Sheepshead

Sheepshead are a member of the porgy family, and are distinguished by their 7 vertical stripes. They are very prolific in Florida, and are best targeted during the cooler months.

Sheepshead eat a variety of foods, including shrimp,crabs,oysters,barnacles, and tube worms.Very rarely will they eat bait fish or artificial, but it happens once in a great while.

One of the easiest ways to catch sheepshead, is fishing from bridges during the cooler months. Chumming is a very good way to get them to come to you, and also to fire up the bite. You can scrape the barnacles off bridge pilings, or gather oysters and barnacles before hand and crush them up in a bucket and sprinkle them around the pilings or area you are going to fish.

The absolute best bait in my opinion is a mangrove tree crab:

Followed by fiddler crabs,shrimp,mud crabs, and shrimp.

My favorite set up for sheepshead, is 10-12 lb. test line, a small j hook, and a split shot sinker 18 inches up from the hook. I drop my crab right down behind the piling and let the sinker hit bottom. Then I slowly lift the sinker off the bottom about three feet, if you feel a fish on at this point slowly raise the rod until they are hooked(if I try to set the hook I miss every time), if you don't have a fish on lower the sinker back to the bottom and repeat the process.