Coastal Breeze News

FOLLOW THE FISH Capt. Pete Rapps [email protected] Wintertime here in Southwest Florida is synonymous with the arrival of huge flocks of snowbirds, but did you know that convicts arrive here in big numbers too? Yes it’s true, but these are much welcomed convicts…AKA Sheepshead fish. These fish begin to arrive in big numbers about this time each year to spawn. They inhabit many of our near shore structures, oyster bars and the deeper mangrove pockets in the back county river mouths. We call them convicts because of the black and white stripes they “wear.” In addition to being called convicts, sheepshead ... Read More »

Capt. Pete Rapps Fall is here in the 10,000 Islands and with cooler water temperatures and the change of seasons, comes the migration of the Sheepshead fish. These fish begin to arrive in big numbers about this time each year to spawn. They inhabit many of our near shore structures, oyster bars, and the deeper mangrove pockets in the back county river mouths. In addition to being called Sheepshead, they are sometimes referred to as the convict fish, Seabream Sheepshead, and Southern Sheepshead. They are distributed in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, with the densest populations ... Read More »