Collection: Sheepshead Tackle

Small sharp hooks, split shot and round jig heads for sheepshead.

Sheepshead have a reputation for stealing bait and it is entirely deserved. They have human-looking teeth built for crushing barnacles and crabs, and they will pick a shrimp off your hook with a bite so subtle you never register it. The old line about setting the hook just before they bite is a joke, but it points at something true — you have to fish these very differently.

Three things fix it. Use the smallest, sharpest hook you can — a #1 or 1/0 octopus hook disappears into a piece of shrimp where a bigger hook telegraphs itself. Use the least weight that gets you down, which is usually a pinched split shot rather than a sinker. And stay in direct contact with the bait — any slack and you will never feel the bite at all.

Find them on structure. Bridge pilings, dock posts, jetty rocks, anywhere barnacles grow. Scrape some barnacles off a piling and the fish will come to you.

Best fishing is winter through early spring, when they gather to spawn around nearshore structure. Excellent eating, awkward to clean.