Sheepshead Gold Cap & Hook

If ever a fish needed dental work, it would have to be the barnacle-crushing Sheepshead. I never thought I would actually catch a Sheepshead that seemed to already have had dental work done but the 2nd week in March proved me wrong. I had a hard time finding fish that day but tried to convince a new teenage angler on my boat that POC did have an abundance. When we finally got into some Sheepsheads, I warned her to keep her fingers clear of the mouth as a bite from one of these fish would definitely get her attention. As I was demonstrating how to remove a hook from her first fish of the day, I saw something shiny in the fish’s mouth. It appeared he had a gold cap on one of his back teeth. Between the fish’s fight against my lip clip and the fact he had swallowed the hook, I decided to put him in the cooler and figure out the gold cap when he was a little more docile. Once we got back to the boat dock, I decided it was time to check out this peculiar catch of the day. After prying his mouth open, there was indeed a gold cap on his back tooth. With my needle nose pliers, I was able to remove the cap. It appeared to be the brass from a firearm but I just wasn’t sure. I figured
Donny at POC Rod and Gun might be able to help me out and, after examining it, Donny identified it as a primer from a 410 shotgun shell. So, this is how I imagine it went down… While fishing, an angler fires a round out of his Taurus Judge revolver. The shell is ejected into the water and the primer cap is dislodged. A Sheepshead swims by and, loving shiny things, decides that this object must be super tasty. The Sheepshead slurps it up and before swallowing it, chomps down just right so the cap covers his back tooth perfectly. Now the Sheepshead thinks it’s terribly annoying until all the ladies start noticing and think his new grill is super cool. Unfortunately for him, he hits my live shrimp, gets thrown into my cooler and, well, the rest is history

Leah and her Sheepshead