Sheepshead are mostly found inshore around bridges, docks and piers. The barnacle encrusted pilings hold tons of sheepshead during the high tide. Sheepshead can also be found in the passes, along the mangrove-lined shorelines, along jetties, in the surf and offshore on the reefs and wrecks when they spawn. For freshwater anglers, sheepshead are kind of like a gigantic bluegill. You will use mostly live bait. The fish taste excellent and fight awesome.
Sheepshead Fishing in the Daytona Beach Area
Northeast Florida is home to some very good sheepshead fishing, especially during the winter months. Sheepshead do well in cooler water and they will feed pretty consistently in the inshore waters around the Ponce Inlet. You have plenty of places to fish for them here with the inlet, rivers, docks, the jetty and more. On some of the colder days in the winter, sheepshead will be the fish that helps make fishing exciting since they are usually willing to bite.
Sheepshead Fishing Tips
Sheepshead are one of the tougher saltwater fish to catch on artificial lures. It can be done, but using live or natural baits can out fish lures by 10 to 1 or more at times. It is easy to understand why most anglers just go with live bait and they don’t even mess with lures when fishing for sheepshead. Shrimp and fiddler crabs are the most popular baits, but don’t rule out a variety of cut baits, oysters and sand fleas. Sheepshead are known for stealing your bait and they also are a tough fish, so make sure you have a strong enough hook and a solid medium-heavy to heavy action fishing rod or you will lose a lot of fish.
Visit our Sheepshead fishing page to learn more.
Fish with Kevin on Headwaters Lake
Come fish Florida’s newest and best bass fishing lake. It is located only about an hour and 20 minutes from Orlando Airport. Kevin is the owner of UltimateFishingSite.net and he is now offering guided bass fishing trips on Headwaters Lake from December 2024 through June 11th, 2025. You will be fishing out of his brand new 2024 Mako Fishing Boat.
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