16 of 65worth the trip today
Best right now at Cape Henlopen, Delaware. Water is inside the 60–82° range sheepshead like at 58 of the 60 spots with a live reading.
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Structure-oriented crustacean eater with famously human-like teeth, on piers, jetties, bridges, and oyster bars from the mid-Atlantic through the Gulf. Fiddler crabs, sand fleas, or small pieces of shrimp on a knocker rig right against the structure. Expect to lose tackle.
Around the Chesapeake. VA piers, jetties, and the rocks and pilings of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel are the classic targets.
Archosargus probatocephalus, family Sparidae.
All 65 spots with sheepshead in season, scored for sheepshead, best first.
74° water · 15 mph wind · outgoing tide
74° water · 15 mph wind · incoming tide
71° water · 15 mph wind · low slack tide
69° water · 15 mph wind · outgoing tide
70° water · 10 mph wind · low slack tide
69° water · 10 mph wind · low slack tide
77° water · 15 mph wind · outgoing tide
80° water · 10 mph wind · outgoing tide
75° water · 24 mph wind · outgoing tide
69° water · 15 mph wind · outgoing tide
69° water · 15 mph wind · outgoing tide
69° water · 15 mph wind · outgoing tide
74° water · 15 mph wind · incoming tide
72° water · 5 mph wind · outgoing tide
73° water · 15 mph wind · outgoing tide
61° water · 8 mph wind · incoming tide
61° water · 7 mph wind · incoming tide
69° water · 15 mph wind · outgoing tide
67° water · 12 mph wind · incoming tide
59° water · 7 mph wind · incoming tide
15 mph wind · outgoing tide
76° water · 23 mph wind · low slack tide
67° water · 13 mph wind · incoming tide
67° water · 13 mph wind · incoming tide
67° water · 13 mph wind · incoming tide
67° water · 15 mph wind · incoming tide
77° water · 13 mph wind · outgoing tide
79° water · 10 mph wind · outgoing tide
67° water · 13 mph wind · incoming tide
70° water · 22 mph wind · incoming tide
70° water · 20 mph wind · outgoing tide
73° water · 18 mph wind · incoming tide
74° water · 24 mph wind · outgoing tide
74° water · 24 mph wind · outgoing tide
76° water · 14 mph wind · outgoing tide
59° water · 7 mph wind · incoming tide
68° water · 16 mph wind · incoming tide
79° water · 10 mph wind · outgoing tide
75° water · 25 mph wind · outgoing tide
20 mph wind · incoming tide
67° water · 21 mph wind · incoming tide
22 mph wind · incoming tide
75° water · 25 mph wind · incoming tide
76° water · 25 mph wind · incoming tide
75° water · 25 mph wind · incoming tide
25 mph wind · incoming tide
68° water · 25 mph wind · incoming tide
74° water · 28 mph wind · incoming tide
77° water · 25 mph wind · incoming tide
77° water · 33 mph wind · incoming tide
79° water · 29 mph wind · incoming tide
Sheepshead feed from about 60° to 82°F and best near 72°. Each pin is one spot’s water right now, from NOAA and USGS gauges; 58 of 60 are inside the range.
Scored against their own temperature range and tide preference first, then wind, weather and warnings. Solunar periods only break ties. How the score works
The Maryland, Delaware and Virginia months are the Chesapeake-region season. Everywhere else it is carried over by water temperature: a month counts at a spot when its usual water is in the range that marks the mid-Atlantic season (59°F and warmer), from the spot’s own gauge where it has one and an estimate from air temperature where it doesn’t. Each state lists the months that hold at half or more of its spots. Where the water temperatures come from.
Rules change, and they differ by state and often by water. Each spot page shows the limits for its own water. Sheepshead are fished at spots in 10 states: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia.
2 state agencies named sheepshead in their latest reports, newest first, linked to the source.
The Ocean City area had to shake off another rainy and windy weekend, that is three in a row. The weather turned around yesterday, and sunny and warm temperatures are instore for the rest of the week.
Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays
6 species named: bluefish, flounder, red drum, sheepshead, striped bass, tautog
Read at Maryland DNR6 species named: largemouth bass, red drum, sheepshead, striped bass, white perch, yellow perch
Read at Delaware DNRECSpecies people target at the same spots as sheepshead, and how they’re doing today.
Spotted seatroutCynoscion nebulosus51 of 118 spots worth the trip
Best now at Venice, LA100
Bites in 60–85° water
Red drumSciaenops ocellatus15 of 103 spots worth the trip
Best now at Venice, LA100
Bites in 65–85° water
Southern flounderParalichthys lethostigma14 of 44 spots worth the trip
Best now at Orange Beach, AL98
Bites in 58–82° water
BluefishPomatomus saltatrix69 of 127 spots worth the trip
Best now at Sandy Hook, NJ98
Bites in 60–80° water
Press / anywhere to search. Towns list the closest spots.