Winter fishing around Sargent is really fun. It’s time to fish for Sheepshead. Sheepshead are really abundant and prolific around East Matagorda Bay and Sargent Texas. If you live on the Creek, Canal or on the intracoastal you can catch them off of your docks. For the next 8 weeks the fish we call Sheepshead are prolific around Sargent. Their spawn usually is in the end of March. They love docks, structure, Oyster Reefs, rocks or any structure.. They love canals and piers and any rocks or Oyster Beds. They are close to Sargent and to your home.
So it is no wonder that this time of the year near the end of winter many people take the boat out on the intracoastal to run the boat and get some gas circulating through the systems. Winter is almost over so they are doing “run downs” with the the boat. Spring time is just around the corner and for a lot of weekenders who have no heat in the house they come to Sargent for a better part of a day. Guess what? While you are riding the boat up and down the intracoastal many of them can target a part of your day going for sheepshead. Yep! They are in Caney creek too. I have put together a Sargent, Hot-Spot map showing where I have had the best luck searching for and catching these incredible good eating fish.
Sheepshead are in the Porgy family of fish. They love to eat small barnacles, Crustaceans Oysters and Crabs. They love Fiddler Crabs or cut shrimp and live shrimp. These Source foods makes their flesh extremely white and good to eat. Many friends call it the lobster fish. It does have some Lobster qualities but not as sweet. If you have kids or Grand kids the fact is that they are a great fish for the little ones to catch or eat. Kids seem to love to catch them and eat them too. Take the kids on the water while you’re running the boat up and down the intracoastal. When you catch a Sheepshead they will put up quite a little fight. They they usually are under 5 lbs but can get much bigger. This makes them really a kids size fish too. They will be thrilled to catch one.
I have an old fashion method for winter bait. If you dry out small pieces of cut up shrimp in an Old coffee with salt on the shrimp.. This helps dry the shrimp out and makes it get hard. The water comes out of the shrimp. You can store them in the can and they won’t go bad. They smell fish. By using this as bait It makes the Sheepshead work harder at stealing your bait. You can use this method with shrimp and store it in a coffee can to use when others don’t have any shrimp.
If you have live shrimp,dead shrimp, small crabs or dead salted shrimp the fish love it. They eat a lot and are much easier to catch in the Sargent area in the next two months. Sheepshead have grinder teeth which help them break open the hard shells of Oysters, crabs and other crustaceans. This gives the fish a distinctive look. Hence the name -Sheepshead. Bring extra hooks and prepare to enjoy yourself and the kids will have a blast fishing so close to home..
These are some of the hot spots over the years. I have had incredible luck on these different Hot-Spots close to Sargent Texas.. Also I want to thank all my fishing buddies that collected derelict crab traps between February 19 and 28 in and around Sargent and East Matagorda Bay. It is such an important annual event for the fishing community.
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