We’ve made 5 trips so far and coolered out 5 times.
We went last Monday and were out before nightfall.
We went Friday night and didn’t get off the river until 9:30 PM.
Of the 5 times we’ve been, we’ve been off the water before dark twice. The other 3 times, the latest was 10 PM so not so bad. We’ve set up at dead high tide and shrimped all outgoing once but my favorite is setting up 2 to 3 hours before low and then hitting the last of outoging and first of incoming.
Anyway…like I said…so far so good.
“Do, or do not. There is no ‘try.’” – Jedi Master Yoda
Dragonmouse - I have a question if you don’t mind. I usually shrimp either rising of falling, but it looks like tomorrow my time frame is going to set up so I shrimp the last 1.5 - 2 hours of falling, then turn around and shrimp the rising for a while.
I figure I’ll switch sides of the poles, so as to be approaching against the tide. But what about the bait balls that you put on the incoming side. I worry that when the tide turns, the shrimps will stop on that side to finish off the original bait, before getting to my new bait balls on the other side of the pole.
Do you put your bait balls between the poles, so the bait is in about the same place? Or do you just figure the first balls will be gone by the time the tide turns and don’t worry about it? Thanks.
We always set our poles so the tide goes from one end to the other, parallel to the poles, not perpindicular. We always shrimp against the tide so if it is running left to right, we shrimp right to left and when it changes and runs right to left, we shrimp left to right. That way we can control the speed of the boat and not have to worry about missing a pole because of a tangle in the net or 50 bait fish you have to fish out or catching a bait ball and having to reset it …blah blah blah. We have heard of people setting them so the tide runs through the poles, but we’ve never done it. In other words, if the tide is running west to east, we set the poles west to east, not north to south. That make sense?
I have also heard of people throwing the baits between the poles so they get a couple of extra casts on a run, but, we’ve never done that either. We are perfectly content throwing the baits so they are near the poles and there is no guess work where the bait is…that is unless you set them up at high tide and drop them in 8 feet of 10mph running water…LOL
Does that answer your question as to what we do?
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"Do, or do not. There is no 'try.'" -- Jedi Master Yoda
well, some. I set mine up perpendicular to the tide. Always have, just figured if the shrimp are running with the tide, I’ll get a wider swath of 'em perpendicular. Never tried setting the poles with the tide, but I’ve seen lots of people do it.
But, when the tide turns, you switch sides of the poles your shrimping from, correct? Or do you just turn around and go the other direction on the same side of the poles? That’s what I’m trying to get at - if you switch sides of the poles (like I would have to do), then is the old bait ball going to hurt you because it’s still on the other side of the pole.
Heck - the thing to do might be to just set my poles with the tide like you’re talking about. That way, I can just change direction and stay on the same side of the poles. That might be easier if the tide is going to change while I’m out.
I’m with Dragonmouse. I always set up parallel to the current. I do that for several reasons. 1) It is easier to control the boat like Dragonmouse said. 2) No matter how fast the current gets you can throw far enough above the bait to allow for any drift. If the shrimp are there they will get on all of your poles. Good Luck!
Mr Hardware
Thanks Mr. Hardware. I’m an upstate boy moved to the coast (MI) bout 15 years ago. So I never was really taught to shrimp, I just sorta picked up what I could on here and then went at it. Over the last couple years, I’ve actually caught some coolers full (3 this year). I guess I always figured that if the shrimp are moving on the tide, you’re better off to have a wider cut of the tide. But I guess they don’t necessarily move directly with the tide - sounds like it’s more just in the general direction of the tide.
Sounds like setting up parallel would keep me from having to worry bout which side of the poles my bait is on, so when the tide’s gonna be changing, maybe that’s the way to go. Thanks Mr. Hardware and Dragonmouse for your thoughts. And I’ll appreciate anybody else’s thoughts on it.
Jay, you are going to mess around and have 50 botes in your spot if you don’t keep the salad shrimp secret.
I need to go. Have not been but once this year to N. Bulls Bay and got just under a cooler of mixed. The size was so scattered that we had a couple jumbos, but also would have coolered in half the time if we’d been using your half inch mesh.
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