When I was a child, my family would visit my relatives in Charleston, South Carolina. Wed caravan out to their house in the country, which was right next to a salt water creek. There was a dock, and we would fish for blue crabs off of it for hours using a piece of cotton string and a chicken neck as bait. We were going to sink the chicken neck with a weight on it until we felt a crab pull on it. Slowly and carefully wed pull up the crab and then scoop it up with a ready net. Sometimes a big shrimp would grab that chicken neck, and we’d catch a glimpse of it before it ran off into the murky water. I think that’s when I first became interested in how to catch shrimp with a shrimp trap instead of a chicken neck on a string. Surely a shrimp trap or pot would actually catch shrimp as opposed to the chicken neck method.
When we caught a lot of blue crabs, we would bring them to the back porch, where my aunt Candy would cook them all up. If we were lucky, she might also make us a bunch of Charleston Crab Cakes.
My Uncle Ike, Cousin Tommy, and Dad Lamar would get the seine out when the tide was low and drag it down the creek in the empty pools to catch crabs, shrimp, and fish. We kids would tag along and see what interesting stuff we could find. As far as I can remember there is no better tasting shrimp than fresh caught wild shrimp. We love shrimp. My family, aunts, uncles, cousins, and I would all get together and eat the seafood we had caught. It was an amazing time, and I will always treasure the memories of being with my family and getting our food from nature the old-fashioned way.
I now live in the San Francisco Bay Area and use the Tolman Skiff Jumbo to fish and crab in the ocean. The Tolman Skiff is a boat that Renn Tolman of Homer, Alaska, designed. The Marine Grade Plywood and Fiberglass are used to make it, and the wood is sealed off from water with epoxy. It is of Dory heritage and has the characteristic sweeping sheer and flared sides for reserve bouyancy. The Tolman Skiff is a Modified-V design and has a high bow for rough water. There are three models of Tolman Skiffs to build. I built in my driveway. The Pacific Ocean, San Francisco Bay, and the Napa, Sacramento, and Petaluma Rivers are all close by, which makes us very lucky. I love being on the water and I love fishing and I love eating seafood.
We head out to the Golden Gate in the fall to drop our best crab pots and catch our limits of Dungeness Crabs. We may also drop a line or two in 180 feet of water to catch a bunch of Sand Dabs. I also want to try to catch a lot of CoonStripe Shrimp (also called coon stripe prawns or dock shrimp) this year. I plan to drop a line of ShrimpPots.
So, I want to learn how to pick out, set up, and use shrimp pots or traps, as well as how to catch Coon Stripe Shrimp and Spot Prawns in our area. I’m going to tell my Coastside Fishing Club friends and anyone else who wants to know how to catch their own shrimp about this. I plan on putting together a complete tutorial (below) on catching Coon Stripe Shrimp. Anyone who can get to the ocean should be able to put their traps in the right place to catch shrimp, use good bait, and catch as many shrimp as they want to eat.
Now I just need the ocean to calm down so I can go shrimping, or “schwimppin,” as a family member used to say.
As a kid growing up in coastal South Carolina, I have fond memories of catching shrimp off my uncle’s dock. We’d spend hours dangling chicken necks on a string to pull up blue crabs and the occasional jumbo shrimp That’s when I first got interested in using shrimp traps to catch more of those tasty crustaceans Traps are a great passive way to haul in a feast of shrimp, and in this article I’ll share all my tips and tricks for rigging, baiting, and setting shrimp traps.
Gearing Up
The first step is getting your hands on some shrimp traps Check your local tackle shops, or order them online Prices range from $50 to $100 per trap. Look for traps with 1⁄2 to 1 inch mesh openings – any bigger and the shrimp can wiggle out. I like collapsible vinyl-coated traps that are easy to transport and clean. Most come with built-in bait containers too.
You’ll also need
- Weighted line 20-25% longer than the water depth
- Buoys for marking traps
- Bait bag, jars, or cage
- Weights – old dumbbells or rebar work well
- Zip ties and rubber bands for securing doors and bait
- Electrical tape and knife for rigging lines
Make sure to check your state’s regulations on trap requirements, fishing licenses, seasons and catch limits. Safety first!
Rigging Your Traps
Start by opening up the trap and bait container. Add your smelly bait – more on that later! Close everything up tightly using zip ties, rubber bands, or hooks.
Next, attach a harness bridle to the trap in a few spots. This allows you to easily swap out lines of different lengths.
Clip on a piece of weighted line that’s long enough to reach the bottom depth where you’ll be fishing, plus 20-25%. This keeps the trap on the sea floor and prevents accidents with boats running over floating lines.
To the other end, securely fasten your buoy. Etch or paint your name and contact info on it for easy identification.
Finally, evenly distribute weights like rebar pieces around the bottom of the trap. You want enough weight to keep it settled on the ocean floor, even in rougher seas and strong currents.
Baiting Up
The best bait is whatever the shrimp are naturally feeding on in that area. When in doubt, I like using:
- Fish heads and carcasses
- Chicken livers, necks, and gizzards
- Canned cat food – poke holes in the can
- Old rockfish, tuna, salmon
- Sanddabs
Smelly and oily is best! If you can get fresh bait from where you’re fishing, even better. Pop it in the bait cage or bag, seal it up good, and get ready to drop that trap.
Finding Your Fishing Spot
Look for areas with structure where shrimp love to hide – pilings, docks, rocky ledges, submerged logs, etc. Avoid high traffic boating channels for safety.
Use a depth finder or measuring line to make sure your weighted line is long enough to reach the bottom. Watch for snags and hangups too.
Setting Your Traps
Gently lower the baited trap to the sea floor. Give it an overnight soak of at least 12 hours. Shrimp feed more actively at night.
When you haul up your trap, open ‘er up and grab your shrimpy reward! Check local limits on size and catch numbers. I like to measure the shrimp as I pick them out to make sure they are legal size.
Rebait and drop the trap back down for another cycle. I usually make a day of setting multiple traps in different spots to improve my odds.
Cleaning and Cooking
Some folks remove the heads, shells and legs before cooking. But I like to keep all that shrimpy goodness! Just remove the edible flesh after cooking. A quick boil or sauté is all you need with these tender shrimp.
What are Coon-Stripe Shrimp?
Disclaimer: Protoco Inc., is a sponsor of this page, in exchange for advertising and links back to its site. These are nice folks who sell Made in the USA Crab Pots, Shrimp Pots, and Crawfish Pots. Please consider their products and show your support by mentioning you saw Protoco Products on Fishyfish.
How to Rig Your Shrimp Pot
- Your choice of Shrimp Pot or Shrimp Trap. You can buy a lot of different brands and styles of shrimp traps in stores and online. Go to your local tackle shop and ask if they can get you Shrimp Pots if they don’t have any in stock. Be aware that some parts of the country have very strict rules about the size and mesh size of shrimp pots, the number of traps, the depths, and the areas where you can fish. To begin, I will talk about a pair of Protoco Shrimp Traps with 1/2-inch by 1-inch mesh that I bought at the Outdoor Pro Shop in Oakland, CA. These run about $78 each. They are made of vinyl and have four tunnel entrances. In the middle, a bait cage is already set up.
- Make sure the lead weighted line is longer than the depth you want to fish at. It can be 1/4 or 5/16 inch. Minimally 20-25% longer than depth at high tide. It’s Blue Steel 5/16-inch lead core line that I bought from Seamar. com a couple years ago for my Danielson Crab Traps. Two more Protoco crab pots will be used by me this year. com. If you use weighted line, you can’t accidentally run over your floating line and damage the prop. This can happen to you or another boater. A propeller that is wrapped in crab or shrimp pot line can be very dangerous. This year, an elderly couple died when their prop got caught in a crab pot line in rough seas. The tangle is thought to have made the boat turn away from the big wave. When the wave hit the boat, it filled the stern with water and quickly flipped it over, throwing the couple into the 51-degree water. There are a lot of floating crab lines out there, but I’ve been lucky enough to keep my prop from getting tangled up with them. People who drop their crab and shrimp traps in a channel that a lot of people use and do it with floating line held up by Clorox bottles are putting a lot of lives in danger for no reason.
- You must use Proper Crab or Shrimp Pot Buoys. Do not use clorox bottles or buoys that float too much for your gear. When the seas are rough, pots that float too much may “walk” away, and you may never find them. I use a 6×11 crab pot buoy for both my crab pots and my shrimp pots most of the time. In California, your CF or boat hull number must be written on the buoy so that it can be found. I engrave mine with an old soldering iron. I also color my buoys with a special vinyl paint that makes them easier to spot from far away. At the start of the season, the ocean is full of commercial and recreational crab pot buoys, making it easy to lose your gear.
- Unweighted line for rigging a harness. Or use a store bought harness. I like to use a harness with a loop that can hold a shot of line to set up my crab and prawn traps. The idea is that you should be able to quickly switch between a long and a short crab line for fishing at different depths. The trap can have two, three, or four tie-in points on the harness. Its a matter of personal preference. I like to use a four-point harness because I think it makes it easier to drop the crab and shrimp pots so they land on their bottoms. I feel like a two-point harness gives you more room to make a mistake. Crab or prawn traps that are lying on their sides won’t catch crabs or prawns because one or more of the doors may be open.
- Some shrimp pots have hooks that are on an elastic cord that can be used to close the doors or hold bait cages or bottles in place. Zip Ties are needed to keep folding trap corners, doors, weights, and other parts of other traps and pots in place. Update: I’m now using bicycle inner tubes that I’ve cut with a razor blade into rubber bands and strips. They look like they will last longer than the surgical rubber tubes I had on my Protoco Shrimp pots before.
- Plastic Label Zip Ties or similar for IDing your pot. You will lose one of your crab or shrimp pots at some point, and an ID could help you get it back.
- Weights for the Shrimp Trap. In deeper water or where there is a lot of current and high tides, you should use more weight. I wrap old rebar in plastic tape and use it. Protoco sells metal bars that are vinyl coated. Some people use old iron Sash Weights, Dumbell Weights, tire balancing weights that have been melted down, and fishing weights that are 1 pound or more. Attach the weights to the bottom of the shrimp trap with zip ties, and spread them out so the pot falls flat and lands on the ocean floor.
- Bait Jars or Bait Bags: For my crab traps, I use orange Scotty bait jars with a threaded lid and regular tuna cat food cans. I’ll just zip tie some old rock fish bodies to the top of the crab pot if I have any. There are commercial crabbing clips that work even better. I haven’t used bait bags like the ones on “Deadliest Catch,” but I’m thinking about adding them to shorter soaks to make the scent stick around longer. Onion bags and other plastic net bags that my food comes in have been saved just for these short soaks. Will report back on my success.
- Bait. I’ve tried a lot of different kinds of bait for my crab pots over the years, and I’m doing the same thing for my shrimp pots. I’ve used a lot of different cat foods, and Trader Joe’s 10% tuna has been very good. Chicken necks, gizzards, hearts, and liver, old tuna and rockfish that had been frozen, tuna, salmon, and rockfish bodies, and maybe my favorite, sand dabs. It’s my firm belief that the best crab and shrimp bait will come from the places where you are fishing for them. I had one big Protoco crab trap and five Danielson crab pots that were all close to each other last year. I put cat food in one trap, chicken in another, tuna in another, and so on. The Protoco pot was the most productive; it was full of 24 big Dungeness crabs. It was baited with frozen Sand Dabs. The other pots had one or two crabs. I think the same is true for shrimp. Shrimp will go for the bait they are most used to when they are hungry.
- Electrical Tape for Temporary Binding of Line Ends. I’ll knot or splice the line when I set up the crab pots and shrimp traps. Sometimes it’s enough to just wrap the ends of the line in electrical tape. Burning the ends of the line will help it unravel.
Catching lots of shrimp with home made shrimp traps
How do you catch shrimp for live bait?
The last method to catch shrimp for live bait is by using a shrimp trap. This method is much more passive and requires you to leave the trap in the water at least for a few hours, but often overnight. Shrimp traps are specially designed to allow shrimp to enter, but not escape. Anglers often bait these traps with items like tuna fish or pet food.
How do you catch shrimp?
Shrimp are small crustaceans that anglers commonly catch for both bait and food. One passive technique that catches shrimp is a trap, which consists of a wire cage with funnel-shaped entrances that point inward. The fisherman places bait within the trap and leaves it in the water for a period of time.
How do you re-bait a shrimp trap?
Put the trap overboard and allow it to sink to the bottom. Maintain the trap underwater for at least 12 hours. When you return to the trap, carefully haul it to the surface. Bring the trap on board, open the door and remove any shrimp. Re-bait the trap, and place it back in the water for another round.
How does a fisherman catch a shrimp?
The fisherman places bait within the trap and leaves it in the water for a period of time. As plankton congregate around the bait, the shrimp swim through the funnel entrances to feed on the plankton, but are unable to navigate out again. The fisherman can then retrieve the trap and recover the captured shrimp.