that I didn't mention?

Paul Ziajski 43:32

Yeah, I have I have one general comment about electronics, about fish finders.

Electronics As A Tool Not A Crutch

Paul Ziajski 43:39

It's a it's a tool for me. I like I I use Mega Live as a time saver. So I'll scan structure really quickly and I'll just see whether or not the sheep that are are hanging on the structure or not. If they're not, I'll move on to something else. I don't understand how some guys. Guys just like horses with blinders. They they stare at the screen, whether it's live scope or megalite, whatever, you know, watching the jig fall down. Like it, like it's really necessary to see that fish, you know, come up to the jig. Like you do realize there's a delay, it's not like real time, real time, right? Like, you don't need to be so damn focused on on your screen, just fish. Like, identify the structure, identify whether or not the the fish are there, but don't be like so focused on on your screen that that you're forgetting anything else. It it's a tool, it's a time-saving tool for me. But geez, don't don't be like, you know, so narrowly focused on on your screen.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 44:41

I I think that's a great point. And I I'll say that I don't even use my electronics. So I first of all, I don't have live scope. I I don't. But I do have a pretty decent, well, maybe it's not considered decent anymore, but what used to be really decent imaging with the side scan and everything, so I could see fish on bridges and pilings and everything like that. But I never used it for that. As a matter of fact, Paul, when I go sheep's head fishing, if I'm fishing a bridge, I don't even scan, I don't even put on side scan. I now only use side scan if I'm looking for something specific under the water, like an old dock that I that I think is somewhere, like I got snagged and I'm like, oh, maybe there's some good structure. Or I'm looking for pods of bunker. That's it. Otherwise, I don't even turn on side scan. I don't care because what I have found is those fish can show up in a second. Sure. So you can be fishing and there's nothing, there's nothing, there's nothing on your depth finder. And you know, quite often in a kayak, you're you're strictly vertical. So I can see what's what's coming under. There's nothing. And then all of a sudden, I'm hit, and now they start showing up. So I just don't I don't like the uh the comment is in there, video gamers. Yeah, it's not video gaming, at least for me. I don't like it. There only once in my life did we try to fish using live scope and fish to the live scope, and it was the most frustrating thing I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. I was like, what are we doing?

Paul Ziajski 46:15

No, to your point, these fish move. Then not only do they move from one piece to another piece to another piece, they also move with the tide, right? So they may be in one zone in the water column during low tide, and they'll be another in during high tide. So they move up and down with the tide and and you know, side to side for lack of a better word, uh during. So yeah, I you you can't be so narrowly focused on on electronics. They're fish, like they swim.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 46:43

Right, right. I the the best part about electronics to me is the temperature gauge, which doesn't work on mine, by the way. So mine always says it's 26 degrees Fahrenheit, no matter what. Yeah, so yeah, it's pretty cold water. So I I lost what I think is probably the most important for much of the year, yeah, part of mine. And then I think the other one is like I don't ever look for fish, right? I I don't even want to call it a fish finder. I go back to the old depth finder because that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the changes in the depth and the structure and and things like that. I just don't believe that you're doing yourself any favors by looking for the fish unless you're fishing a migration and you're looking for moving schools, a bunker or something like that.

Paul Ziajski 47:28

Yep.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 47:29

That's it. It just tells me what side to cast on. That's pretty much all it does. So or I guess redfish.

Paul Ziajski 47:36

I I use side scan to and this is a conversation that I have fairly often in a shop with with customers when I'm explaining electronics to them, because especially people who are fairly new to the sport, they really think that you know the fish finder is is just gonna find a fish. And right, you know, you try to explain like for me, you know, a good machine has you know good imaging, good side scan. I I find structure. If I find a structure, I'll find the fish. So I'm not necessarily looking for those boomerangs, right? And and I'm looking for structure. That's what I use my electronics for.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 48:10

Yeah, you know, you know, the best use that I found for for it, it makes a pretty cool picture for the cover of a live stream or something like that. When you can see like it looks like the layers of bacon, right, right. Like I found the fish. Shocking. You're right in the middle of the fleet and rariton, and I found the fish somehow. So yeah, yeah, I I just don't I think it's overrated. There's nothing with that said, there's nothing wrong with using it. I I don't judge anyone for using it. I it's just not the way I do it, but you don't need to your point, you really don't need it to catch these fish. You you just don't. Just know where the fish should be and go there. Yep. And and if you fish it, if they're there and they're hungry, they're gonna bite it.

Paul Ziajski 48:52

Yep. I mean, gosh, people have been catching, you know, sheep's head for decades without using sonar, and all of a sudden we feel like we need, you know, two 12-inch graphs and you know, forward-spacing sonar and all sorts of other things.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 49:07

Yeah.

Paul Ziajski 49:07

You really don't, you know, trust your instincts and and explore.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 49:12

Boy, we really like to fall for marketing. Yeah, you need dirty colors, you need this certain rod and reel. It's like really because I remember my uncle Wally catching catching bass with literally a bamboo pole, right? Just with string tied on the end of a bamboo thing. I remember fishing with him in the outer banks with that thing. It was awesome. He didn't have electronics, he literally just walked up, walked into the water, and just put it out there. He was catching fish. By the way, I'll I'll tell you this.

Weird Baits That Still Catch Sheepshead

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 49:42

If you're fishing down in for anyone that fishes the outer banks in the Pamlico Sound, I had a lot of fun picking up small sheep, they were small, small sheep's head, out in the flats, in the grass flats. And it was just on, I was just taking bits of blue claw, which are really easy to find because the water is only about a foot deep. So as you're just kind of pulling your, I was kind of pulling my way through the water. The drive had to be up. Oh my god, Paul, don't ever bring a prop drive to Pamlico Sound. Holy oh my god. You just leave the thing up and stand and just kind of pull your way through. As I'm pulling through, you can see uh the blue claws. So I was just netting netting them, cutting them up and using the and man, talk about talk about fun. These things are just ripping out of the grass. And you know, you got the sand channels in between the grass. It was so much fun. It was so much fun. I I must have caught I caught dozens of them just picking off blue crabs as I was going. It and the whole reason I did it is because I couldn't catch a damn red to save my life that day. So I figured let me just try the the blue claw, and I I started picking up sheep's head instead.

Paul Ziajski 50:53

So you know it's funny also just recently I've I've seen a couple of posts on social media guys catching sheep's head from the surf, which is to me kind of unusual, and on a clam no less, right? So there goes we we go back to to the point of varying a bait, you know, why not try clam? I mean, clearly they're using it because these guys were caught in from the surf using clamps.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 51:20

Yeah, do you know were were they fishing near jetties, or was it just right like open beach?

Paul Ziajski 51:25

Yeah, I don't know. I think it was riptide that posted twice of two two different guys, two different days that that have caught trees from from the surf.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 51:34

So and again, on the rip on the riptide rotters, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Paul Ziajski 51:40

I can't stand it. No, again. No, I'd like I literally I texted Kwam, I'm like, what the F is a riptide rotter? He's like, it's clams. I'm like, oh my god.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 51:53

It's good branding. It's good branding. I got a friend, I got a friend that yeah, I got a friend that goes there all the time. He lives in Brigantine and he always puts uh on a riptide roder, and I just laugh about it. I'm like Benny and Clam. He's like, I know, but it's at Riptide, that's my shop.

Paul Ziajski 52:09

I I texted Kwam, I'm like, what the hell is a Riptide Rodder? I thought it was a Jigos. I'm like, I don't know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 52:16

No, I don't even think there's anything special about it except that you buy it at Riptide.

Paul Ziajski 52:20

Yeah, I think I think so.

unknown 52:22

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 52:24

Maybe they do something special to it. I don't know. I don't know. I just thought it was look, support your shops, man. I'm not I just think it's so funny.

Paul Ziajski 52:32

You better call Riptide tomorrow and get ask for like a commission for all the free plugs that they got to Riptide Rodder.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 52:38

Uh yeah, well, they they work. They work. Yeah. Well, I I won't mention the one a little further to the south, which I do not like. That's one shop I you know which one I'm talking about. We won't mention it. I know. But Riptide, I've uh Riptide's a great shop. Yep. Great shop. Yeah. So uh yeah, so alright, well, I think we covered the points, everybody. Paul, did we miss anything? There's some comments in there. Mostly it's my brother being a wise ass. So we're gonna skip through that. Yeah, just people making fun of me. Yeah.

unknown 53:13

Yeah.

Paul Ziajski 53:14

Yeah, we covered the fiddlers. Fiddlers, I mean, that's can you store-bought muscles?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 53:20

Yes, you can.

Paul Ziajski 53:21

So speaking of muscles, you know, if you live in my neck of the woods, there's a crap ton of mussels in in uh around Great Bay. Yeah, I don't I don't think there's an I I don't know if you need a license like you do for other shellfish, but you can you can just pull them right out of sodbanks. There's there's tons of them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 53:42

Yeah, I I d I don't know if they're look, let's just do the disclaimer. Check your local laws. Right, yeah. I don't think there's an issue, but I could be wrong. But yeah, there's especially where I fish, again, further south than where you fish, it's very easy to get muscles. You just pull up to pretty much any rock and just reach your hand and you're pulling hands, handfuls of them off of there. So yeah, yeah, I would do that. Hermit crabs is being recommended if you can get them.

Paul Ziajski 54:11

I would slip my wrists. I talk with Hermit Crabs sometimes, and I just want to take the hammer or hit myself over the head. I mean, to crack it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 54:18

I can't take the hammering. I can't take the hammering. Yeah, too much work for me. It's too much work. They could be awesome. It's too much work.

Paul Ziajski 54:29

I think I was on the fishmonger with with Jerry, and and somebody brought like a sack of hermit crabs, and they work, but they're so damn soft, like you know, it's like one and done. You really got to be on your game, but just like constant hammering. I'm like, oh my god, this is just that's not me.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 54:45

Yeah, that's it's too much work for me. And I think going back to what we said before, I think it's unnecessary.

Paul Ziajski 54:51

Yep.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 54:52

I I think it's absolutely unnecessary sometimes. Maybe there are some days that it just has to be hermit crabs, but I don't know. I I haven't heard of a world record being caught on a hermit crab. So exactly. Yeah, so I don't see the any point. I've heard white leggers pulling in 26 pounders. I've heard of clam pulling in 26 pounds. We're talking tog now, you know, things over 25 pounds, shrimp. I've heard all of them. I haven't heard their hermit crabs. I think you can pretty well use it.

Paul Ziajski 55:22

This is I really thought like early on when I started talking, I thought people were pulling my leg. Like we bring like shrimp cocktail on the boat. I'm like, yeah, right. And yeah, sure as hell, it's cooked shrimp.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 55:32

Yeah, I don't get the cooked shrimp part, the cooked part. I think it's just because so you don't lose it as easily. I don't know.

Paul Ziajski 55:38

No idea.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 55:40

And maybe you just dip it in some cocktail sauce and see if that works.

Paul Ziajski 55:43

Maybe not catching and just eat. I don't know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 55:45

Yeah, gulp shedd crabs. Actually, that's a good point that Tim's bringing up. Gulp shedders actually do work for sheep's head. They work just the same as anything. I will say they're nowhere near as good as natural baits in my experience. But I used to work with some guys that used the gulp shedding, and they have I have not, they have caught on gulp shedd crabs. I have caught a sheep's head on a regular gulp when I was fishing for striped carp along a bridge, and I caught a sheep's head. So they do eat gulp, they will. And minnows actually is a is a bait that there's a very popular bridge in extreme southern New Jersey, and a shop right near it sells minnows. And they they always have people coming in, they just bought the minnows at the the shop, they ran down to the bridge, and they're pulling out nice sheep's heads. So I would have thought that that is not a good bait, but this shop doesn't sell other or didn't sell other baits because they didn't need to, because everyone was using the minnows and still catching them.

Paul Ziajski 56:53

So that's actually a good point. I I I haven't even considered minnows, but you know, like early in the season when there's small, like the I called them like perch-size minnows, you know, that they use for perching, you know, because perch have small mats, sheep set have fairly small mods. I I bet that's that's a good bait. Um I would definitely give it a shot.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 57:11

Yeah, I mean they they swore by it at the shop and they showed me a whole bunch of pictures. I was like, huh, that's interesting. I'm not gonna do it, but that's that is interesting. Yeah, people are and their point was we want to set them up to catch as many different species as possible. So they use minnows, they sell minnows to especially to the newer people, and they're like they come back with sheep's head all the time that they call them the minnows. So, you know, maybe it's again one of those things YouTube hasn't blown it up, so nobody uses it, and maybe it just works. I I would doubt that it's a great bait to use because that's not typically what sheep's head are looking for first, but uh it obviously does work. You can obviously catch them on it, you can catch them on a a gulp, uh a gulp as well. So yeah.

Wrap Up And Listener Topic Requests

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 57:57

All right. Well, Paul, thank you for coming on. My pleasure. Appreciate it. I'm gonna say right now, everyone, I will not be on next week. I have something that cannot be moved from my schedule. It is not work-related. Uh, it's something that I've had planned for quite a while. So I will not be on next week, but trying to get some things lined up for after that. Um, let me know if there are any topics you want to hear, you want to see any guests. It's just helpful. It's very helpful uh to hear ideas from everyone. And again, thank you for sharing this out to people over the past month. It is greatly appreciated. Paul, we got to get together. I'll make it down there sometime. At the very least, I'll come in and buy something. Yeah. Stop. I'll come in. I'll come in and buy something I don't need, like I do every time. I think I mentioned this. I have like I have like three rod holders that I like I like four extra rod holders for my kayak. I only use one, but I have three extras because I just buy one.

Paul Ziajski 58:58

We don't take returns, that's it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 59:00

Yeah. No, I'm keeping them, man. I'm keeping them. Maybe I'm just it's like aspirational rod holders for the next kayak that I get, right?

Paul Ziajski 59:08

Listen, man, I have a I have a shop full of stuff that most people don't need.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 59:12

Yeah.

Paul Ziajski 59:13

But I sell a lot of it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 59:15

Yeah. Well, you're a good, you're a very good salesman. So thanks for coming on. Everyone, thanks for tuning in. And uh happy Memorial Day, and uh thank you to everybody who served, is serving, and who has family members uh that are serving as well. And again, we will not be back next week, but we'll be back the weekend after. So, in all that time, as we get back to late spring temperatures, everyone make sure you get out there, get on the water, and get some tight lines.