Thread: Sharpening your fillet knife, getting ready for fall/winter

While I have a good friend who will sharpen my fillet knives for me if I ask him, I hate to constantly impose on him, because, you know, I'd like for him to stay my friend! I took my knives, just the other day to the Ace Hardware in Foley, where they have a sharpening machine for non-serrated knives. It does a good job and puts a really sharp edge on your knife and it's not all that expensive, especially for me, not being skilled at the craft of knife-sharpening. I think that it's somewhere around 8 or 9 bucks per knife and yes, I know that I can get a brand new one for $20-$30 bucks. But I like the ones that I have and at least for the short term, I want to keep them and keep them sharp.
So, If you're like me and you need to get your fillet knife ready for whiting and sheepshead season (there's not really a season, it's just that they're more plentiful) in the later fall and winter, try out that Ace Hardware near the Piggly Wiggly in Foley. It may be that all Ace Hardware stores have a sharpening machine.
At this change of the seasons is also a good time to put fresh line on your reels so that when you get that whopper of a sheepshead on, it doesn't break you off. I use 20 pound test for sheepshead and 14 pound test for whiting with 12 pound fluorocarbon leader. I don't use fluorocarbon leader for sheepshead because they don't seem to mind the larger sized line when they're in a feeding mood.
Whiting have small mouths. You'll want to match the hook size to the fish. I often use an octopus hook from Gamakatsu (if I remember correctly) in the red color. Sorry, but I don't recall the size from memory. Fishing for sheepshead, I use a #8 treble, 3X strong because they can crush a hook when they inhale your bait. The swivel I use is the smallest I can get away with, which is also the description of the egg sinker on my Carolina rig.
As for bait, I use a small fingernail piece of shrimp with possibly a small piece of shrimp fishbites for whiting. Or if I have gone to my favorite place to slurp out ghost shrimp, for me, that's a preferred bait for whiting. You can use them live, fresh dead or possibly fresh-frozen.
For Sheepshead, I like fiddler crabs. They last and few other fish species will bother them, generally speaking. I also use live shrimp. They want one, typically, that shows life on the hook. Sometimes, it seems, they'll only hit shrimp and sometimes they'll only hit fiddler crabs. Only once, ever, have I caught one on an artificial flavored bait, but it's not an efficient strategy for producing positive results. Again, with me, it's a Carolina rig with sufficient weight to hold the bait in place. It's straight-down fishing from the pier. When you get a hit, it's a tap on your rod tip. Set the hook right then, because that's the sheepshead crushing your bait. Since typically, catching sheepshead involves fishing right next to pilings, be ready to step toward the space away from the piling, so that you lead the fish away from structure that the fish can use to break you off.
It's best to have a pier net or to have access to one. I got mine at Bass Pro Shops in Spanish Fort, but local bait shops may carry them.
Sheepshead and whiting are both great eating! There are good YouTube videos on efficiently filleting sheepshead and avoiding cutting through their rib bones will help keep your fillet knives sharp. Good luck/good fishing!