Sheepshead Fishing in Marco Island, Florida

Sheepshead are a very interesting looking fish named for their teeth which look like a sheep’s Sometimes they are called criminal fish since they have black stripes with its official name being Archosargus Probatocephalus. They get to 20 lbs. with the Florida record being 15.2 lbs. caught in Homosassa fl. Its greenish-silver body is striped with five or six dark vertical bars and a flat body

Sheepshead prefer inshore areas around jetties and piling, or in brackish waters around mangroves and estuaries. We find them all the time around our dock feeding on the pilings and rocks. Their odd “human-like” teeth need to be accounted for when we fish for these guys. The strong teeth can bite through a mono for fluoro leader and line so we use a 20 pound test hard mono or fluoro and hang a sinker on the on the line.

They will take an assortment of baits; oysters and shrimp. They are in the family of the pinfish so they have sharp long spines sprouting in all directions. Once they are hooked I like to make sure I have a set of tongs to take him off the hook.

These fish are one of my favorite eating fish. One of the local Chefs asks me to bring him a few when I go out because he claims it’s the most tender and juicy. Anyway you cook them they come out great.

15 per angler per day 12” min

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