I know of a lot of people who do not keep sheephead...and I have no idea why. They are a little bit of a pain to clean (not near as bad as a red), and they dont have a whole lot of meat, but they taste awesome! Very good fish, similar to a crappie in my mind.

I realize they are just an overgrown pinfish, but if it tastes good, why not?

I know a lot of people DO keep them, but then a lot of others dont. I also know a lot of people like to cook them whole, less the head/gills/guts. My grandfather did this, and it was awesome!

Just curious...

Shawn

Most likely what you said, they're a pain to clean.......Try them on the half shell like a red or drum, or chop the fillets into small chunks and add to clam chowder, Excellent!......nice pictures of the fish on the other post, BTW.

TOO,

I guess that's it...

They really aren't all that bad, but if you fillet them you dont get a whole lot of meat because they have such a tall cavity and rib cage.

Just curious.
Shawn

I do not think a red is hard to clean at all, I guess I have cleaned a lot of them, and stripers and hybrids, so it does not bother me that much. I will take the redstripe out like I do not stripers and hybrids if I am going to cook them any other way then grilled on the half shell.

For sheepshead, we keep the good ones we catch, at first we called them picture fish as they added a little something different to a couple of limits of trout and some reds, but we cleaned them and they are good.....as are gaftop, not many folks know that, but you talk about hard to clean...well not really unless you have a lot of them, flounder are so good, but worth the hassle of cleaning them, but it is a pain to me.......

I like that everyone throws them back, it keeps them bigger and more fun to catch.

I think I have only kept about 10 in my life,,never really had a banner sheepshead day...maybe two at the most in a trip, but that is it. Now black drum, there are good to eat when they are small and above the min. Too many times we have run into schools of those and limited out quick. It is just too much fun fishing the bays, cause you really never know what you are going to catch...

Everyday I go out looking for Trout and bullreds, I have a "banner sheephead day"..
I am sheephead king.
No sheephead are safe when I'm on the water.
Hell , I'm so good at catching sheephead, I think I've caught 'em in freshwater before!
Fun to catch when they hit. Dissappointing you didnt get that 15lb Bullred when you get it up to the boat.
I hate sheephead.

When we go offshore diving on the rigs we see some that are close to 100 pounds swiming right next to you, they are some awesome creatures and we will spear one everynow and them just for the fight plus to take them back to town and give the mean to our friends that like them. nothing at all wrong with them as far as eating.