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What is a "grass shrimp"?
Palaemonetes spp.: Grass shrimp, also known as shore shrimp; one of three species living in the NJ area.
Group name: Caridean---edible
shrimp are an entirely different group, the Penaeids. Most Caridean
adults reach 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.
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| Larvae hatch into a protozoea stage
that has no mature appendages, small enough to be confused with plankton,
then pass through metamorphic stages, becoming more shrimp-like. Another
species of interest is the sand shrimp, which are often found in a fluke's
belly, and can be caught by seine net in sandy beach/flat areas along the
shore. Both species are brown, the grass shrimp being lighter in color
and almost translucent, the sand shrimp are a mottled brown, and can grow
as large as 2 3/4 inches long. |
Catching the Grass Shrimp
Grass shrimp can be gathered in lagoons, creeks, irrigation ditches, and
in the middle of the bay. Any structure is a good place to look for shrimp:
pipes, bulkheads, patches of eelgrass, sunken boats, fences, sod ledges,
even submerged shopping carts! They seem to have a preference for shady
areas, but you can find them out in the open on sunny days as well. Getting
to know the habits of the little creatures can drive some people crazy.
They are there one day, and you can't find one the next. They really are
not fond of a lot of fresh water, so rain is not one of the things you
want the day before you go shrimping. Bugs will be out to get you, and
if it's hot, you'll lose shrimp before you get home.
A dedicated angler can spend the best part of a good day getting shrimp,
using a large, fine mesh net, and working areas where they can be scooped.
Most times they have coolers on the boat to keep their bait alive 'til
they can get it home and into their dockside storage boxes. Others take
their floating boxes with them, and after they catch the shrimp they head
off to fish, towing the bait-filled box.
There are baymen who catch shrimp commercially with a dredging device,
that looks similar to two commercial clam rakes welded side by side. This
works something along the lines of dredge and scoop technique, but in larger
quantities than found by using a regular net, and including species of
shrimp other than the grass shrimp. Commercial shrimping under power by
boat requires a special license.
Storage of Grass Shrimp
Grass shrimp are delicate little crustaceans, one of the hardest baits
to keep alive, being even more sensitive to temperature changes than minnows.
It is necessary to make sure that you keep your shrimp in good shape. Keeping
them moist and cool is important, a few minutes in hot sun can turn them
as pink as any boiled edible shrimp--they aren't usable baits when cooked.
If you accumulate a large amount of dead shrimp and leave them mixed with
your live ones, they will spoil the scent of the rest of your shrimp. The
most common way to keep grass shrimp for a day's fishing, would be to put
them in a cooler with ice on the bottom, covered with a thick layer of
wet newspaper. Spread the shrimp out in a thin layer on top ot the paper.
It is very difficult to keep shrimp alive in a bucket with an aerator,
because you cannot normally generate enough oxygen in the water. A livewell,
with a pump generating a continuous water flow, would have an oxygen level
adequate to keep them alive.
As the summer heat warms the water, it becomes difficult to keep the
grass shrimp alive. Shrimp consume large amounts of oxygen and therefore
require quite a bit of storage space as the lagoon becomes warmer and oxygen
levels drop. A shrimp box is larger than your normal floating bait box,
to allow more exposure to oxygenated water. The bait box should also be
designed so that it can be semi-submerged, to keep the shrimp in deeper,
cooler water, because cooler water holds more oxygen.
Fishing with Grass Shrimp
Shrimp can be used for bait on a hook or scattered in the water as
chum to attract fish. A shrimp slick makes an excellent chum, because it
attracts many different kinds of fish. They attract species of smaller
fish that become bait for the large fish. The larger fish know that if
they hang around where there is an abundance of grass shrimp, the small
bait fish that are feeding on the shrimp may become distracted, and be
unaware that the big ones are hanging around for an easy meal.
When chumming with shrimp, there are a couple of very important things
to keep in mind. One is that you should try to keep up as steady a slick
as possible, even if you don't use a lot of shrimp. Secondly, a heavy slick
with quantities of shrimp will have the best results. You know how hard
it was to get the shrimp (especially if you caught them yourself), and
it is awfully easy to find yourself hoarding them. This isn't the answer
to catching fish, because all the shrimp that you take back home with you
didn't help to catch a fish.
It is extremely important to fish early or late. Insist on no boating
traffic. Study your area and be someplace at dawn or dusk where no boats
are going to come near you. In either case, the time spent shrimp chumming
is probably no more than 1 1/2 hours. That is plenty of time to catch your
limit if conditions are right. By the time the boats find you, it is time
to quit.
Let's move on to the use of grass shrimp as a rigged bait. Many anglers
in the saltwater scene think of shrimp as strictly weakfish bait, not realising
that the little critters can do very well on blackfish, sea bass, fluke,
bluefish(small ones), white perch, as well as other species of small fish.
When cleaning fish, curious anglers find that the most common food in our
local fish's stomach is grass shrimp; small crabs being a close second.
Check our information on shedder crabs for more input on their use.
When using shrimp for fluke or weakfish , use light wire hooks and install
quite a few shrimp on each hook. When fishing for blackfish, smaller than
normal hooks are recommended. Load these hooks up with bait as well. When
fishing for white perch in brackish tributaries up and down the state you
will probably find that one shrimp per hook is enough. This writer uses
# 4 gold baitholders hooks(Mustad 92642), hooking the shrimp in the forward
part of the tail, just to the rear of the carapace. This helps to keep
the shrimp alive a little bit longer.
Additional Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaemonetes
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