Starting now and through the end of February the most common places to find sheepshead will be the bridges. More: Choosing the right fishing line for your reel As they start moving toward Pensacola Pass they will stop around structure to feed and gather into large schools making them an easy target. Like many species, sheepshead move from the upper bays toward the Gulf of Mexico to spawn. During the late winter and into the spring sheepshead become plentiful, easy to catch, and great family fun. Hitting them hard and fast will be the most successful strategy opposed to “playing them out” since barnacles and oysters are your fishing line’s worst enemy.Sheepshead can be found in Pensacola Bay year-round, but most of the time they are hard to catch and not targeted by many anglers. Sheepshead are hard fighting fish, and with their inclination to reside close to jagged structure, you will want to fish a pretty tight drag. If you get snagged on an oyster bed and happen to pull up a few oysters don’t throw them back! Crack them open and use the meat as free bait for sheepshead, but make sure to throw the shells back into the water for future oysters to cling onto and create more oyster beds! Winter is the best time of year for a hot Sheepshead bite and the bite has been HOT, so get out and find those convicts! Minimal movement is necessary, especially when using bait, because if you’ve casted in close proximity to the structure then you’ll already be set up within the strike zone. A good rule of thumb is that if you’re not getting snagged from time to time, then you’re not fishing close enough. You’ll want to cast your bait/lure as close as possible to the structure you’re fishing and let it slowly sink all the way down. Artificial crab and shrimp lures are also a fun alternative if bait happens to be unavailable. Now that you have your gear and location picked out, we can’t forget the most important aspect, the bait! Live fiddler crabs will be the best option IF you can find them, but shrimp, clams, and oysters are close seconds in terms of production. As for leader, 20-30lb monofilament or fluorocarbon will give you a sufficient combination of presentation and strength, but on the days where the bite is tough, downsizing to 15-17lb leader will make it harder for the fish to see your line while still being strong enough to resist some abrasion from the surrounding structure. For the latter, some anglers will prefer long shank hooks which makes the hook removal from their unusually tough mouths a bit easier. Most anglers lean towards using “ bottom sweeper” jig heads designed specifically for sheepshead, but a simple hook and weight ( split shot or egg) setup is equally effective. The recommended gear for targeting sheepshead is quite simple. Usually older structures have had the time to accumulate these large populations, so if you come across a dock, or any man-made construction that looks relatively new, chances are the sheepshead will be elsewhere. ![]() ![]() A good tip to locate where sheepshead may be residing is to simply use your eyes, ideally during low tide, to find any structure that supports a thriving population of barnacles and/or oysters. As you can sometimes witness, they tend to remain in very close proximity to structure (docks, bridges, oyster beds, rocks, etc.) while munching on barnacles, oysters, and any crustaceans that may pass by. Being one of the tastiest inshore fish on the menu, sheepshead are directly within the crosshairs of many anglers this time of year in wake of their increased abundance.
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