Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 4: Ways to Attach Live Shrimp
• Part 2 of 4: Ways to Attach Chilled or Frozen Shrimp
• Part 3 of 4: Storing Live Shrimp
• Part 4 of 4: Storing Chilled or Frozen Shrimp
• Tips

Dead or alive, fresh or frozen, shrimp are one of the best lures for offshore saltwater fishing. With this crustacean you can catch fish such as dark croaker, white herring, flounder, grouper, pike, pompano, sea bass, robalo, ocean herring, Cape Cod crucian carp, tarpon and whiting. There are also a number of ways to hook shrimp, which differ depending on whether you fish live or frozen shrimp and how you hook them.

Steps

Part 1 of 4: Ways to Attach Live Shrimp

1. 1 If you fish with a lure or spinning rod, place the shrimp over your head on the hook. Many anglers prefer to thrust the shrimp over their heads. This can be done in two ways.
   • Place the shrimp on the hook from the bottom of the head, push the teeth of the hook so as not to damage the vital organs. This method is preferred for bottom fishing.
   • Hook the shrimp from the top of your head, bypassing the vital organs. This method is also suitable for bottom fishing.
   • This method of baiting has one drawback: there is a high probability that the shrimp will come off the hook.
2. 2 Place the shrimp across, through the shell for smooth fishing or fishing with a float. Pass the hook just below the tip of the shell, avoiding the stomach and pancreas (these are the dark spots on the body of the shrimp). This way the shrimp can move.
   • You can also plant the shrimp directly under the head so that the hook goes right down the center of the shell, between the vital organs. This will allow you to cast further and get the shrimp will be easier, but with this attachment, the shrimp will die earlier than with the cross.
3. 3 Place the shrimp over the tail. This method allows you to cast the rod even further, since the head of the shrimp, where most of its weight is concentrated, will push the bait further, without ripping the body of the shrimp off the hook. Tear off the fan on the tail of the shrimp, then pass the hook through the center of the tail to hide it. The hook should extend outward on the underside of the tail far enough for the body of the shrimp to cover the ear of the hook.
   • You can use a crocheted hook to help hold the shrimp tail better.
   • If you rip off the fan on the tail, the shrimp will give off a smell that attracts the fish.
   • You can also plant the shrimp across the end of the tail. This baiting method is preferable if there are a lot of driftwood on the bottom rather than algae.
4. 4 If there is a lot of algae at the bottom, hide the hook in the body of the shrimp. This method of baiting shrimp for fishing with a float is very similar to fishing for perch with a float on plastic worms in the absence of algae. Tear off the tail fan, then pass the hook through the entire tail. Push the shank out and rotate the hook so that the tip pierces the bottom of the shrimp, then hide the hook in the fleshy part of the shrimp's tail.
   • This type of bait attachment can be used for bottoming. Place 7g of sliding weights on the line and tie the line to the swivel. At the other end, tie a 15-30cm leader and a hook with a shrimp on top. By gravity, the baited hook will sink to the bottom, while the swivel will hold it and the bait will stick to the leader just above the bottom.
   • You can also use the 3-way swivel. Tie a line to one end of the swivel, the leader with the bait to the other, and to the third a bell or float with a lead weighing 7-57g.

Part 2 of 4: Ways to Attach Chilled or Frozen Shrimp

1. 1 Butcher the shrimp. Live shrimp attract fish by the way they swim, while chilled or frozen shrimp attract fish by their smell. Therefore, before you hook the shrimp, you can rip off the shrimp's head, legs and tail fan - and some anglers don't even think about it.
2. 2 Place the shrimp from the side of the head or tail. Any method will do; the main thing is that the hook is completely hidden in the body of the shrimp.
3. 3 Use shrimp with jig baits. Shrimp will add a real crustacean smell to your jig baits, regardless of whether the bait is "skirt" or plastic. If you decide to attach a shrimp bait to a jig, then the shrimp must be cut with a knife into pieces equal to the length of the hook shank. Cutting rather than ripping will give the bait the right size and hold on to the hook longer and tighter.
   • If the bait is especially fleshy, then you can attach an additional hook so that the fish definitely cannot just eat the bait and swim away.
   • Some anglers choose to rip off the tail fan along with the next section, then slide the shrimp from the tail onto the jig head, making sure the body of the shrimp lies flat when the hook is pushed through the body.

Part 3 of 4: Storing Live Shrimp

1. 1 Choose the right bucket. You can store live shrimp in a regular bucket or in a bucket with a small fish strainer. This bucket makes it easier to change the water as needed.
   • Some anglers use containers with a volume of 17 to 56 liters for storage.
2. 2 Know how much the bucket can hold and don't overfill. If there are too many shrimp in the water, then some of them will begin to die, and very soon others will follow.
3. 3 The water should be cold. Check the temperature regularly, add ice if necessary. The water needs to be changed periodically to keep the shrimp in clean and cold water.
4. 4 Don't forget about oxygen. Like any other sea creature, shrimp need oxygen. You can oxygenate your water in two ways:
   • Use an aerator.
   • Use oxygen tablets. Both of these products are available and can be used for both small fish and shrimp.

Part 4 of 4: Storing Chilled or Frozen Shrimp

1. 1 Store shrimp in the same way as greaves. Shrimp can be stored in salt water in small jars, just like freshwater fishermen store greaves in tackle boxes. Follow the directions below:
   • Take 230-450g of chilled shrimp.
   • Remove shells, heads, and tails.
   • Cut them into pieces that are twice the size of live shrimp bait.
   • Place a layer of salt on the bottom of a small jar.
   • Place a piece of shrimp on top of the salt.
   • Sprinkle another layer of salt on top of the shrimp.
   • Then place another piece of shrimp on top.
   • Alternate a layer of salt and a layer of shrimp until the jar is full. Salt prevents the shrimp from spoiling and makes them tougher, allowing them to stay on the hook longer.
2. 2 Re-freeze unused shrimp. Unused frozen shrimp can be wrapped and re-frozen for the next fishing trip if they haven't gone bad. Better to warn your significant other about this, set aside the frozen shrimp separately from other foods and make a note that these shrimps are for bait.

Tips

• When fishing live shrimp, use the smallest and lightest hooks that are suitable for the type of fish you want to fish so that the shrimp can swim as freely as possible for as long as possible. Generally speaking, the harder the fish's mouth, the larger and harder the hook should be, in such cases it is also better to use a triple hook instead of a single hook. Usually you will not need hooks wider than 3-4mm.
• Explore the place where you are going to fish, check if there are shops selling bait shrimp. Also check to see if the use of shrimp as bait is prohibited by law.