How to catch Sheepshead
Best bait to catch Sheepshead
Because sheepshead like to bottom feed on mollusks and crustaceans and occasionally eat shrimp, the most efficient bait to use when catching sheepshead would include fiddler crab, live shrimp, sand fleas, tube worms, clams, and cut bait. Artificial lures can also be used to catch sheepshead, such as a bottom sweeper jig, or a bare jig with a shrimp attached. The best time to switch from live bait to artificial bait is when the tide starts to slow down, allowing it to sneak up on sheepshead without movement.
Where to catch Sheepshead.
There are plenty of hotspots to catch sheepshead, for example, Mobile Alabama, Ocean City Maryland, Biloxi Mississippi, and Lake Charles Louisiana. In Southwest Florida, spots like the Everglades, Charlotte Harbor, and Destin play host to catching sheepshead as well. You can catch sheepshead along the Texas gulf coast in Galveston, Port O’Connor, and Corpus Christi.
Here’s more information about how to catch sheepshead, and what bait to use.
How to catch Sheepshead in different seasons
During the winter, sheepshead tend to stay active and gather up under a dock or piling, feeding on barnacles or clams. As the water begins to warm up in spring and summer, sheepshead, almost always stay closer to the bottom where it’s cooler. Bridge walls and pilings, jetties, fishing piers, and near shore reefs are the most efficient way onshore to find sheepshead. Furthermore, when targeting any structure with barnacles, scraping the barnacles into the water attracts swarms of sheepshead then throwing bait with shrimp attached near the swarm can lead to an top water catch!
In conclusion, sheepshead are bottom feeders that usually gather by docks or pilings, live bait and artificial lures can be used to catch Sheepshead, but the most effective bait is clams or barnacles, sheepshead can be found in many different areas and varies throughout seasons. Don’t take our word for it. Come catch sheepshead for yourself!
