My name is sheep head and I am a convict fish

 

sheep head now a  Convict, was caught after several after years of stealing, this convict was hooked for being a thief,, While I don’t understand this type of life choice you do have to give credit to an artist in their chosen profession may still be admired, here is his story.

Still a fighter after being caught and just a little bitter, You dirty Rats, ya got my brother and ya got me, he said. But I had it all my way for a long time, top of the piling ma! only one little mistake I got careless, but now looking back It was my environment which sent me down this path.

 I was raised on the poor side of the ocean, life around the trestle is not easy, during the day life was ok I would hang out at the oyster beds easy living lots of food small crabs, and most of my family was there.  Where I went wrong was hanging out at the pilings at night, the fast water, the allure of that life style has brought down better fish than me, At first it was a crab here or there, a shrimp or two, but the crabs were just not enough I wanted bigger thrills. I ended up trying barnacles, at first it was only one before I went to sleep, but soon I was hooked, every night I was out chewing barnacles! the crunchy out side the soft meaty insides, what could I do I was hooked. They told me to stay away from them, but I could not stop. I heard the stories of a barnacle with a bright shinny spot, I told told these were exceptional bad, but the glint of it just hanging in the water,

Once when I was young I bit one, all of a sudden I was jerked up, being pulled I could not stop, suddenly there was this bright light, I was grabbed I could not breath, then held this way and that then the other poked, You could almost say probed, All of a sudden there was this on my jaw! Then it was over and I was flying then splash, I was back swimming hard for home.

But after thinking about it,  I figured, I was just too much for those aliens to handle, they had to release me. I knew how attractive the lure of the bait was. Soon I could not restsit I had to have more, I started just nibbling a little bit from one side or the other careful not to let that shiny thing get me, I became the best bait stealer, I could swipe the bait right off that shiny thing before the alien even knew I was there. It was bit and all of a sudden the bait was jerked away, like it was never there in the first place, but after a while it always came back. I would swim quietly on the back of a piling waiting, watching up into the currant, so even if I could not see it, I could smell it in front of me.

To me the best place to hang out around a piling is about 2 feet off the bottom, Plenty of barnacles, lots of tiny crabs trying to hide in the barnacles, If a big fish came around I could run around the piling until it got tire of chasseing me. I was king of the Trestle, If it was not for my addiction to barnacles, I would never have been caught. I should have known better, I watched the alien break barnacles off of the piling, putting some in a bucket with a little water to keep them from drying out, Then just down the pilings came this scraper crushing the barnacles sending a could of wonder smell out into the water around, it was too much I could not resist the smell, They got me by using a #2 owner cutting point hook. This hook has a point on it like a broad head arrow, which makes it easy to drill into the barnacle, he was using whole barnacle, hard outer shell and all.  That owner hook made it east to make a hole by twisting the hook side to side, it would drill in and then back up of the barnacle shell. Which is not fair I can resist a piece of bait, but a whole tasty barnacle the crunchy outer shell, the soft sweet meat inside, just like heaven on a hook.

 

putting the hook into the lower side then out of the bottom of the shell,  it is hard for me to see it hidden like that. Most hooks break up the barnacle easy for me to tell it was a bogus bait. But that hook with a #20 pound fluorocarbon leader and just a #3 spilt shot, was just the trick it took to fool me. cast or dropped right next to the piling them it slowly sinks, staying right in front of me, It is just not fair playing on my weakness like that. So yes I was caught in the act of bait stealing, and that is a Five minute to life sentence. depending on who catches you.     

  I admit I stole bait, yeah I did ya rotten copper. Why did I steal it. because I can. yeah I’m a thief and I’m good at it. Go ahead I dare you put a piece of bait in front of me, I will snatch it before you can blink. Hey I not braggin but I can steal a bait faster quicker than any fish alive, So you caught me, I was having a bad morning, I am the convict they call Sheep head, the best bait thief in the water. 
interviewed by
Fishin Frank