By Gita Smith

How often does a boy catch a fish and win thousands of dollars? Not very often.

But Ben Ibarra, who lives in Baytown, Texas, did just that. He won a fishing contest called StarKids Rodeo, which is held every year.

This past September, on Labor Day, Ben cast his line into the water, and he let it fall to the bottom. He felt a sheepshead (a striped fish with a hard mouth) starting to chew on the bait. Ben reeled the fish in, taking a couple of minutes to get the big guy to the boat.
To Benís delight, the fish weighed 9 pounds, 10 ounces on the boat scale.

By the time Ben brought his fish to the official weigh-in, it had lost a little, and it weighed in at 8 pounds 14 ounces. That was still enough to put Ben in the winnerís spot for the contest. His prize was $50,000 for his college education.

Here is how Ben remembers that day: "I was on a boat and my dad was driving. It was 9 o'clock in the morning on the last day of the contest. My sister was winning the contest. She already had the biggest sheepshead, 7 pounds and 12 ounces."

Ben was using his All-Star fishing rod, and he had shrimp on the hook. The bait was deep in the water. "I put tension on the line and then I felt some tugs. I reeled it in, but nothing was on the hook. I tossed it out again, and this time I caught a fish. It felt really great. I only fought a minute or two. When I saw it at the side of the boat I thought I was going to win something really good."

When the contest winners were announced, Emily came in second. She won a $500 gift certificate to spend at a sporting goods store. The whole family was very excited and happy.

Ben, who is 7 years old, goes to Victoria Walker Elementary School where he is in second grade. He likes to shoot arrows in the family back yard. But his favorite place to be is fishing with his dad, Robert, and his sister, Emily, in Trinity Bay. Robert Ibarra is a great coach to his kids. And no wonder; he teaches fishing at Lee College. Ben has been fishing with his dad since he was 3 years old. He started casting and tying knots on his own this past year.

His advice to kids who want to catch sheepsheads: "Fish on the bottom. Thatís how I caught mine."

HOW TO CATCH A SHEEPSHEAD
Sheepsheads live in salt water on both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico.

A sheepshead's teeth on both the top and bottom look exactly like the teeth of a sheep. They use these teeth to crush small crustaceans (like crabs and oysters) for food. The inside of their mouth is lined with a hard surface that helps grind the shells.

But fish hooks have a hard time sinking into those tough mouths. So a lot of sheepsheads are simply not hooked. For this reason, you will need to use a different way of setting the hook when a sheepshead nibbles on your bait. If you jerk your line (the way you do with a bass) to set the hook, youíll end up with a bare hook.

For bait, you can use shrimp or small crabs. The fish move up to the bait in the water, take it into their mouths without swimming anywhere, and sit there in one place crushing the bait off of your hook. So the trick becomes knowing when they are holding the bait in their mouth.

Slowly lift your rod tip and feel for any weight or pressure on the line. If you feel some, keep lifting the rod tip. If the fish has your bait in its mouth, it will begin moving away. When it does, reel a little faster to increase the pull on the bait. The fish will move a little faster, and soon it has hooked itself in the soft side of the mouth, away from the hard roof.

Sheepsheads can be found near almost any kind of structure: rock piles, piers, stumps or pilings in the ocean. They also will swim near the bottom where they hunt for shrimp.

Whatever line or reel you use, make sure you tie on a slip sinker to get the bait down, and a leader about 12 inches long.

And remember: The key to catching sheepshead is patience.