Sheepshead season has once again snuck up behind us and smacked us with a turkey-scented Yuletide backhand. The hot, humid redfish season is gone as quickly as it came, and now we’re dressed like Eskimos in the morning. Some of us may be wishing for air temperatures 20 degrees higher and wind speeds 10 mph lower, but we’ll brave this environment more suited for penguins for another black-and-white creature: The sheepshead.

Sheepshead are one of my favorite fish, challenging to catch and great to eat. We’ll start off with biology for an appetizer, move on to tactics for dinner and have dinner for desert.