Unless you have been in another country for the last month or so, you have heard about the insane amount of shrimp in the river. You've seen the boats in the channel, you've seen the shrimp jumping in your boat or away from your paddle, so why is your freezer devoid of these tasty little bugs??? With shrimping like anything else, you can get as fancy as you want to get. One things for certain, you dont need a big deck boat and a 12' net to get decent numbers. Anything that you can throw a net out of will work, heck I use a gheenoe and its more then enough. You also dont need a $200 net to catch your limit. Because I go through a fair amount of nets, I tend to buy el cheapos. I usually use between a 6-8' net to catch my bait. These are the same nets I use for shrimp. One of these days I might pick up a shrimp specific throwing net but for now old blue works just fine. Grananda bridge is still holding good numbers, I was getting between 3-15 keepers a throw. If you don't know me, Im pretty picky about what I consider a keeper. Once you pop the head and cook a 4" shrimp, the final product is kind of small. I always keep a few "4 and downs" to make up a couple bags of bait shrimp, especially if the black drum bite is on. The larger ones go in the pot. Boy are they good dipped in butter or some homemade cocktail sauce!! EwwEEE!
On the fishing front its more of the same. The islands tips along TSP are holding good numbers of trout and they seem to be really zero'd in on the shrimp. The reds are there but im not getting much more then lower slot sized fish. Still a fun time on light tackle and and super good eats! Doing the best with cut ladyfish and live mullet. The Snook have been good in the Tomoka River. Hit the banks before the sun does with a walk-the-dog style lure for big explosions. I lost a nice one in the cut on the east side of Tomoka State park last week. The Tarpon were good in that spot early last week but I think all the pressure has them skiddish. They are holding up well West of US1 in the Tomoka River though. The Black Drum bite has also been on. Hit up your favorite hole with fresh dead or live shrimp on a fishfinder rig. Bring a cooler and ice!
Here's a pretty cool image of Harry fighting a Tarpon near Tomoka State Park. I actually have a small video of this fight and I will get it up here as soon as I can.
Ohhh shrimp! Yummy! I think I've seen y'all out before! Great blog!
ReplyDeleteSpoken like a true country girl! Hope you were fishin when you saw us!
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