After all the miserable reports, wasn’t sure what to expect, but gave it a try anyway. Put in around 9 pm, set up for some one-poling by about 9:30 between JIYC/FT Johnson. Moon was high, water flowing pretty good on the ebb tide. Pretty slow for the first hour or so, but I stuck it out, catching a few here and there. But… from slightly before midnight until I called it quits around 3 am, it was on! Ended up with about 3/4 cooler, some really good size. Could have coolered easily if I had wanted to lose a little more sleep, they were about as thick as I have ever seen them.
A few observations:
- the shrimp didn’t really move in until almost dead low, with just a slight current. Even at slack tide there was a little current though.
- I had several (schools?) pass through early, but they didn’t hang around long at all. I found that if I was getting anything, better keep throwing because if I stopped they would be gone again next time I started throwing. (I was waiting 10 minutes, then throwing for 10-15 min or until I stopped getting them)
- water depth was 6 ft when I started, got down to 2.6 then up to about 3.5 ft again by the time I left. Most shrimp came on the deeper side of the boat. (I tried to set up right on the dropoff.)
- shrimp were thick all the way through dead low, but best right as the tide starting coming in again. Probably 75% of what I caught was between 1:30 and 2:30 am. I think dead low was around 1 am.
caught a bunch of other weird critters too, including this. Ribbonfish? Never seen one before.
the aftermath of a marathon throwing session:
Caught quite a few about this size
finally some scrimp!
They’re out there, go g