# Catching shimp with cast net.



## chris a

I met a guy one time that told me he used to use corn meal as bait and would use a cast net near the pass when the tide was going out to catch shrimp. Has anyone else done this? If so how do you do it?


----------



## Framerguy

Don't know about using a cast net but I remember going with my dad out on the fishing walkway on the Key Biscayne bridge years ago at night and hanging a large square dip net down in the water. He then suspended a Coleman lantern on another rope just above the water over the net. He used cornmeal in a cheese cloth sack for bait. He also threw half a handful of cornmeal loose in the net for "chum" above the net when he lowered it into the water.

My dad would tell me when to yank up the lantern and then he would pull up the dipnet quickly and it would be full of shrimp! I wondered why he hauled an empty 30 gallon trash can down to that walkway with a 2 wheeled hand truck? It wasn't because the trash can was so heavy going down, but it was full of shrimp coming back up!!

Next day he and I went around the neighborhood in Coral Gables handing out plastic bags full of shrimp to all the retired neighbors and friends he knew who couldn't afford to buy shrimp. .......... Just something my dad enjoyed doing.


----------



## Mullethead

In LA we would chum with dried and canned pet food in off seawalls and then cast net em at night under lights. This worked in areas of slow current - and the shrimp were huge - 10 to 12 count ! Salt Bayou in Slidell, in Sept/October - a good night was 10 lb over an hour or so - more or less


----------



## CurDog

They used to cast net 'em on the bridges on hwy90 and Escambia fill. Until someone reared back and hit a car, then they banned fishing from the bridges there. I forget the month they start grouping up for breeding, might be Sept/Oct like Mullethead says?


----------



## chris a

Thanks guys for the info. Since blue water is too far out to fish I'll probably try the shrimping this weekend. I'll let you know how I do.


----------



## Ocean Master

We do it off my dock with holes poked into canned cat food. Let the can sit for a while and throw the cast net over them. Most of the time you can't even see them but they will be there.


----------



## TURTLE

*I have not done the cornmeal thing but have caught many shrimp with a cast net. big ones too, mostly in Cape San Blas in the little canals at night blind casting. Full moon helps, at least for me it produced more, maybe just luck but who knows.*


----------



## levelman

*Shrimp bait*

I have never tried it in Pensacola, but when I was stationed in Georgia, we would make the trip to Hunting Island in South Carolina and camp.
While there I made friends with some of the locals and I ended up going shrimping with them.
They used bait balls that were made with 50% fish meal and 50 % of the local mud. Some guys swore by using some additives, the oil from a can of sardines, cola, honey, but the guys I went with did not add anything.
They would mix it in construction buckets, make a ball about the size of a soft ball, slightly flatten it, then sit it in the sun to dry.
It would dry all day, that evening we would launch the boats, they would drive a PVC pipe into the mud, 6-8 foot of water, and about 6 feet out from the PVC they would ease that baitball over the side.
we would go to each one about every 30 to 45 minutes, throw a casr net over where the ball was and the amount that we caught was incredible...
Fill up a 48 qt cooler in just a couple of hours.
I have checked and you can use this method in Florida, except you cannot do it at night...Why? Beats the oysters out of me... but being the cynic I am, it makes certain you can't catch many and have to by them from commercial operations.
I hope to move back to Pensacola in the next couple of months and gi
ve it a try at home.

Good luck


----------



## Dreamchaser69

Hey there! I am moving to GB / tiger point in a few months. * used to crab, shrimp and fish NE FLA. I can't find anything on shrimping in GB. Eventually I will have a dock which has canal and sound front in tiger point. How, where, when do shrimp run in this area?


----------



## capt'n slim

I live real close to the florida town ramp, during football season me and a couple of the older guys watch that area like a hawk. When they show up we slip out and load up on nice sized shrimp, then we ease back to the trucks. To much comotion and every tom dick and harry from 20 miles will show up. One day they are there and the next day they may be gone.


----------



## Dreamchaser69

Thanks Capt.

When I lived near JAX, we would throw cast nets at night on out-going tide from the dock in about 6' of water. We baited with mix of fishmeal, rock salt and flour to make balls / patties. We used flood lamps above the water to help draw them in. When they were running, we could fill 5 gal buckets in no time at all. During the day, we could throw nets from the boat where there was a "hole" in a sand bar that was about about 40' deep. (the sand bar was about 10 feet deep) They would get swept across the hole and drop in during outgoing tides, so we used to throw 12' nets with ribbing to keep open on the way down. Like shooting fish in a barrel. It wasn't uncommon to bring up 5 pounds or more at a time on a good day.

I have not seen a whole lot about throwing nets in the GB / Pensacola area - or even crabbing for that matter other than the commercial guys I see when I come down.

At least I know that they are there and one of my favorite hobbies can live on. 

We are actually trying to make an offer on a home near Villa Venyce this week which is on the sound so that we can get down there. We are building a home on the sound in Tiger point later this year which has 125' on the canal side and 100' on the sound - so hopefully I can have best of both worlds there.

If anyone else has advice - it would be appreciated! ((or a dock.....))


----------



## BamaMike

Ive been near-obsessed with this idea since I first read this post the other day. I've read countless articles, watched hours of videos and brainstormed till my head throbbed. I've decided to make my own fishmeal since I always have an overabundance of elwise and pinfish after my fishing trips.......enough rambling, my point is if anyone else wants to try this and has an idea of where to go, give me a holler.


----------



## engulfed

Used to do this when I was a kid on the old Shand's bridge on the St. John's River. Use clay and fish meal to make big patties. The clay holds together so you can cast over them a lot longer. This is best in 2-6' deep water.

If you ever want live bait shrimp, simply visit any shallow grass flat at night on foot with a flash light, dip net, and a cast net. You will see tons of glowing eyes in the grass in 0-2 feet of water. They are all over. You'll also see flounder.

They also tend to gather up on concrete boat ramps late at night.

Lots of squid also come up in the very shallow flats at night too in late winter/early spring.


----------



## BamaMike

I'm now making shrimp baits and am selling my extras as I make them. See the topic in the sales thread.


----------



## Biller48

Framerguy said:


> Don't know about using a cast net but I remember going with my dad out on the fishing walkway on the Key Biscayne bridge years ago at night and hanging a large square dip net down in the water. He then suspended a Coleman lantern on another rope just above the water over the net. He used cornmeal in a cheese cloth sack for bait. He also threw half a handful of cornmeal loose in the net for "chum" above the net when he lowered it into the water.
> 
> My dad would tell me when to yank up the lantern and then he would pull up the dipnet quickly and it would be full of shrimp! I wondered why he hauled an empty 30 gallon trash can down to that walkway with a 2 wheeled hand truck? It wasn't because the trash can was so heavy going down, but it was full of shrimp coming back up!!
> 
> Next day he and I went around the neighborhood in Coral Gables handing out plastic bags full of shrimp to all the retired neighbors and friends he knew who couldn't afford to buy shrimp. .......... Just something my dad enjoyed doing.


Did the same thing basically with my dad on the Largo cut in the keys.


----------



## Dreamchaser69

engulfed said:


> Used to do this when I was a kid on the old Shand's bridge on the St. John's River. Use clay and fish meal to make big patties. The clay holds together so you can cast over them a lot longer. This is best in 2-6' deep water.
> 
> If you ever want live bait shrimp, simply visit any shallow grass flat at night on foot with a flash light, dip net, and a cast net. You will see tons of glowing eyes in the grass in 0-2 feet of water. They are all over. You'll also see flounder.
> 
> They also tend to gather up on concrete boat ramps late at night.
> 
> Lots of squid also come up in the very shallow flats at night too in late winter/early spring.


Depending on your age, we were probably on the bridge at the same time at some point. I shrimped there every year mid-summer through Nov. Also up at the OP bridge in the "hole" and raggedy point and Black Creek. Brings back some great memories - at 4Am.....


----------



## Dreamchaser69

Gents, Well I am finally here in GB. I wanted to get more info on cast net shrimping and where and when. I know the NE FL area well - but ZERO over here. When are they caught? where? I got my bait recipe down from years of throwing in and around JAX. Anyone want to go? thoughts and ideas are greatly appreciated!


----------

