Thread: Sheepshead rigs and tips

Im planning on really focusing on some sheepshead fishing this year. I wanted to get some advice on rigs and maybe a few tips. I know they like to be around the pilings, do they typically move in the water column? I also heard the bite can be very soft?

Whatever you make, make a lot of em lol I don't know how Haywire and the other errrrrrr "experienced" people only lose a few if any rigs while I lose about 9823147 and only land 1 fish. I use smallest eggweight I can with 18" of 15# flouro leader and a 3X size 6 treble hook from fishntime that sells em at the pier.

Pretty much I see what Haywire or Chile do and try to do the same thing with worse results.

Standard Carolina rig fished vertically.
#8 or #10 treble, x3 or x4 strength if you can find them, tie onto twelve inches of 12# fluorocarbon with a tiny swivel.
Smallest egg weight that'll keep your line pretty much straight down in whatever wind/current, 1/2oz to 3oz or more.
I like to use the heaviest mainline I can, 12-15#, helps prevent cutoffs and pull the fish outta the pilings.

Now I'm gonna tell ya one of Haywire's secrets to fishing with live shrimp... Don't tell anyone else... You gotta lick your shrimp, I swear it works, just ask Haywire.
You can lick fiddlers too, but careful of the claws.

Bite is usually an almost imperceptible tap tap.
Tap! He takes your bait and eats it, Tap! He spits your hook out and laughs at you.
Sometimes when they're hungry and really horny they'll eat with gusto and then the bite is a vigorous yank.

They tend to localize in a particular area between pilings on one or two corners of the Octi, and at a certain depth while engaging in their mating orgies.
But they like to move around from time to time just to keep us guessing.
When looking for them I often go to the bottom and then come up a few feet every few minutes trying to find them.
Three or four feet of difference can mean bites or no bites, temperamental lil'bastards.

I am a novice sheepshead fisherman, but I have noticed a couple of things.

I have fished for speck and whatnot with live shrimp under a cork and have seen shrimp jump completely out of the water when a fish is trying to hem them up. If you are fishing with live shrimp and have a decent sized one on the hook be aware that a lot of the twitching you see or feel is the shrimp trying not to get eaten - that is not a "bite". If the sheepshead eats the shrimp he will probably move your line sideways. Try to learn what an active shrimp feels like.

A longer (7 ft +), fast action rod (strong butt, flexes mostly at the tip) will help you move the fish off the piling once hooked (as opposed to the short ones I've been using).

J&M keeps a Mustad 9174 xtra strong short shank hook that I like for sheepshead. The size #2 is plenty strong enough and compact enough to conceal in a fiddler crab or thread a small ghost shrimp on. For live shrimp I like a Mustad 9626BZ size #8 4x treble hook. They can be extremely finicky, line, leader and hook shy. I can't count how many times I have hooked a live shrimp through the horn and feel a good bite only to have it eat up to the head of the shrimp and leave the hook behind. Same deal when hooking live shrimp through the tail. The fish will eat the shrimp all the way to the hook and swim away. 20lb braid and 12lb-15llb fluorocarbon leader material will let you feel more bites and still be plenty strong enough to get them away from the pilings. If they just quit biting you may have to go lighter and longer on the leader-as light as 6lb test. You will lose a lot of fish but I had rather get bites and lose fish as stand on the rail drowning bait. Water clarity can make using light line necessary as well. No matter how "perfect" your line-leader-bait and presentation is you will still lose fish that have a hook between their dental work that simply come unhooked. Sometimes hooks pull loose easily from their soft, thin outer mouth. It is as frustrating as it is fun. It should start to pick up in the next couple of weeks if the water warms up.

Yeah, the fish will start biting about the same time the turkeys start gobbling. This year I'm going to use short strips of bacon to imitate ghost shrimp. It should stay on the hook better and everything likes bacon.

Originally Posted by Haywire

Yeah, the fish will start biting about the same time the turkeys start gobbling. This year I'm going to use short strips of bacon to imitate ghost shrimp. It should stay on the hook better and everything likes bacon.

Haywire that is brilliant. Should work as good as my cave crickets and redworms.

Originally Posted by Haywire

Yeah, the fish will start biting about the same time the turkeys start gobbling. This year I'm going to use short strips of bacon to imitate ghost shrimp. It should stay on the hook better and everything likes bacon.

Think jowl would work?

I use a whole hamhock to make sure I only get big sheepshead.

Bronze cricket