Weather got you down?   Trying to decide if you should venture out at all with this never-ending El Nino winter?   Don’t sit inside and fret, go fishing anyway!  Throughout much of the state of Florida you can consider targeting the striped bandit.   A sheepshead outing can be done on days where other types of fishing would be a lot tougher to do.   Sheltered areas like the canals and some passes and bridges can be accessed and lead to great action.   Sheepshead are great sport and excellent table fare if properly prepared.

The situation is very simple: Sheepshead chew on rocks for a living.  They love barnacles, fiddler crabs, sand fleas and shrimp but will also eat a bloodworm and even an earthworm.   While you may run into sheepshead on the “flats” where you’d also find redfish, your odds are a lot better fishing physical “structure.”   Bridge pilings, residential docks, rockpiles, oyster bars or “wrecks” are ideal locations to find these fish in the porgy family.   If you are where there are crustaceous barnacle coated things, you are probably also where there are sheepshead.

The time of year is perfect for targeting this species.   “Control” your bait-of-choice as it sinks down to the fish, preventing from fouling on a rock or other structure.   The amount of weight you use will depend on the situation.  As a rule-of-thumb, use the minimum amount of weight to get the bait down to where the fish should be.   Deeper water and/or higher current will obviously require more weight.    If possible “split shot” it, using minimal weight, anglers have little trouble feeling the fish take the bait.  For fishing docks that aren’t extremely deep, set up a little farther away from that structure.   The deeper the situation, the closer you can consider fishing from the location of those fish.

Tackle up with a 1/0 mosquito hook or circle hook, 20-pound fluorocarbon leader and a rod that you like the “feel” of the outfit.   Set the hook or just start reeling fast when you feel weight load up to the rod tip as a sheepshead starts swimming away with the bait.   Once hooked, they’ll put up a good fight but you shouldn’t lose a lot of these fish.     Be aggressive and place baits right on the structure.   Observant anglers will notice that “bridge sheepie” anglers will lean over the side and have the rod tip angle straight down.   This is to keep a bait right up against a piling.  Keeping a bait against rocks, a piling or oyster bed means that they will find it.   Baits that are any distance away from the structure will often not get their attention.