CEDAR KEY PADDLING

Happy New Year to you my friends!  I hope you are as excited about this year’s fishing seasons as we are here at Cedar Key Paddling. Let’s get started, why don’t we?  Let’s talk about sheephead and what you need to succeed at catching these fun, delicious, funny mouthed beauties.  To do this right, you need a great location with barnacled up pylons with at least a 6-foot water death.  There are locations that are definitely better than others, in and around Cedar Key, so don’t hesitate to swing into the shop for directions. If you want to slay them and fill your freezer with a 15-limit-per-angler, and of course make sure they are at least 12 inches, you need to consider the following:  1. Get a sizable cooler, and fill it with legal oysters in the shell.  2. Wear high-water boots and gloves, cause those bad boys are sharp!  3. Dump a bag of ice into your cooler, to keep the oysters fresh while you get the rest of your stuff. 4. You want a sensitive tipped rod, because of the ridiculously sod bite these guys and gals have, and a 10 to 15lb test of your favorite line.  Use a lead that works well with the amount of current you will have.  You don’t want the line flopping all over.  Then, a swivel to stop the lead and about 18 inches of fluorocarbon, with a 1/0 2/0 hook tide on.  5.  Bait fiddler crabs are good, but oysters are better, if you can keep them on your hook.  6. You have your equipment, and now take a big hammer and smash up those oysters.  You are going to dump them right into your fishing spot as chum.  Lower your line till it hits the bottom where the chum is, and raise it just above, and good luck!  Don’t forget to always find a way to take a kid fishing, and please do not hesitate to swing in our shop if we can help we will.