This is my first year shrimping on my own (not going with friends and having my own poles and boat hehe) I went opening night this year with my dad and a buddy of mine and we used the bait binder and mixed it with menhaden milk. We didn’t catch a single shrimp in the harbor, but my dad had a big time and that’s all that counts in the end. I have heard that fish meal and clay is what a lot of people use instead though. So with that said which do you recommend that I use instead? Thanks for your advice!
Stick with the bait binder
^^ X2 Stick with Bait binder
Been using red clay from the upstate for over 20 years with much success. We mix a 5 gallon bucket of clay with about a third of a bucket of fish meal. Throw in enough salt water to make it all stick together and you end up with about 2 buckets of baseball sized bait balls. Flatten them out before you bait the poles to keep them from rolling.
use baitbinder, especially if you already have it. its an 80% fishmeal vs the 50% of fishmeal and play. i have a feeling it was more about your location. you also dont need to shrimp in the harbor. I and a bunch of other people put up the same kind of numbers in other places as the harbor folks do, its just a know spot around the harbor. personally i dont like it out there, too many boats. where i go we dont see another soul all night(good or bad, depending on who your partner is!)
14’ Skiff-“Redfish Reaper”
Last year I started out with bait binder. After 2 trips with minimal success I got a bag of white clay and fishmeal. I used about 3x the amount of bait and caught the same in the harbor.
This year I started in a different place with bait binder, using 3 lime sized balls flattened per pole, and caught tons of little guys and kept about 8-10qts of large shrimp.
Bait binder is easier and less mess. I doubted it last year but I was wrong. No bait is going to make shrimp be where they are not. You need a better spot.
Hydra-Sports 22 Bay Sport
225 Rude
Thanks everyone for the input on it! Yeah I think I’m going to try and do some scouting more next week. I haven’t been able to do much this week with work, and I have a buddy in a couple weeks going to show me the ropes of BB so that should be fun. Hopefully I’ll be able to see the shrimp in the net soon enough lol
2008 225 Keywest Blue Water
175 Suzuki
quote:
No bait is going to make shrimp be where they are not. You need a better spot.
You nailed it right there:wink:
I’ve never in my life shrimped over bait, we just shrimp where the shrimp are, and sometimes where they ain’t 
It’s a lot less trouble, mess, expense… Catch plenty of shrimp. Never had an empty freezer in 40 years.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
Flour
Flour
Believe this! last year I mixed some 1/3 meal/1/3 concrete and 1/3 clay…Froze them until last week…Worked great and lasted longer in the water than just clay and meal.Still breaks down , but much slower…This is the concrete mix without sand or rocks(looks like grey clay).
Shrimping is an art.A skill. Just randomly throwing the net is good exercize…remember to say “SHAZAM” when you pull in a loaded net! It does help!
If I use bait, I use a mixture of dry and wet cat food, put little rocks in it for weight, so it sinks. I buy the cheapest stuff possible for dry food and wet food, usually stick with the cheap cans of fishy stuff. I do it as cheap as possible though, cause I go from a dock, and I just haven’t ever went to buy bait binder and all that other stuff.
Blessed to be a true Jim Isle boy