By Jimmy Tomazinis
mail@floridanewsline.com
Happy shrimp season! I hope you got all your nets patched and other projects done, because our summer fishing is in full swing. From June through December, most years the river is blessed with an influx of marine shrimp from the ocean. The shrimp travel upriver past Palatka, eating and growing as they go. Later in the fall the shrimp begin to exit the river to go back out to the ocean to reproduce. There they are caught by local shrimp boats and marketed as our famous Mayport shrimp. Their upriver and down river journeys are shadowed by droves of fish taking advantage of the seasonal bounty. For that reason, our area fishing is closely tied to the shrimp.
As of right now our shrimp season runs June – March. At least that is when we can legally catch shrimp from the river for food or bait. How do you catch shrimp from the river? The most common method involves a cast net. If you’re hesitant or not very experienced throwing a cast net, shrimp are one of the easiest things to catch with one. If you’re wanting to catch shrimp during the daytime, I would highly recommend a taped net. The tape around the circumference of the net keeps the net open as it sinks in deeper water. This is important because during the day the shrimp can be at depths of 20 feet or more. An un-taped net would barely be open after it sinks in water that deep. At night shrimp move into shallow water and the tape is less important. You can buy an already taped net, or you can add it to one by putting duct tape around it or sewing chair webbing around it. The webbing lasts longer and is less messy but might take a little more time depending on your sewing skills.
Any prominent drop offs will hold shrimp during the day. The mouth of Doctors Lake and the marker in front of Club Continental are two well known spots that will have boats throwing nets around them most days. Shrimp will congregate on specific depth contours along the drop offs, so pay attention to the depth you are in when throwing for them and move deeper or shallower to find the highest numbers of them. I’ve run out of words for this month so more on shrimp next month. Tight lines.
