Florida Shrimping Reports

Florida Shrimping Reports

The below are actual Shrimping Reports posted by our members.

 

Florida Shrimping Report

My First Full Pull
Keepitreel Ken

My first full pull. I've come close but just couldn't get past that 3 1/2 gallon mark.
Took Sam's advice and called Ron O'Brien about a collapsable frame net, Ron said he had one and to come on by.
Robert and I hopped in the truck with the boat in tow and headed for deltona.
Got to Ron's house and picked up a CFN and a power dipper, he also gave me some new braces for my wife's net.
Real nice guy, someone you like to do business with.
Got to river breeze about 5:00 and launched right away and headed for the you know, the secret spot (shush).
Got almost to Lopez when I realized that I must have left the weight for the new CFN in my truck. (Damn it) back to the ramp. Searched my truck and nothing (DAMN IT). Nothing I can do about it now, back south we go to the secret spot. Pulled in right behind Sam and Chris while they where anchoring up. Sam loaned me one of his (this is for the other site) award winning weights. Sweet now I can use the CFN.
We anchored up in line with Sam and Chris right off his stern. Lights in the water nets at the ready. Took a few pics with Sam and Chris



Robert, Sam and Chris



Sam anchoring up
The shrimp started out slow, 1 here and there then a little rush of 2s and 3s. Stayed like that most of the night. Felt pretty good watching the shrimp that we missed going under the boat towards the CFN. Ha ha shrimp.
Around 9:30 my buddy Doug (tails in the grease) showed up and to my good fortune, Bruce's brother was just arriving and agreed to pick Doug up for me at the dock. Glad I didn't have to pull my gear, had a good light field



That's my boat all lit up.
Immediately upon boarding I handed Doug the power dipper and he started dipping and didn't stop.

.

Doug dipping on the stern
Robert was dipping like a madman on the bow and I was on the gun'l.
Robert had 2 good nights in a row, like he had new eyes or something nothing was getting by him. He could be anywhere on the boat with his net in the water and the shrimp where flowing right in his net. Sweet! Better to be lucky than good. Well I was holding my own, dipping down deep and grabbing shadows that tried to evade me.
All said and done we had almost a full pull (but wait, you said you had a full pull) Sam pulled his gear and came along side for a chat, Bruce was just south of us pulling his gear and the tide started coming in. We pulled our gear and headed north to the ramp when I notice a guy dipping like crazy over on a dock, I mean really dipping and running back and forth, so we headed over for a looksy. Shrimp where all over the place. That's right, we busted out the nets and grabbed another 1/2 gallon of river roaches and topped off our bucket.
Dropped Doug at Lopez and Robert and I headed for River Breeze feeling like a couple of worn out kings. What a great night. Lots of club members on the river getting full pulls and my crew and I getting ours. Real nice to meet the members even tho' it's a cameo appearance because were all getting after the shrimp, but how cool is it to have that many boats from one club in the same area.
Great night!!



Bucket of bugs





11 bags

 

Oak Hill FULL PULL

posted my NTGator



On a hunch that the Shrimp were running in Oak Hill, and because some of my Friends, and Commercial friends email me LOL (It’s still a hunch) OK

Having had my boat all ready just a waiting for the weather to get better… Finally a break in the weather with the nights forecast looking to be nice… and after talking with Ken and Bruce we all decided to go Shrimping…

So I hitched up my boat, and headed to Oak hill, Launched my boat into nice calm clear waters of the river, got on the radio and called for Ken (Keep it reel) to see if they had gotten there yet… (Club members are always told to use channel 68) So I called for Ken and got a response, Ken said that they were in front of Lopez’s, So I headed in that direction (That was the plan from earlier in the day)

Got to the Lopez area where Ken was anchored up with his wife and friend… we chatted for a few minutes, than I used my downscan to find a good contour of the bottom to set up my lights, just pas Lopez…

As I was setting up my lights, it was not dark yet, but was just starting to change, before I could get all my lights setup I started to see shrimp, I radioed Ken asking if he wanted to join in, and he said they were starting to see some, so I started dipping a few here and there, then more here and there, and even more here and there… till I was getting six and twelve in a lot of my scoops, having to empty my net every three or so minutes…

Then Ken tells me that Bruce called him on the cell phone to find out where us guys were located, so Ken gave him my Secret spot, and before long I seen Bruce over by Kens boat saying his hello’s then Along came Bruce looking to get in on the action, Bruce set up shop side by side with me, in my Secret spot, where I was still dipping hard…

Things got slow where Ken was so he finally came over to our Secret spot… and anchored up with us…

There were three people on Ken’s boat, Three on Bruce’s boat and just me on mine…

by the time Bruce upped his anchor I already had my bucket within three inches from the top, I stayed a little longer to top mine off and to keep Ken and friend company…

I ended up pulling anchor so Ken could anchor in my spot since I had topped off with a Full Pull… I attached to Kens boat after he anchored and chatted a little before I drive home to wash my boat and hit the sack…

I radioed Ken as I was loading my boat to make sure they were re-anchored in my spot and on Shrimp, because their first attempt before I left was a few yard off center of ground zero…

I get a response that they were in to Shrimp so I felt good for the ride home..

Here is the pics of the shrimp from last night... a FULL PULL right at the mark...

The Shrimp are now resting on ice in my large cooler, where I guess I will need to spend a few hrs de-heading today... I hate de-heading, I would rather give them away, but will do my job after my coffee and this report...




just think of all the Gumbo!!! LOL

 

OakHill Riverbreeze FULL PULL

posted by NTGator

A Shrimping we all go….

Pulled up to the ramp at Riverbreese and ran into Zaks farther launching their boat said my hellos, then launched my boat and headed to my now three times in a row full pull secret spot… LOL

Started to anchor and turned around and seen two married woman in a boat with Captain L written all over it, they did not look happy seeing someone in front of where they wanted to anchor LOL… so as they were debating whether or not they should anchor in back of my boat, I got a laugh out of that as they were not happy to see someone else around there secret spot LOL so they decided to head further south about two foot ball fields to a red triangle marker just past Goodrich’s, LOL which later became a parking lot all around their boat… LOL

Anchored and soon after Ken and Robert pulled up and anchored side by side in my secret spot… Deployed my lights and Zak, Zaks farther and three other guests, anchored up north of us then soon after Alan, Craig and Alan’s wife’s uncle, pulled up and I introduced them to Ken and Robert.. Then they went north to Alan’s secret spot about a football field north of us,

As Zaks crew was anchoring there was a wing netter voicing that he owned the waters and wanted them to move… He got me on the VHF and asked me to tell them to move, so I radioed back to the Wing netter and said it looks like they are not blocking your stream and are off to the side, etc… I was being nice…. And all was cool with it….

Ok then everyone is now in place and setup for some Shrimping action… dusk has arrived along with the shrimps, the flow was nice 2,3 5, 6 at a time, then the infamous Tug Boat… as Ken posted came along…

The Tug boat came through, went around damn near every boat in the channel Except for me, I pulled up all my lights at once, tangled mess!!! I was also getting ready to pull anchor when the tug decided to go around me…. That’s great glad I did not have to move since I had two anchors out….

But the stream was on, and I now needed to spend the next 30 minutes or so, untangling wires and redeploying my lights… Oh well…

Got all my lights re-deployed; turned around as I heard a plop… it was my net going overboard. Which started to float directly down current into Zaks boat… So I asked it they would grab my net, no problem, since it was going directly to their boat… Zak Thanks for retrieving my net…

Now what to do, I’m without a net… just redeployed eight lights, did not want to have to pull all my lights to go get my net, so Ken offered to let me use His wife’s little “PINKY” net… which really ticked Bruce off, because we all know Bruce has eyes for it LOL

So now how to get the net from Ken’s boat to mine? I took some anchor rope and through it to Kens boat and Ken tied Bruce’s little Pinky net to the rope and I pulled it in… Bruce not a happy camper, someone was moving in on his PINKY Net LOL

Great now I’m back in action, and started dipping shrimps again… Went from a 10 ft Power Dipper net to a little 6 ft small hoop, light weight dip net… Boy I was missing my big ten footer…. LOL

But thanks Ken I really appreciated the loaner… LOL

As everyone was starting to pack up and head home, I was just about topped off with my five gallons of shrimps…
Top off my bucket right at the five gallon mark, at 11:30, pulled Anchors and headed back to the ramp at 11:45 with Ken and Robert just behind…

Chatted with Ken at the ramps for a few, then headed home for some sleep…
I guess I will now have to pop some heads and take some pics…

Below are some photos of our ShrimpNFish convention… LOL

Ken, Robert on one Boat and Alan and Craig on the other...



Zak, Zaks farther and three other guests



Captain L way up in the center of the photo

 

Oak Gill Rb Full Pull

Posted by Zak

Well what can I say WHAT A NIGHT we had my uncle Tim and our buddy Bryce on the boat as well as my lil' sis all shrimping on a lil' flats boat, cramped not so much. Shrimp slayerz? you bet. Met Sam, Ken, Bruce, and Alan on the water good seeing y'all Now on to the good part so as we were trying to get anchored "Cap'n. 'Murica" down stream from us was getting all worked up about us supposedly "getting in his stream" and how he was going to run our ****** boat over and all but we just brushed it off and had a good laugh when an older woman said "you don't own the river!" which shut his trap pretty quick. Well after that nonsense it was getting darker and we haven't even set our lights out when my dad mumbles under his breath "got one" and lo and behold he already has a 6 incher in the net without even paying attention! So as soon as we got the spread set out we were getting 4's and 5's coming through our field with the occasional flurry of 8 shrimp at once coming through our field. Talk about figure eights. We decided to toss one of Bryce's lights on the downstream side of the boat and picked up a dozen on that side with a landing net while I was testing out some new lures go figure. Me and my uncle were taking turns on the stream side of the boat as everyone took turns emptying out basketballs. So as I was picking up a Zilla all we hear is Sam go oh crap there goes my net! Lucky enough the net floated right to us and we picked it up. Ended the night at 11 with a full pull of above average premo oak hill shrimps. We will be out there again tonight in an attempt to fill the freezers up while they're still running. See everyone out there and good luck and stay safe!


Heading out

Almost there
At the party



Waiting for it to get dark

Still waiting

Almost 5

Done!
Poppin' heads



Lunch!

 

Oak Hill Full Pull!!!

Posted by Chris Love2fish

That's right - the shrimping team of Sam (NTGator) and Chris (Love2Fish) hit the waters again. We started out before dark which gave us an opportunity to visit with some of the club members, tailsinthegrease, Lynnae, Keepitreel and Lobsterman. We have a great club where members enjoy themselves, helping each one succeed. The water was fairly clear and still. No wind or waves. Weather was perfect. Cool, but not chilly. We arrived at the secret spot, without any trouble. Not too many boats on the water yet. As soon as dark arrived, we heard from Keepitreel’s board, “skunks out.” Just seconds later, I yelled, “Skinks out.” The shrimping started out with a good flow with 2-6 shrimp showing up at times. They started out high on the water. The shrimp was decent for the next hour then slowed to 1-2. At times we had a small break in the action. Sam wanted to move the boat more east for Keepitreel was still dipping strong. So we moved. Flow was better, but not great. Soon we here that Keepitreel was full, so we moved to right in front of their boat, not to close to prevent them from dipping. My heart went out to Sam for he had to pull six lights and two anchors to make this move. That was a lot of work and I wasn’t helping. Sam wanted me to continue to shrimp, so I did. Our last anchor was the best I seen him anchor, but it was done quickly. Now the flow showed up. It was soup during most of the time. The main problem with the shrimp soup was that the shrimp were running deeper. This caused us to push the nets deeper where the net caused more restriction on the water flow. Now I’m writing this with sore muscles, but happy heart. All I could do at times is just hold the net as one after one shrimp flowed into it. I did at time have to move the net from side to side. And when I lifted to get the shrimp in the bottom of the net, I watch more shrimp just pass me by. Now I know what it means when others said it was soup. It was fun. We soon were also full waiting on others to get theirs. Afterward we all planned to fish a little by the lighted docks. At the first dock, Sam caught a small catfish. I had a good strike, but no hook up. Sam was using live shrimp; I chose to use a Gulp shrimp. (This was because of a new rod & reel that I got and wanted to try it out some.) We stayed there about 10 minutes before moving to another spot. The next spot did not produce much. I again had a small strike, but more than likely a pinfish or something. Nothing like the first one. At another spot Lobsterman hooked into a nice 21 inch red fish. I heard him saying some interesting terms while bringing in that fish. Seems it want to go under the dock. This was our last stop. Sam moved over to it when Lobsterman had that hook up with the red. I casted off from the light over towards another dock that was lighted. I again had a big hit with water splashing and nice pulling on my Gulp bait. Again, no hook up, but all in all still enjoyable. Pictures are below:

Lynnae's crew and boat.


Keepitreel's new boat and crew. Nice boat!!! Also Cindy's new shrimping net..



I ttok a video of some of the shrimp in the lights which I will post later, but Sam had to dump his net, so I snapped a picture of him. The quality is not great due to I was using my phone's camera which has slow shutter speed.





And finally a sample of the larger shrimp I brought home. I ended up with about 2 pounds of cleaned large jumbo shrimp.



Thanks Sam for taking me out again. We are a great team although I am still learning!

 

Oak Hill River breeze Full Pull
Posted by keepitreel Ken

FULL PULL. Started planning this trip when I still had the other boat, I didn't know if I was going in the canoe or an inner tube but I was going. The weather was off and on all week for our Saturday night trip to RB and the secret spot. Talked to a few club members and posted my intentions on the "shrimping and fishing trip plans" to see who I would be out there with just in case I was on an inner tube. Got to RB and launched the new boat on its maiden voyage. Met up with Sam and Chris and while they checked out boat I loaded gear onboard. Got the boat in the water and headed south to meet up with other club members and present Lynnae and Dick with a brand new capt Ron O'Brien collapsable frame net. With no electronics installed yet I had to rely on my ability to judge water depth by triangulating the wind speed and divideing by current and yelling over to Sam and Chris and asking the depth. Got anchored up in 11 feet and started tossing lights and squaring away the deck. While I'm working my butt off Roberts getting the skunk out of the boat. The shrimps showed up and we where ready for em, Cindy and her new capt Ron O'Brien custom dip net, Robert mid ship and me on the bow with my Capt Ron O'Brien power dipper. Started out 2s and 3s and it stayed like this for awhile with occasional 5s and 6s. Then it was soup, chunky shrimp soup and we where in a dipping frenzy for an hour or so. Meanwhile Sam is wanting to know how many shrimp we have onboard but when the shrimp are swarming I'm not stopping to measure, I don't like to stop to dump my net. We finally got a break in the action and I dumped my big bucket into my 5 gallon bucket and damn Were almost there. We kept at it until the bucket was a solid 5 gallons. Great shrimping last night with the club members, always nice to get out on the water with people you know. So the new boat has been christened properly with a full pull on the first time out. Cindy and Robert both agreed this is a great boat for shrimping. Next adventure!

Sam and Chris on Sam's Boat I'll load some more pics in the morning when I get them from Robert, including the bucket chock full o shrimp

 

I Am Going To Say 4 Gallons
posted by lobsterman Less

Meet up with the club members for my first time group shrimping. Brought my friend Dave who has not been shrimping in over 30 years. Started out with flurries of 5 – 6 lasted maybe an hour and a half than just died. We watched Sam and Ken dipping away. Sam suggested we slide in behind him, but Dave had to be home so I took him back to River Breeze and sent him off with around a gallon. By the time I made it back everyone almost had full buckets. I was a little nervous trying to anchor in close. Sam helped out by tying my bow line to his stern. Got set up and it was shrimp soup. Dipped about a gallon and checked the CFN and was surprised with about two gallons. We did a little fishing on the way back to the ramp. We were not having much action, then on the last dock WAM! Fish on! Turned out to be a 21” red. That was a great ending to a great night. Thanks Sam for the invite. Looking forward to another outing. It was great meeting you all, I had a blast. Hopefully my wife Joan will be able to make it next time. All in all, I probable had 4 gallons with what Dave had and I got when I returned. Ken, that is a really nice boat.

WTG Les, nice having you as part of our group o the water

below are some of the pics I took of you

 

Full Pull #2! Dick & Lynnae's Adventures Continue

We had been talking about making this trip ever since our last one two weeks ago. My son wanted to go down Friday night and spend two nights on the boat...more chances to fish the early mornings, but I didn't think it would work out having 3 people trying to sleep in that little cabin. It's nice, but it's not that big! We had much to do to get the boat ready to go anyhow and by the time we were done with that, farm chores, and dinner, it was 11 pm. He didn't realize how much there was to it.

We all zonked out in our recliners for a while, thinking this way we'd be more likely to wake early and head out. At least get out of the driveway before 10 am. My son set his alarm for 3:30 and the last time I looked over at him before I finally dozed off, he was still playing a game on his phone. Dick had been out cold for awhile. I woke to the alarm, but sonny boy was zonked and slept right through it. Dick and I got up, made some coffee and proceeded to load the last of what needed to go on the boat.

We pulled out around 5 or so, stopping to fill the coolers with ice, when I realized that I evidently need to add my cell phone to my check list. It was still home on the charger. Dang it. We go back to grab that, thankful for the changes we'd made in some pasture fencing that makes it much easier to get the boat in and out. Went back to town and stopped by our shop to check the air in all of our tires. We'd just put 3 more new tires on the trailer after our flat last trip. One was pretty dry rotted, the other two will make good spares.Finally, we were good to go.

When we arrived, there were a lot of trailers already, but with little action at the ramp we got in without any hassles. I had wanted to head towards the inlet, so we headed north from RB, fishing the docks and mangroves. We wound up only going as far as marker 64, where we seemed to find a spot where there was a little more action than just catching mud cats. We hooked a lot of lady fish, only landing one. My son got his first flattie. We'd started off with some frozen shrimp, tried some small crabs, wound up using the new penny gulp. That got the most bites. Something liked them a lot. They kept biting the tails off, so we tried hooking the tails. The fish are smarter than we are, evidently.

Around 5 pm, we decided to head on down to the secret spot so we could get anchored before it got too busy. I had my difficulties dealing with a stiff wind and the incoming tide, but after two tries, I was reasonably satisfied with the results. The boys then continued to fish, and I continued to be the designated fish remover. My job for much of the entire day… being a nice mom and wife… letting the boys have their fun. Finally, the radio cackled, and I hear the sound of Sam's voice telling me the gang was on the way! Time to put the poles way and get sorted out for some shrimping!

The boats arrived, one by one. Sam and his shrimping partner stopped by to say hello before going to anchor themselves. Soon Ken pulled up beside me, I assumed, to show off his new boat. (Which is quite nice BTW) Met their friend, Robert, and chatted a few minutes, admiring the boat and the duct taped handle of the dip net. (I really need to do that to ours!) At one point I looked up to see this little camera pointed at me… and I'm wondering why… when I look back to Ken, he's standing there with a frame net in his outstretched arms, telling me that Capt. Ron wanted me to have an authentic Capt. Ron O'Brian frame net! Whaaaaaattt? The story behind all this will be posted in a different section, but let it suffice to say that I am a big baby. I cry at weddings, funerals, the 4th of July, and horse races. Happy, sad, beautiful, whatever. I just can't help myself. Caught completely by surprise by this unbelievably kind gesture, yeah, I cried. Capt. Ron is a special guy.

So on to what this report is supposed to be about! Lights in the water, we awaited the dark… and the turning of the tide, which seemed to take forever. I was anxious to get my new frame net in the water! The no-see-ums showed up first and I grabbed my bug spray, grateful it was on the boat. The skeeters arrived right behind them. I'm not sure how many I sucked down my throat. Ick! This was the first time we experienced the bugs. Numerous applications of Off and eventually a wonderful breeze, the bugs soon faded to the back of my mind. As the calls began to ring out, "Skunks off!", we began seeing the shrimp. For us, it was steady dipping most of the evening. Listening to the conversations across the water between boats, it appeared that some of us were in the stream and some needed to move. When we'd reached about 2 gallons, I was beginning to think we wouldn't make it to the coveted full pull. Then it began to crank up. At one point I counted out 14 in one scoop before I lifted the net to shake them down. I was dumping the dip nets for the guys almost every 5-10 minutes. Dick was groaning about how those figure eights are for the young studs, but he was a trooper, swooping and scooping right on. You gotta get em when they are there! The frame net was only giving us a handful with every pull, but we raised it and it did a little better. The shrimp started off running high in the water in the beginning, deeper towards the end. The water was a real treat. Not as murky as usual, little grass, saw only one jelly. Lots of little blue crabs. I wasn't even being pestered by the catfish on the lights.

Planning on fishing afterwards, I was culling our pulls as we went, trying to weed out some of the dinks and the smaller shrimp. Some went in my bait box, the rest back overboard, much to the horror of my husband and son who thought I was crazy tossing them out like that before we had our full pull. I wanted to toss them while they were still alive, so they could grow up and make us more shrimp! At the end though, we wound up with more shrimp than our measured bucket would allow and I was still culling out small shrimp, keeping only the larger sizes, to get us down to what looked like a reasonable limit. Some of the others had recently finished getting their pull and everyone was just hanging out as other members worked at topping off their buckets.

Shrimping gear stowed out of the way, Sam introduced us to fishing the dock lights. I got a lot of practice maneuvering the boat in the wind, current, shallow water and the dark, as Sam and Les tended to move along fairly quickly if there wasn't anything biting. It was good practice, which I need plenty more of! Finally, we just hung out in one spot and let them skip on down the docks, where Les hooked up with his keeper Red. Sam checked on us before they headed in to see what we planned to do. The plan had been to anchor up, get some sleep, and get up early to fish before heading home. Then my son hooked into what we have nicknamed Godzilla. He felt a strike and went to work to battle it. Making small amounts of progress, I could hear the drag as the line pulled back out again. I don't know how long this went on. I do know we tried moving the boat for a different angle. Tried letting the line go slack… and whatever it was, the line just kept going until he tried to pull it back in. Sam has suggested a turtle. At 4 am, Capt. Mom made the call. Cut the line. I was exhausted. I had checked the most recent weather report for Sunday morning and it showed a 70% chance of rain from 7 am to 2 pm. No, I didn't want to deal with that. We were lucky Saturday turned out as nice as it was. It was time to wrap up this show and head for home and I knew I'd end up driving while they snored all the way home. I felt like a walking chemical dump, what with SPF 70 (twice) and 10 gallons (more or less) of Off bug spray mixed with the salt and sweat on my skin.

The ramp was empty. Got the boat on the trailer with minimal trouble. I have to work on that another 1000 times. Wind and tide, proper speed. Dicks new lights on top of the guide posts were helpful for him to see the trailer when backing. We drove by sleeping beauty on our way out. Ken, who went to the dock to get his shrimp on ice (good idea!), and was supposed to come back to fish with us… was zonked out in his truck! Party pooper! The ride back was a long 3 hours and uneventful. We got home around 8:30 am. Made our routine cup of coffee to give me time to unwind and a little time to get the boat to stop rocking. Made sure the shrimp were iced good and fell into bed about 10. Slept till 1 pm. Cleaned the shrimp and boat and all the stuff everyone has to do too! This time I took some advice from one of our members who shared some shrimp and said, "let them clean em!". I sorted shrimp this time by jumbos, large and everything else. The premium shrimp got counted out into packages sized right for our dinners. The everything else shrimp were left whole and weighed into one pound bags for sharing... or boil em up and peel and eat! WAY easier to clean 5 gallons of shrimp this way! With our freezers packed now with roughly 19 lbs of shrimp in 5 trips, I am looking forward to learning to fish! Mangroves watch out!

My 6 3/4" shrimp... and a few of the larger ones..
.




Found this little guy while cleaning the shrimp. Isn't it just the cutest little squid?

 

Oak Hill Shrimping Reports Full Pull

posted by NTgator

OK hears the deal,

As I posted before on the last half of the full moon, when the moon will be out and above the ShrimpZ were supposed to come out and Play...

So when Ken and Cindy had been Chomping at the bit to go, Who was I to say no...

Ken Cindy, Bruce, Craig and Angel were already in Edgewater, I called to say I was headed to OH...

So I waited until 11:00 PM to leave the house and headed to OH, Arrived and setup shop, Just as I deployed four lights I was a dipping some nice ShrimpZ 1s 2s 3s and 4s

Then I hear Cindy on the VHF saying that they were on the water at the ramp...

Ken and Cindy arrived and set up shop to my port, and as they were setting up they heard me doing my Samurai Shrimp Dance, it was like that all night, 1s 3s 6s and 12s at a time, it started out as Soup, then turned into Chunky Soup... Every few dips of the net and I was dumping...

I ended up with a solid 5 gallons of good size ShrimpZ, yes good size.... Very little smalls... I was also being selective on which ones I would dip on top...

Water was nice and clear, calm and easy to see the ShrimpZ... I only had four lights in the water, tried five, but turned the fifth one off, because I did not need it...

here are some pics... I will put the ShrimpZ in the bucket for measurement photo when I clean the ShrimpZ...

All in ALL Great night on the water, weather and conditions were perfect....

Oh the 6 for 6 Deal means this was my 6th Full Pull in a row... 5 of which was only me dipping, 1 was with Chris....

ShrimpZ on Ice...



ShrimpZ on Ice...


My fresh caught ShrimpZ Supper...





Added these photos as I was cleaning them the next day....






Bucket in Bin on Ice before Cleaning them








Bucket in cooler on Ice as I was cleaning them, I try to keep the Shrimp cold at all times...


Cleaning Station


SS Bowl on Ice

 

Oak Hill Florida Shrimping Reports Full Pull

Posted my keepitreel Ken

I've been planning this trip since last week in hopes of getting the club members out to the world famous secret spot and filling their buckets.
Got to the ramp just before dark and had to wait for my buddy Doug to launch so I could slip my boat off the trailer. Headed to the secret spot and said hello to Bruce and his crew and anchored up astern of him in an already outgoing tide.
Got the skunk out as I was deploying my lights.
Brought along our friend Arnold who wanted to try shrimping after hearing all of our stories of conquests. Had my normal crew of Cindy, Robert and myself dipping 1 here and 1 there and then they would come in spurts. Around midnight the shrimps showed in some good numbers but not really soup.
Lot of weeds and more crabs than I've ever seen.
The CFL did about 3/4 of a gallon and was packed with crabs and weeds.
Had our bucket full about 12:30 when I noticed Bruce was pulling his gear, he had his FP and was heading to the ramp.

Gator trout was a hunded yards south of us and Doug was just north of us.
We topped off the bucket and went back to visit with Doug and he to had a FULLPULl.
Little windy tonight which made it difficult to see the shrimp but we pressed on and got them.
ill post a few pics when I get up

 

Oak Hill Florida Shrimping Reports Full Pull

The club shrimping trip and mini shrimping clinic turned out really well. Got to Riverbreeze at 3:30 and met up with some of the members; Lynnae and Dick, Bogman, Tim, gator trout, Nt Gator Doug and myself. Shalane and her husband and crew met us on the water. Sam did a few demonstrations with some tips and tricks which had everyone's attention. Got our boats in the water around 4:30 and headed south. Got anchored up in the secret spot, deployed the lights and just after "0" dark 30 we can hear from Lynnae that Dick got the 1st shrimp. Skunks out of the boat. The shrimp where coming in 2s and 3s mostly nice large and mediums. Coming at us in spurts, often in numbers over 5 and 6. Sam Topped off with s healthy full pull around 10;30

Doug and I topped off shortly after Sam

The shrimp where very large for Oakhill tonight, seemed more like the RRB sizes. (Can someone say shrimp on the bar-b?). Lots of medium but a lot of large fat shlobsters. We pulled our gear around 10:45 and Jesse for the ramp. Got home and rinsed everything off and Doug said "hey let head all the shrimp now"so we did and now it's 5:30 am and I'm heading for bed. Everything is done and all cleaned up and this is my take on tonight's full pull


Here are some of the big ones that didn't get away...

.


Nice sizes for Oakhill.

 

Oak Hill Florida Shrimping Reports Full Pull
Posted by gatortrout Pat

As the others mentioned, it was a great night of shrimping. The weather and shrimp both cooperated, and I got to meet a lot of members. For me, it was one of those weekends where you don't have an extra 5 minutes to spare. After a busy morning and afternoon, it was all I could do to get to the ramp by 4pm. I showed up about 15 minutes late but was able to jump in a learn a few things. Sam looked over my hand-me-down equipment and gave me a few techniques to try.

We got out to the grounds a little before dark and got set up. I was the last of us to get the skunk out of the boat, but soon after it was shrimp madness. It would be quiet one minute, then pure pandemonium the next! After a few gallons I just used 3 lights, since every time I went to the stern to dip a few, I missed more on the bow. When ntgator and Keep it Real left, I had a solid 4 gallons and was dipping the bigger ones. Ended up topping off 5 gallons as the tide was slowing. My first full pull, by myself to boot! Most were medium 5-6", with about 4 dozen 6-7" and a few over; the largest was almost 7 1/2"!!!! I didn't even realize it at the time, but I ended up with a mantis shrimp too. Better take more care putting them in the cooler next time, apparently they're known as "thumb splitters" - luckily I didn't find out the hard way!

Thanks again for everyone who offered advice, it was a great time and was nice meeting all of you!

I tried taking some pics out on the water but they didn't turn out too well, have to bring the camera next time instead of the phone. Here's some of the catch:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/gatortrout19/20150126_022155.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/gatortrout19/20150126_131707.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/gatortrout19/20150126_131834.jpg

(I needed to edit your post and get your photos posted below) Sam

 

Oak Hill Florida Shrimping Reports First Full Pull!!!!
Posted by lynnae

What started out a chilly morning, turned into a beautiful day on the water in Oak Hill. Left home around 11 am and arrived at Riverbreeze around 2 PM to a nice empty ramp with lots of parking. That was the plan for us newbies as we fully expected it would be chaos later and wanted to avoid that at all cost! We put the boat in the water with no problems. Easy to do with no pressure. Cruised north a little ways, then south, just exploring. Decided to motor back up to the so called "secret spot" and see how we'd do with anchoring in a stiff wind and a moving incoming tide. Did ok with that, everything seemed to be holding ok. I was a bit concerned about where we'd end up when the tide changed tho… and having followed Sam's advice, we'd set out our anchor buoy, which was almost immediately run over by a huge yacht who wasn't watching until last minute. Fortunately, everything was ok except I was left shaking for a couple of hours. Turns out, the buoys survived a number of hits thru the night with no ill consequence. I worried for naught.

Dick baited a hook with some frozen shrimp we'd brought along and hooked 3 catfish. He had fun with that until they just quit biting. Boats were moving in all around us and we noticed the tide going slack a bit sooner than we had expected. Tried snugging up our anchor lines to keep the swing of the boat in the changing tide to a minimum. A couple of club members anchored just north of us and tied their boats together, tossing out some lights just before dark and soon the girls were squealing with delight. Shrimp? Already? So we started setting out our lights, seeing shrimp before we could get them all in. Even in a slack tide they were swimming around from every direction! In seconds the skunk was off the boat! As the tide started picking up, we were pretty busy scooping up decent enough numbers as Sam arrived and anchored a little southwest of us. Ken soon arrived and dropped in behind us to the northeast. Soon I was hearing his grunts as he started dipping. The water was extremely murky and we were dipping at shadows, sometimes just dipping just to dip and catching shrimp just the same.

We probably had about 2 gallons when Ken's grunts turned into groans. He and Sam, who wasn't getting a ton of shrimp where he was anchored, were talking back and forth (after Sam's frame net got torn up by something huge). Ken was in the stream and was going crazy, dipping and dragging a huge ball in his dip net, refusing to pull it out to dump it. I don't know how he was dragging that massive ball thru the water! We were thinking that we might be just out of the stream, since we weren't seeing the numbers Ken was seeing, when suddenly it happened. Shrimp everywhere! I was getting a dozen at a time, just holding my net in the water and letting them flow in! I hardly knew which way to steer the net! Lift, shake and back in again. Every couple of minutes, my poor husband had to dump our nets. Sam shot his spotlight on Ken's net and pulled his lights and anchors and moved. I'm sure all he could hear was me saying, " Sam, they're EVERYWHERE!"

During all this excitement, we discovered that our front anchor had lost it's hold after the tide change and the extra pull of the frame net, and we were creeping very slowly back towards Ken. It didn't faze him though… and I was just thinking, Thank God it was Ken back there. Had it been someone else outside of the club, I would have probably been yelled at and heard some ugly cursing. While I realize that some people are just plain rude and inconsiderate, I tend to think that it is likely more possible that some of the "infractions" that people commit is simply because they just do not know better! Some people would do better to remember that they too were once newbies! Instead of screaming at people. Help them if you can! I haven't been a victim of that kind of behavior yet, likely only because we have surrounded ourselves really good people. I do worry about that though.

Also we figured out that our frame net was twisted backwards, but had still caught a full gallon in it! Got it straight and back in the water and got back to dipping. It wasn't long before the bucket was filled. We'd gotten our first "Full Pull"! What a blast!!! Ken got his limit and Sam was coming up on it. It sounded like everyone around us got the limit! We hung out till Sam was done, then headed to the ramp, picking our way thru the boats that were still anchored up with lights in the water. Many folks just standing there, nets out of the water. Looked like nobody was dipping.

The ramp was fairly calm and we got out with minimal trouble. The dark sure makes a difference for me. We yet have so much to learn and skills to work on. Once we all had our boats sorted and secured on the trailers, we all headed off to Denny's for breakfast before heading for home. I so enjoy the companionship as much as I enjoy the shrimping. I think without it, it just wouldn't be quite the same. We never would have found that had it not been for this group. Thank you, Sam! We cant thank you guys enough for all the help and guidance you have given us.

So I think it was 4:30 am when we left Oak Hill. Got home at 7:35. Made a cup of coffee to warm up (it was 38 degrees here) and unwind, then crawled into bed about 8:30 and zonked out till about 1. Dick worked on cleaning up the boat while I worked on cleaning shrimp. Had some nice sizes in there, the largest ones being 7". Most were mediums and plenty of smalls for sure, but they taste the same as the bigger ones! Just a lot of work. Takes as long to head a small shrimp as a big un! And dinner? Shrimp, of course!! YUM!


Sam, Dick and Ken. Full Pulls all! 2 solo full pulls! Those guys are beasts!

 

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