Night Fishing for Sheepshead: What You Should Know

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Sheepshead are one of the unique marine species that bite well both during the day and at night.

In fact, many hardcore sheepshead anglers say that fishing at night is better, mainly because they can be very line shy and reclusive during the day.

Keep reading to learn more about night fishing for sheepshead…whether you want to gig em’, bowfish, or catch them on hook and line I’ve got some tips to get you started!

Table of Contents

Do Sheepshead Bite At Night?

Sheepshead are very active at night, and fishing can be excellent. During periods of a full moon, sheepshead feed around pilings, bridges, rocks, and other structure which make them a great target for night anglers.

When you are night fishing for sheepshead, using live bait is the most effective method.

In fact, sheepshead are notoriously difficult to catch on lures because they are not a predatory fish.

They are passive feeders, often scanning the seafloor, and weaving in and out of structures looking for an easy meal.

Have you seen sheepshead teeth before? They are built for crunching and grinding the hardest material for an easy meal.

Tips To Catch Sheepshead At Night

Fish in the shallow water with effective floodlights and scan the seafloor while in a boat, especially around rockier areas. 

If you are fishing off of jetty rocks, you don’t want to waste your bait and potentially your hooks by guessing where your fish are. Thankfully, there’s a systematic method you can use. 

Instead of fishing at the rocks or just off the rocks, you can start off by casting into deeper waters. Then, slowly reel into the rocks in the shallower water.

Try and position your bait just on the outside edge of the stucture. Get it as close as you can without snagging!

Repeat this process until you find a distance and depth that are consistently giving your sheepshead bites. This is the area that you should be targeting. 

At night, the full moon might provide enough light to fish by. If not, you can always use a headlamp or a fluorescent light. 

Natural dock lights and street lamps can also provide just enough glow to fish. Sheepshead love hanging out in the shadows of these areas!

While we’re talking about fishing along the rocks, you should also try to find areas that are lower than the surrounding rocks. Ideally, they should have waves coming through them.

This forms a natural gate. Often, the crabs will be knocked off the rocks. The sheepshead knows this, so they tend to hunt in these areas. 

Fishing for sheepshead at night can be very effective! And…there are ways to get sheepshead without a hook and line, such as a gig or bow.

Gigging Sheepshead at Night

Gigging is usually done at night for flounder. But if you are new to gigging, there are some things to know before going gigging at night for the first time.

Gigging at night will require more light than what the full moon gives you if you want to successfully gig your sheepshead.

Otherwise, It’s too difficult to accurately judge where a fish is. The refraction of the water and its muddiness make it too dark and can distort where to aim

The clarity of the water will depend on where you’re fishing. If you regularly gig at night, you know that submersible gigging floodlights are necessary. They help you cut through the muddiness in murky water where sheepshead are often found.

Night Fishing for Sheepshead

The best lights allow you to adjust the color tone depending on the water quality. After all, sometimes you’re not allowed to hunt all the kinds of fish in the area.

So, you want to be able to identify the ambiguous blob-like shape on the river floor or risk a fine for gigging something too short or out of season.

When you have good lighting, your hunting grounds will always be in the shallows. No matter how good the light is, it can’t reach the bottom in deeper waters.

However, their hunting grounds can make fishing for sheepshead challenging. 

Sheepshead eat shellfish or crustaceans like crabs, shrimp and sandfleas. And of course they are known for their love of barnacles and marine growth. They love to hide around man-made structures like pylons, docks, or among rock piles.

Bowfishing Sheepshead at Night

Those interested in bowfishing should follow the same gigging techniques. Fish in the shallow water with effective floodlights. Scan the river floor while in a boat, especially around rockier areas. 

You might be feeling more confident in catching sheepshead in deeper water. But this is not for bowfishing. Don’t bowfish below five feet, especially at night. It’s harder to see the fish. 

You’ve probably been trained to know that in bowfishing, the way to account for light refraction during the day is to use the 10:4 rule.

If the fish is one foot deep under the water’s surface and 10 feet away, you need to aim the arrow four inches lower than where it seems to be.

You’ll be happy to learn that this rule still applies at night. 

Should You Add a Light to Your Bait For Sheepshead?

Some anglers may suggest putting a light on your bait when you fish at night so that the sheepshead fish can easily see your bait.

While it is true that fish have limited vision at night, they have no trouble relying on their other senses to find prey. 

Leave the night lights to swordfish…and stick with natural bait presentations when fishing for sheepshead.

So long as you are casting your line to where the fish are, they will have no trouble smelling out the bait, and seeing it.

Conclusion

Fishing at night for sheepshead does not have to be complicated. Use just enough light to illuminate your fishing area, or better yet go on a full moon.

Stick with live bait, or natural bait like shrimp, fiddler crabs, sand fleas or clams.

Be sure to use small sharp hooks…my favorite is a 1/0 owner circle hook. Be patient, and don’t jig or move your bait aggressively.

Let the current and waves give your bait natural movement, and pay close attention for a subtle bite.

Sheepshead do not ‘hit‘ a lure or bait like a predatory gamefish. Instead, you may feel a small ‘tink‘ on your line, and then tension…set the hook and get ready!

Growing up in Florida, I’ve been surrounded by saltwater my entire life…and I love sharing my passion with others.

To learn more about why I started Saltwater Mecca, visit the ABOUT page.

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