shrimp for bait

[josepepper]

fishing the severn in round bay we did well catching 50 very large crabs this week. This was during the afternoon tide. Ran out of bait as the little ones were tearing the necks up pretty quickly. My wife asked me to use the shrimp I brought to catch perch for bait so I strung it into a few of the empty traps and although it didn't last they really went after it. Also while fishing for perch we caught 2 crabs with a net eating the shrimp??? Don't know if it means anything just putting it out there.

They were medium sized peeled shrimp you get anywhere in any food store. previously frozen

[Bob H.]

It's not unusual to catch crabs while perch'n with shrimp. Expensive way to crab.

[Butthead]

Oh Good Lord, I can see it now! Shrimp Bags hanging off trotlines everywhere in the delmarva.

Polecat now has a new preferred method!!

[crow]

Crabs will eat just about anything, I've caught a many of crabs while fishing with squid.

[Himself]

Shrimp are high in the essential nutrient N-acetylglucosamine which crabs need in their diets to form their chitin shells. It makes sense crabs will crave shrimp.

It's also found in mullosks (for their radula), squid (for their beaks)... and, of course, other crustaceans. Soft-shell bait anyone?

[josepepper]

well, I get shrimp at food lion buy one get one for about 5 bucks a pound, you can bet that i'll be baiting a few of the traps with them. I just put them on the bait holder skewer fashion :-)

BTW I tried dipping baits in manhadden oil to see what would happen and the crabs didn't go for it

i'll try anything once, my daughter has a maltese I might dip in the water

[josepepper]

don't mean to change the subject but you folks were right about bait size. I put some huge meaty turkey necks in the traps and the crabs didn't touch them. They are intimidated by size

[POLECAT]

Oh Good Lord, I can see it now! Shrimp Bags hanging off trotlines everywhere in the delmarva.

Polecat now has a new preferred method!!

Rod,
I'm a step ahead of you.

I knew I'd find another use for shrimp heads.

Free bait if you can locate a source.

[OlCrab]

Many of the commerical crabbers use shrimp heads in there pots certain time of the year. They seem to work great so I rigged a couple traps with small bait holder baskets so the crab could not tear the shrimp heads up and it worked fine. The problem is finding a place that sells shrimp heads. It gets expensive to buy market shrimp for bait. Eat the shrimp and stick with the chicken necks for bait unless you have a source for shrimp heads.