ok, some tricks are like that secret fishing hole that you will never give up! I will finally give up a real cool trick i learned from a little old man about 20 years ago. i live in SW florida and allways stopped by the bait shop to load up on shrimp on the way to the boat ramp or pier....... any way more than once the 5 gal bucket splashed salt water on the floor/seats of the car (not good for the car or a very good smell for the next few weeks!) all bait buckets are a pain, and most dont even work too well. in the summer the water temp is in the 90's that $25 in shrimp in those yellow/white bait buckets last about 30 min hainging over the pier floating in the water. so here is what you do to fix that and you can take live shrimp any where with no mess, spilled water, bait buckets, and dont need to weight your boat down with 30lbs of water in the bait well.
here is what you need and what to do:
1) get a cooler any cooler
2)put ice in the cooler your choice of how much depending on how good the cooler is and how long you want to keep the shrimp
3)take about 3 pages of a news paper and dunk it in salt water, make sure it is totaly wet, hold it up and let the water run off it it needs to be wet not holding water like a bowl.
4)lay the news paper in the cooler on the ice and lightly pat it down a little.
5)lay the shrimp on the news paper (NO WATER) takes a little practice since they will be jumping every where
6)take another 3 pages of news paper and wet them in saltwatewr like in step #3 and lay it over the shrimp.
JUST MAKE SURE THE SHRIMP DO NOT COME IN CONTACT WITH THE FRESH WATER IN THE BOTTOM OF THE COOLER AS THE ICE MELTS DOWN, THAT WILL KILL THEM!
after a little practice i designed a bait tray for the bottom of the cooler, i put the tray in 1st then do all of the above steps. the tray keeps the newspaper/shrimp about 2" off the floor of the cooler and every few hours i just pour a little of the water from the melted ice out of the cooler.
the shrimp will go dormant. the first time i did this i was going out on a party boat and bought 10doz shrimp. when we stopped at the 1st spot 4 hours later, all of my shrimp looked milkey in color and i freaked out thinking i just killed 10doz shrimp, they were life less. I hooked one through the tail and it didn't move, i dropped it to the surface of the water and after it warmed up in the water for about 45 sec it started to swim around like nothing ever happened. I caught more and bigger fish than any one on the boat that day! shrimp to those snapper and grouper was like candy. They see the squid and sardines every day so being able to offer them a treat was what worked.
i have used this trick fishing from land/bridges/piers, wade fishing, in the boat fishing the flats and back country, and on off shore trips it is awesome! the only time i use my live well is for bait fish. this also works great for kids since the shrimp are life less untill they are in the water for 45 sec kids are not as afraid to pick them up and there is no chance of the shrimp kicking and stabbing you with their horn, also less shrimp are lost from jumping out of hands and back to the water while trying to hook them.
good luck
(and don't tell any one!)
here is what you need and what to do:
1) get a cooler any cooler
2)put ice in the cooler your choice of how much depending on how good the cooler is and how long you want to keep the shrimp
3)take about 3 pages of a news paper and dunk it in salt water, make sure it is totaly wet, hold it up and let the water run off it it needs to be wet not holding water like a bowl.
4)lay the news paper in the cooler on the ice and lightly pat it down a little.
5)lay the shrimp on the news paper (NO WATER) takes a little practice since they will be jumping every where
6)take another 3 pages of news paper and wet them in saltwatewr like in step #3 and lay it over the shrimp.
JUST MAKE SURE THE SHRIMP DO NOT COME IN CONTACT WITH THE FRESH WATER IN THE BOTTOM OF THE COOLER AS THE ICE MELTS DOWN, THAT WILL KILL THEM!
after a little practice i designed a bait tray for the bottom of the cooler, i put the tray in 1st then do all of the above steps. the tray keeps the newspaper/shrimp about 2" off the floor of the cooler and every few hours i just pour a little of the water from the melted ice out of the cooler.
the shrimp will go dormant. the first time i did this i was going out on a party boat and bought 10doz shrimp. when we stopped at the 1st spot 4 hours later, all of my shrimp looked milkey in color and i freaked out thinking i just killed 10doz shrimp, they were life less. I hooked one through the tail and it didn't move, i dropped it to the surface of the water and after it warmed up in the water for about 45 sec it started to swim around like nothing ever happened. I caught more and bigger fish than any one on the boat that day! shrimp to those snapper and grouper was like candy. They see the squid and sardines every day so being able to offer them a treat was what worked.
i have used this trick fishing from land/bridges/piers, wade fishing, in the boat fishing the flats and back country, and on off shore trips it is awesome! the only time i use my live well is for bait fish. this also works great for kids since the shrimp are life less untill they are in the water for 45 sec kids are not as afraid to pick them up and there is no chance of the shrimp kicking and stabbing you with their horn, also less shrimp are lost from jumping out of hands and back to the water while trying to hook them.
good luck
(and don't tell any one!)
