Shrimp bait

[skiptowns98033]

When I first met my wife, I told her with a wink there was a dozen things I did well in life. After a miserable opening, I may have to drop shrimp fishing from that list. We did not do well (MA6). The usual spots (pun intended) that have never failed to give us multiple limits in a single set were a disappointment.

I did change my bait formula this year - decided I wasn't going to pay $3+ for mackerel and instead, added shrimp oil and clams to the mix of cat food and shrimp pellets.

Anyone else have experience with clams and or crab/shrimp/oil? I'm trying desperately to hold on to the shrinking list of things I do well.....

[T.R. Bauer]

I really doubt it's your bait. I have several spots that are really consistent. But with that said, I've had some very bad pulls numerous times. I'm not really sold that the shrimp care all that much about the stinky gross crap we toss over for them and just use the stuff West Marine sells. I don't even add herring oil or anything and do as well as everyone else. I just suspect the shrimp were not there (or interested) for whatever the reason. It happens....

[rogerbum]

I agree with TR. The bait is probably fine. Sometimes placing a pot just a few 100' in one direction or the other makes all the difference. I did a set this year in which we pulled maybe 20 prawns in 4 pots that soaked for 90 minutes. I moved the pots a 100 yards or so and pulled about 230 shrimp in the next pull. Using the sonar to make sure I'm dropping on bottom that is "fuzzy" with shrimp makes a big difference.

[davidJ]

I stocked up on mackerel last winter at the Dollar Tree, buck a can, but usually they are out this time of the year. I've caught shrimp on pellets and Friskies Ocean Whitefish and Tuna dinner Pate' with shrimp oil, or Herring oil, or if I ran out, I would use left over deep fry oil, and if I was out of that, I would use regular vegetable oil. The only thing I haven't tried is clams, so I would say ditch the clams, and pay the $3 for a couple of cans of mackerel just to be sure. But I do agree that location and depth is very important, especially at Lawson reef. I also recycle my pellets all summer so new oil is important for me.

[localboy]

Commercial pellets in commercial attractant oil. Soak overnight. Add Friskies white fish cat food and canned mackerel from the dollar store. MIx it all up. Add cornmeal until it gets to the consistency of meatloaf. Spoon into bait cage. The cornmeal absorbs all the "goodness" and creates a nice scent trail. After an hour everything but the pellets are usually washed out. I just refill it on top of the used pellets. They last all day.

Location, depth even tides are very important. I've had pulls with 10 or 100. If a spot shows low numbers, I move. I've tried to spot clumps of shrimp (what would they be called? Schools? Herds? Prides? Murders? ) on the sonar but that seems hit/miss.

[smckean (Tosca)]

I've have many "shrimp theories" over the years, and although I'm shrimping better all the time, I'm 50% confident at best that any of my theories represent reality .

My latest theory is that the variability we sometimes see, even in approximately the same spot, is all about the current and tide state. I figure if I were a shrimp, I wouldn't be interested in feeding regardless of the scent of the bait if I had to fight much current. Also, maybe, I prefer that the tide be on its way in after slack, or maybe I prefer it on its way out. Maybe I like little ledges on the bottom where I can hide.

Anyway, although we all think we're doing everything the same at the same spot, have we really recreated the exact same water current/tide/bottom conditions?

Just sayin........

[C-Wolfe]

[kaelc]

Down in Victoria the depths prawning happens in is usually 350-200 feet and current is a huge factor in even getting the weighted traps and 7-8lb weight on the weighted line to the bottom. Following the last post temperature may be a factor, if it’s warm out they may be deeper but reading 600 feet in Alaska makes me wonder. Also are we talking spot prawns or side stipe shrimp or similar?

We use pellets with a shot of oil, with lots of holes in the bait holder. Numbers were down in Victoria but size was good. Commercial guys are out so I expect them to dry up until the fall.

[C-Wolfe]

We have 5 different kind here but the most common are the spot and side stripe. I'm sure most have their own recipe but store bought pellets in bait jar like you describe is most common.

From the Alaska fish and game, northern shrimp up to 4,800 ft, spot up to 1,500 ft, side stripes up to 2,100 ft
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/fishing/pdfs/sport/byarea/southcentral/pwsshrimp.pdf

[T.R. Bauer]

I usually shrimp in 400-600 of water in PWS and yeah there are currents down there. I'm not convinced it ever really gets "warm" down low in the water column, even after sustained high pressure, but it does get lighter and brighter on sunny days and that impacts shrimping technique.

[smckean (Tosca)]

[PaulNBriannaLynn]

We got to the point in the San Juans where we only set traps for the 90 minute window to right before slack tide, to right after.... so for the majority of the time that trap is fishing there's no water moving. It made that much of a difference. Also we found honey holes in spots that had quite a bit of current, so fishing the current is basically impossible.

I do believe they aren't that picky. It's mostly the tides and your initial location that make all the difference.

Early on before we beefed up our buoys and we'd first started shrimp fishing area 7, the current pulled our buoys down and I thought I'd lost the set of pots. They popped back up the next morning during the slack tide but all that was left in the traps were the heads. They will completely cannibalize each other, so they cant be that picky about bait.

[smckean (Tosca)]

Don't know who might have been south of Lopez this weekend (I did see Hunkydory). Man, during some parts of some days......IT WAS ROUGH!

[smckean (Tosca)]

[C-Wolfe]

[quote=
I'd put my money on an octopus rather than cannibalism [/quote]

I second that