
BY JOE BALOG
This month, we travel to the eastern reaches of Volusia County for a unique winter fishing opportunity. Sheepshead – sometimes called “convict-fish” – gain in popularity each year due to their sporting fight and prized culinary standing. Frustrations abound, however, when it comes to catching them.
You’ll know a sheepshead when you see one – their silvery body accented with bold, dark stripes. They’re the chain-gang of the inshore. At first glance, you’d think sheepshead would stand out in their environment. Most fish have subtle colors or a silvery, mirror-like finish that reflects their surroundings. Sheepshead, though, fit into their surroundings just the same.
Think of the spots on a leopard, or stripes on a tiger. The shadowy locales where these predators hunt allow for light and dark contrast accenting their color patterns. The same for sheepshead. These predatory fish lure in the shadows of flooded mangrove trees, piers and pilings, where they graze on unsuspecting crabs and mollusks.

Here, a specialized set of teeth performs the dirty work. Those barnacles you see growing on the pilings at your favorite riverside restaurant? Sheepshead eat those. It’s remarkable to imagine a creature capable of chewing and digesting sea-life that otherwise slices like a razorblade. There’s a niche for everything in nature.
Once onboard, the dental work of a sheepshead is always a topic of discussion. You’ll want to keep your fingers away. Several human-like incisors make up the forward set of teeth, followed by three rows of molars for crushing shells. Often, the fish are missing a tooth or two, evidence of a life without hands. Surprisingly, the missing teeth never regrow, leaving some large adult fish the look of a prize-fighter.
Catching sheepshead seems like it should be easier than it is. Though I’m an accomplished angler and fish more than most, I’m not the best sheeps-header in Volusia County. My wife, however, has quite the touch.
You see, sheepshead are neurotic fish. The term “I’m getting a nibble” was certainly coined by a sheepshead fisher. I’m not used to fish that nibble. Bass don’t nibble, nor do grouper, snook or big speckled perch. Nibbling is for losers.
But if it’s sheepshead you want – and I do – it’s nibbling you must put up with. For that reason, accomplished sheepers (no, not shepherds) often rely on limber rods that easily detect bites. A subtle twitch starts the show. Patience is a must until the fish takes the bait, signaled by a steady pull. My wife pulls back, and usually hooks up.
By this time, I’m without bait, my offering again robbed by the convict-fish. Happy to help, I net my wife’s catch, and dream of eating it.
Bait is an important consideration. As the sheepshead is accustomed to hard-shelled food sources, small crabs make the best morsel. Local bait shops get daily calls from anglers looking for “fiddlers” – the small crabs you’ll see scurrying away when hitting the local sandbars at low tide. Fiddler crabs drive a premium price, and several dozen are usually required for a days’ fishing. Sometimes it takes four or five swings to connect with a fish.
I’ve never been one to buy much fishing bait, preferring to catch my own shiners, shad or, in this case, crabs. I’ve tried catching fiddlers without much luck, so instead rely on mole crabs, known locally as sand fleas. They’re always available around area beaches.
Sand fleas make great bait for sheepshead. It’s common to catch several hundred of the little buggers in an afternoon, and they freeze well. I forgo any sophisticated process and just rinse the crabs and freeze them in Ziploc bags. With no cost involved other than a trip to the beach, you don’t get concerned when sheepshead peck the crabs off the hook. Usually, the more fish you don’t catch, the better the sheepshead bite; residual bait entering the water acting like chum.
Some anglers will, in fact, chum sheepshead into a flurry. Veterans carry a long-handled scraping tool in the boat. They’ll move in around pilings and bridge abutments and scrape off the barnacles. Sheepshead hanging in the area take advantage of the free meal and things get lively. The next offering hides a hook.
Real hardcore anglers chum with oysters, crushing the shell and all, then dispersing. Remember, harvesting oysters in Florida comes with season and size regulations, so check to prevent a problem. Some anglers have found ways to use oysters as bait and swear by them. Others use shrimp, too.
The key comes in positioning your boat around objects that hold feeding sheepshead. Dock pilings are a no-brainer, but my best spots are less visible to other anglers. Believe it or not, the intracoastal waterway holds lots of sunken boats and their secrets. Sheepshead are drawn to them in all depths of water.
You’ll want the tide moving a bit, but not so fast that you can’t hold bottom with more than about an ounce of sinker. Keep your hook small and sharp for the best chance of penetrating the sheepshead’s bony mouth.
Winter’s windy weather keeps saltwater anglers like me inshore, away from our prized ocean bounty. Sheepshead make a great target on the calmer waters of the Halifax River.
Like any fish, only keep enough that you’ll use for a meal or two. Many of Florida’s archaic fish limits – created at a time before massive fishing pressure and space-aged technology – do little to protect our gamefish. It’s up to us to be stewards of the seas.
Regardless, I’m not making much of a dent in the sheepshead population. The convicts continue to steal my bait as fast as I can renew it. Still, I’ll forever be trying for just one more fish. Maybe I’ll see you out there.