You may have a pet plug, or maybe a “killer” fly for your home waters, but I’d say that a live shrimp is the most universal bait for inshore fishing. No bait can save the day like a shrimp. There are a number of ways to rig and present live shrimp, and an even larger number of gamefish and “table” fish that relish them. Even after a slow day of fishing, and a well full of shrimp, anglers joke that at least they can eat their bait.
As an old backcountry guide, I consider the “gray ghost of the flats,” as Zane Grey called the bonefish, a top-shelf shrimp eater. If you don’t fly fish, you can’t do better than serve a shrimp to a bone, especially the wise, old bonefish we have right here in my backyard, the Florida Keys.
Thirty or 40 years ago I thought it was imperative to use the Wright and McGill Eagle Claw 189, 1/0 or 2/0 hooks because of the bait-holding barbs on the hook’s shank. These hooks are still popular, and have an offset bend that I simply straighten with my pliers, for the sake of rigging a “straight” bait. I twist off, and occasionally bite off the shrimp’s tail just to see my client’s reaction. To ensure the bait lays out straight so as to prevent line twist, I thread the shrimp onto the hook with the point barely protruding from its belly. But nowadays I generally use 2/0 or occasionally 3/0 Owner Aki hooks, depending on the size of the shrimp. They are super-sharp with a very small barb making it much easier to release your fish. Removing the tail cuts down on wind resistance so I am able to cast farther, and with more accuracy. The open wound also secretes additional scent, so in effect you are setting up a chumline for the fish to follow. Now your shrimp can be retrieved in a tail-first manner without spinning, and this mimics the natural retreat of a shrimp startled by one of its many predators.
To present a shrimp to a tailing bonefish or redfish, if possible get a read on the fish’s direction of travel. They do flit here and there in a zigzagging manner, but will normally swim and feed into the tide. Since you can’t “bomb” a fish on the head, even when it is busily rooting in the bottom, determine its direction and cast in front of and a bit beyond the fish. Just before your shrimp touches down, stop the line with the tip of your index finger while slowly raising the rodtip. This makes the bait “slide” toward you as it softly hits the water, creating the illusion of a shrimp skipping on the surface to get away.
For bonefish in two feet or deeper water, or if it’s windy, I’ll sometimes attach a splitshot to my light leader or doubled line right next to the hook eye to get the bait down quicker in front of a cruising fish.
When I want to fish a live shrimp for tarpon, permit or snook I insert the hook from underneath its head being careful not to penetrate the black brain, which would kill it. These species will seldom refuse shrimp rigged and presented in this fashion. All of these techniques of rigging shrimp can be used for redfish, seatrout and even striped bass. Of course, if you’d rather cast 1⁄8- to 3⁄8-ounce jigs on the flats, tipping your lure with a small piece of shrimp is deadly. Use a chunk no larger than your thumbnail, and be sure your jig does not spin on the retrieve.
As deadly as a live shrimp is for sight fishing, when “soaked” it attracts all comers. For example, last year I fished the Redbone Tournament with Capt. Eric VanDemark in Islamorada in cloudy, windy weather. We had already caught quite a number of redfish and I needed a bonefish if I hoped to contend. With just over two hours of fishing left Eric headed for the nearby Buchanan Keys to a good outgoing tide spot for bonefish. Capt. Eric shoved his pushpole into the soft bottom and staked out while I broke out two of my “ace in the hole” hooks, a Gamakatsu G. Lock 2/0 (a long-shank hook normally used for plastic baits). I tied one to my line and that of my fishing partner, Mike Pehanich. I attached one splitshot at the hook eye and broke a shrimp in half, threading it onto the hook. Then I twisted off the tail of another shrimp threading it onto the hook facing in the opposite direction. This was a little trick that I learned from my dear friend Capt. Rick Murphy. It’s essentially a good-size glob of shrimp that bonefish can sniff out.
Mike and I cast our baits and I placed my spinning rod in a rod holder and just hunkered back, thinking pleasant thoughts. Then I heard an even more pleasant sound! My drag buzzed as my rod doubled over. Mike hooked up a few seconds later. Obviously a school moved in, though bad visibility prevented us from seeing them. My fish and Mike’s ran like small bonefish. Wow, a doubleheader! What a bonus that would be for us. Then, shades of gloom and dark despair—both of our fish turned out to be bonnethead sharks. Sometimes that’s the price you pay when “soaking” shrimp for bonefish.
