Shrimping in the Halifax River 7-16-11

.

For the last couple of weeks a limit of shrimp has been pretty easy to come by here in the Halifax river. The limit is 5 gallons with the heads on.

My Dad is a shrimp-oholic and I don't think there is any hope for his recovery. He likes to shrimp like I like to hunt. With stories of a gallon of shrimp in a single throw of the net, dad lured me into a shrimping expedition on Saturday morning. The plan was to launch just before daylight and try to catch a handful of shrimp to fish a couple docks before the shrimp started running and hopefully pick up a trout or red or so.

We could only manage one shrimp and a few croakers so  we eased over to a dock and I immediately had our one and only shrimp stolen right off the hook. I soaked a croaker for a few minutes without any action and it was getting decent light so we headed for the channel to strike on some shrimp.

It didn't take us long and we were on them but we had to work for them at 8-15 a throw with an occasional 25.

Boats were coming from all directions and it was not long before there were 150-200 boats all throwing nets. The shrimp never really bunched up and were scattered between bridges so the boats were strung out as well. That made it a little easier and gave everybody a little breathing room. There are times when the shrimp bunch up and move down the channel and the boats will be so close you could almost jump from one to another....boats bumping each other, nets hitting other boats. It can get a little stressful.

Anyway, we eventually got our 5 gallons along with a few of the other usual creatures that follow the shrimp along.....like the odd looking ribbon fish, sail cats, croakers, blue crabs, trout, menhaden, flounder, jellyfish, etc. The small jellyfish weren't bad but we did net a couple of the big dinner plate size ones that were packin heat.

The shrimp stay a little scattered and we had to keep moving. I think we had a few throws with a hundred or more.

After we had a limit we pulled back over to one of dad's favored docks and I pitched a fresh shrimp in under the walkway. It was stolen immediately. I rigged another and pitched it back in. Within a minute I felt a light thump and the line started leaving. I let it pull the rod down and set the hook. It was a dandy 17" flounder!

That was pretty much the trip. Of course they still had to be headed and packed up for the freezer. All in all, a pile of work but the freezer is packed and they will really eat good!

Now that's a pile of shrimp!

Larry S.