The calm, quiet shoreline of Christmas Bay outside of Galveston, Texas looks as fishy as ever this March morning, but friend Gerry Gimber and I have been poling for hours in search of redfish in the warming shallows and have yet to see even the first sign of life. It’s not until we reach some oyster reefs that our luck begins to change.
Gerry Gimber poles to the next oyster-reef on a shallow sand flat.
“There’ s a nice sheepshead at 12 o’clock, about 60 feet,” I tell Gimber. Not a red, but a fish to cast at just the same.
I spin the bow of the boat to the right to give him a clear shot, and his fly lands softly about a foot and a half in front of the fish. As the fly begins to sink, the sheepshead homes in on it. Without hesitation, Gimber begins his retrieve. But before I can say “slow it down,” the fish spooks and makes a mad dash for the safety of deeper water.
“Dude, you have to crawl the fly on the bottom,” I explain. “That’s just the way sheepshead want it.”
It doesn’t take long before we come upon another oyster reef surrounded by white sand bottom. Through the clear water we can easily see the black-and-white bars of a half dozen fish rooting around it. Most of them are chewing the barnacles off of the oyster shells, but one loner is at the edge of the shells, grubbing his lunch from beneath the sand. This makes for an ideal shot, so I quickly deliver the fly, but this time a little farther from the fish. I slowly drag my bonefish fly across the sand. The fish does not react so I make a quick strip to hop it off the bottom. It takes a half second for the sharp-eyed sheepshead to find the fly and I resume my original retrieve. The fish closes in and tails on the fly, trying to root it off the bottom. I finally feel subtle pressure, and start a slow, but powerful sweep of my rod to bury the hook. The fish shakes its head, and then bolts as I clear loose line to my reel.
Effective Artificials
Light-tackle anglers routinely catch sheepshead on small bucktails, particularly small skimmer-style flats jigs, and plastic shrimp. You will greatly increase your odds of hooking sheepshead on a jig by tipping the hook with fresh shrimp. But be aware that it’s tough to get a hookup on larger jigs due to the species’ small mouth.
Here’s a neat trick: With a spinning outfit, cast a bonefish fly in tandem with a clear plastic casting bubble. These bubbles can be found in many tackle shops or catalogs that cater to freshwater fishermen. A bonefish fly can be launched a long way with this rig. Be sure to cast well beyond the fish to prevent the fish from spooking when the bubble touches down, and then slowly retrieve the rig into the path of a feeding fish. Hold your rod at a 45-degree angle to the fish in order to feel the fish take. This method also works well when sight casting to sheephead with small live shrimp. Select a No. 6 hook and the smallest shrimp possible.
After I land the fish, Gimber takes the bow and in no time has a fish on. We finish the day with four sheepshead and a redfish—not too bad considering how slowly the day started. The water was too chilly for reds that day, but ideal for sheepshead. Since then, sheepshead have become one of my favorite back-up flats fish for early spring sight fishing.
Sheepshead tolerate a wide range of water temps, but, in my experience, 68 to 70 degrees seems best. I have seen them on flats where the water was in the 50s, but those fish were not the least bit interested in feeding. Of course, drum, flatfish and porgies are rarely caught in such cold water.
To find sheepshead in the Texas shallows, I search out hard sand flats, and if oyster reefs or scattered shell is present, the chances of finding them soar. Sheepshead prefer to forage over oyster bottom because that substrate encourages the growth of barnacles, a favorite sheepshead food. Dark oyster-strewn bottom also absorbs heat, which seems to attract other small crustaceans and marine worms that sheepshead eat.
If the water is shallow enough, it’s not uncommon to spot several translucent, forked tails wriggling and flopping above the surface as the fish chew barnacles off oysters. Another great place to find “heads” is around pilings and rocks, and in my neck of the woods, old duck blinds in shallow water. Once you find fish, you must approach quietly. Sheepshead are called convict fish because of the vertical black and white stripes they sport, but I alway quip that they are as hard to sneak up on as an escaped convict. This is especially true in clear water.
A stealthy approach is a must to take sheepshead, espcially in clear water.
A sheepshead’s eyesight borders on the supernatural, and the fish is “all ears” in the shallows, too. It will not tolerate hull slap, noisy wading or poorly presented flies and lures. In most cases, cast too close to a sheepshead and it will run for cover. For optimum stealth and to spot fish from a distance, you can’t beat a poling skiff with a raised poling platform and a casting platform. A model that minimizes hull slap is best, but to really sneak up on these fish, many anglers choose to wade.
Wading for sheepshead is usually easy work because they are predictably found on shell surrounded by hard sand bottom. However, avoid crunching down directly on shells. The breaking of oyster shell underfoot will certainly send a sheepshead scurrying for deep water. It’s best to wade the perimeter of an oyster bar or reef so as to minimize the chance of spooking the fish.
