This is my third spring here in this beautiful place and I remember the shrimp arriving in the creeks much earlier in the past, than this year.
I was throwing my cast net off my dock(on a creek off the upper Wando)as early as April the past two years, and bringing in a dozen, two dozen shrimp a toss.
This year Im still waiting for the shrimp to arrive.
I also take my Jon boat up and down the creek and havent seen much shrimp related activity (flittering off the topwater.) For that matter I havent seen the finger mullett either.
Is this a temperature or salinity thing? Or does this happen every off year or so?
I’ve been fishing Low Country waters for 27 years and I don’t remember catching more than a shrimp here or there during May. I think it’s closer to the start of summer (late June) before they are around in any numbers. I could be wrong, but that has been my experience.
I was out fishing on Monday morning off of Paradise Landing and I seen some shrimp popping, but from what I could tell they weren’t very big. So maybe Jack Taylor is spot on with his information.
We have two species of shrimp here, brown and white. The brown shrimp come in earlier and are mostly caught in late May and June. The white shrimp begin to spawn in April/May, and continue to spawn on into June and July. They are mostly caught from July through December. The juveniles are mostly up the creeks and then move to bigger waters when they mature, eventually going into the ocean or deeper waters in the sounds and rivers. These are the “Deep Hole” shrimp and those caught over bait.
