Sheepshead anglers have it made in the shade

Expert tips for catching sheepshead under bridges

The 22-foot Ranger Bay boat slunk from glaring sunlight into charcoal shade. 

A bridge’s shadow sliced the boat in two, creeping along its shiny hull until it swallowed it completely. The contrast between light and dark was so stark that Capt. Jot Owens removed his ever-present sunglasses so his pupils could adjust to the dimmer illumination. 

“There’s nothing like fishing a bridge when it’s hot and sunny,” Owens said. “Sheepshead fishing is a great way to beat the heat. The shade is such a welcome relief.”

Owens operates Jot It Down Fishing Charters (910-233-4139). Based in Wrightsville Beach, he takes clients fishing for many species. But he cut his teeth on sheepshead.

“When I was a kid with no boat, I fished for sheepshead by walking the docks,” he said. “I could look down into the water and watch them eat my bait. When I got a boat, it broadened the area where I can catch them. They love structure because it attracts the things they eat. Bridges have more structure than anything else around and that’s why sheepshead love them.”

The bridge was one of many spanning saltwater channels along the southern coast of North Carolina within Owens’ fishing territory. Some cross the ICW, others hopscotch vehicles between islands. They are just like all the others in North Carolina and South Carolina in that they all have one thing in common. No matter where they are, they hold sheepshead. Anyone who wants to catch these convict-striped fish should try these tips and tactics.

Anchoring  

Securing the boat is the most important aspect of sheepshead fishing. While many anglers tie the boat to pilings fore-and-aft, the two lines create an impossibly tiny rectangle for fighting a fish. Using anchors invites problems as well, including snagging the anchor on a concrete piling base.

Owens drops his fluked anchor upstream of the bridge and allows the tide to move the boat beneath it. Turning the wheel allows water flow to move the boat closer or farther from pilings. Hauling in or letting out line moves the boat from piling to piling. A second, less snag-prone anchor, such as a mushroom anchor, can be dropped straight down off the stern or the stern can be tied off to a piling, leaving only one line to fish around. If the boat has a power anchor, setting it is another way to prevent boat sway.

No matter how well the boat is anchored, it may still hit a piling if another boat disregards the bridge’s no-wake signs. A floatation cushion should be handy to place between the piling and the gunwale as a bumper.  

Clues 

Anglers should look for other boats and cut lines dangling from the beams and pilings. Another clue is freshly scraped patches in encrustations.

Chumming

Scraping the pilings attracts sheepshead at all depths. They see fluttering shell fragments and exposed sea creatures, which ultimately collect on the bottom. The scent also drifts downstream on the current. 

Owens scrapes pilings on the downstream side of the bridge and fishes them because it attracts fish from open water. Other anglers scrape the upstream pilings, hoping to attract fish from within the structure maze. Another method is crushing or dicing crabs, oysters or thawed seafood and tossing it into the water.

Baits 

Most anglers use fiddler crabs because they are abundant and relatively easy to catch or to buy at bait shops. However, gathering enough can take the entire day before a trip. Buying them can be expensive because it takes a quart per angler for a day of fishing.

Fiddlers can be caught in cast nets in open sandy areas or captured by hand. They can pinch painfully, seldom drawing blood. But soft hands should be gloved.

Sheepshead also bite mud crabs, which can be withdrawn with pilers from between oysters on dock pilings. Mud crabs also hide beneath rocks and rubble. Gloves should be worn when collecting them.

Other good baits include mole crabs, shrimp, snipped sections of blue crab legs, barnacles, oysters and clams. While some of these baits can be impaled or draped on the hook, squishier baits can be bound in “barnacle bags.” Commonly used by pier anglers, most bridge anglers are unfamiliar with them. Barnacles or other baits are collected in a pouch made of Nylon hose and tied together. An elastic hair band also holds the bag on the hook. Bait steelers cannot eat the bait as easily as a naked bait and sheepshead bite and hold it, making the hookset easier.

Rigs 

Sheepshead are notoriously soft biters and making rigs aimed at sensitivity are unique to each angler. Treble hooks, long-shank and short-shank hooks, wire hooks and stout stainless-steel hooks have their fans. Owens uses a Carolina rig with an egg sinker just heavy enough to keep the line taut sliding on the line above a swivel, 12 inches of 40-pound mono leader and a No. 2 live bait hook. He spools his reels with 20- to 30-pound braid. The rod is short because the distance between the tip and overhead bridge structure diminishes as the tide rises. Keeping watch on overhead clearance can prevent a broken rod tip.

Searching

Sheepshead move around, grazing pilings. The best depth is usually 4 to 10 feet and, if the water is clear, anglers can see them. A good tactic is to start fishing at low tide, scraping barnacles from pilings. As the water rises, the exposed area may attract fish.

The fish prefer a certain depth, so the angler may have to move closer to the bank into shallower water or farther from the bank into deeper water to stay in the strike zone. This usually involves moving from one row of pilings to another.

Landing 

Sheepshead are strong fighters that can wrap line around a piling and cut free. Fishing close enough to poke the rod between the pilings to follow a fish around them is a good tactic. Keeping a tight drag is a must. Having a landing net ready to corral a big fish quickly is another.

Numerous other fish fiddle around with crab baits

Anyone who fishes for sheepshead should be prepared to catch other species. Some of them are so bizarre, it’s almost like fishing from an offshore head boat.

Small gag grouper and gray triggerfish are common catches. A tautog may even tug on the line. Although they are nearly always too small to keep, it is interesting to see them.

The most common gamefish sheepshead anglers catch are red drum and black drum. Both of these species are totally all right with sucking in a sand fiddler, or any other crustacean or mollusk an angler uses for bait that gets in the way of their noses.

Various rays, including southern stingrays that can be downright dangerous to handle, also strike sheepshead baits. The safest way to release them is to cut the line. But experienced anglers have other ways of releasing them.

Another annoying fish that is common to catch is the oyster toadfish. It is one ugly monkey, but is edible if the angler dares to tempt its crushing jaws and clean it.

One of the tastiest, underappreciated and often released catches is the puffer, also known as the blow toad or blowfish. These fish are quite tasty and, when stripped of their skin, gutted and fried, look so much like chicken legs that some anglers call them “sea squab.” A similar fish, the porcupinefish, has a spiney skin. It is a highly regarded aquarium fish and quite an unusual sight when it puffs itself full of water or air.