Marc Deschenes takes a decidedly freshwater-fishing approach to catching sheepshead on the Charleston Harbor jetties, and it’s no wonder. He operates VIP Adventures, a collection of private freshwater ponds loaded with largemouth bass, crappie and bream, and that means his day-in, day-out freshwater fishing tends to bleed over when he hits the brine.
“A lot of times I will just ease down the rocks throwing a cork with a fiddler or a cork and a shrimp on top of the rocks,” Deschenes said. “I set my cork about a foot or foot-and-a-half deep, and I will let that cork and that shrimp kind of drift from rock to rock.
“It’s also a big help if you can see the sheepshead. You can’t feel him, but you can see him. When you see that fish turn sideways and you see a silver body flash just under the cork, you can bet he is eating your shrimp.”
Deschenes’ rig is the same one he uses on his ponds for panfishing: a 2-inch crappie float, a No. 5 splitshot, a swivel to combat the inevitable line twist created by surging currents and a bream hook.
“You may see your bobber just kind of stop drifting,” Deschenes said. “It may move just a blip, like something just spit on it. I promise you, he’s got it.
“If you hesitate, the fish will have spit the shell of the crab and moved on to the next one. He crushes and sucks and then spits the shell out. He does not grab it and run off with it. All he wants is what’s on the inside of that crab or that oyster.”
Deschenes’ tactics may not exactly equate to fishing a bream bed or jigging a brush pile for crappie, but it’s not a far stretch.
“Standing on the bow of the boat, it’s pretty common to look out and see several sheepshead holding in the rocks,” he said. “I try to throw past the fish and let my cork drift to them.
“If you see five fish sitting up in the crevice of a rock and you throw 8 to 10 feet out in front of the fish then let your cork drift to the fish, one of them is going to get it.”
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