Fishing for Sheepshead

Catching one of these armed bandits can be as exasperating as looking for a needle in a hay stack. Talk about stealing your bait! They can de-bait your hook so gently and fast that it takes a high speed camera to tell you the bait was gone before it reached the nose of the fish.

The only way to feel a bite from a sheepshead is to watch the wiggle of the dangle at the rod tip. As the rod or line begins to move, snap it up and reel it in. You may have caught a sheepshead.

Sheepshead have the toughest and sharpest spines imaginable which are capable of inflicting a nasty puncture wound. As they slip and turn, be super careful of the front dorsal and the anal fins when picking them up with your bare hands.

Feeding Time

Their discolored front teeth are flat like a human set of dentures, and it is comical to see them for the first time snapping and gnashing them. You wonder if a dentist could recommend a fishy toothpaste. A theory for their ability to steal bait is: they probably smash, flatten, and mangle the bait with their front teeth until it slips silently off the hook (it takes only a couple of seconds) and is immediately sucked in with one slurp.

They love to nibble on those delicacies such as barnacles, mollusks, and whatever crustaceans that look promising. Crushed oysters and mussels are excellent chum to entice them to bite. They frequent the oyster bars, artificial reefs, buoys, submerged debris, bridges, and any other place that harbors crunchy food to nibble on. If you have time to find them, dig up a batch of fiddler crabs and sand fleas. It will pay off by catching more of these black on white striped beauties.

Identifying Features

Sheepshead are identifiable by the five to six black vertical bars on each side of the body, heavy scales, protruding front teeth beyond its lips, and their high sharp anal and dorsal fins. They have been caught weighing up to 21 pounds, 4 ounces and lengths up to 3 feet. The Florida record, unless broken, is 15 pounds, 2 ounces. They are difficult to fillet because of the deep rooted fins extending into the flesh, and the large tough scales.

Practice Makes Perfect

Prepare for a battle when catching the very large ones, as they resent being caught by little hooks that are tougher than their choppers. You can be told how to catch these tough fish but it is going to take some experience to really find out how it is done.