Oysters for Sheephead?

rt1092

Member
Hi. All I'm new on this site.
I'm wondering if the Oysters you can buy in the stores. Will work for bait? I'm talking about in the shell, not the ones that are steamed out of the shell and put in cans. I'm talking about buying a bag of oysters and shucking them the night before we fish.
Trying to not dirty the boat with shells etc.
Seems like a lot of places around the Brunswick area to catch them. I live in Richmond Hill and have fished the Cat Reef a lot. (I know you can't use oysters at the Cat) But we have to deal with weather and availability of Fiddlers.
 
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Akairman

Member
I have done really well with oysters inshore. I schuck them right on the boat and drop the shells over.I feel like its a mini chum technique. They are a pain to stay on the hook but like you, I couldn't find fiddlers one day and decided to try them. Dicks sporting goods in Savannah sells frozen clam strips in their bait freezer. I plan on trying them this winter.
 

KyDawg

Gone But Not Forgotten
How in the world do you keep them on the hook.
 

doeboy1

Senior Member
I have done really well with oysters inshore. I schuck them right on the boat and drop the shells over.I feel like its a mini chum technique. They are a pain to stay on the hook but like you, I couldn't find fiddlers one day and decided to try them. Dicks sporting goods in Savannah sells frozen clam strips in their bait freezer. I plan on trying them this winter.

I do the same. Sometimes thats all they want and sometimes they wont touch them.
 

Dominion

Member
I ordered a gallon of processed oysters one time from a friend in the food business. Then, I made a salt brine from a recipe I found online and basically soaked the meat in the brine in an effort to harden the texture a bit (for staying on hook). I also tried a few cat-fishing hook/bait holder techniques, but in the end, I went back to fiddlers.
 

redneck_billcollector

Purveyor Of Fine Spirits
Old nylon hose, make little pouches out of them, put the oyster in it and run a hook through, works like a charm for sheepshead. Also, get you a long aluminum pole and scrape oyters off of the bridge pilings....gets them excited.
 

Bream Pole

Senior Member
oysters

I'm not a sheepshead fisherman (keep thinking about trying); however used to know a couple that went to a pier in FL. and would catch dozens. Their bait was barnacles. They would scrape some for chum and some for bait. They would stick the hook in the opening of the barnacle.
 
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