Scup

Introduction
It has been requested by several form members that I prepare a series of articles describing how one would go about catching Striped Bass by chumming with live grass shrimp. Had I not been fortunate enough to have a mentor named Allan, I doubt if I would have ever caught a single bass using this technique. After one understand the complete picture of what and how things come into play, everything seems so simple. However, is left to one’s own resources it would very unlikely to be successful at this unless one had a mentor initially. I used this method in Jamaica Bay during the fifties and early sixties when I was a resident of Brooklyn New York. The last time I used this technique was in 1963 since I was then displaced to South Eastern Connecticut and far removed from my beloved Jamaica Bay. While almost fifty years have passed, I feel very positive that if I found myself back in my old fishing grounds, there would be no problem in duplicating what I have done in the past. However, a warning has to be provided that the techniques and locations that I will describe were unique to the back reaches of Jamaica Bay and may or may not be adaptable to other areas. All I can do is described what I had done to be successful. I have never tried chumming with live grass shrimp in Connecticut because once removed from Jamaica Bay, I was never able to find sufficient quantities of grass shrimp to make chumming feasible. I have lost touch with all of my old fishing buddies as well, so I do not even know if this technique is even practiced anymore.
Chumming with grass shrimp is a slack water affair. One would typically start about two hours before slack water and fish until about two hours after slack water. It does not matter if one fishes slack high tide or slack low tide, both work. This technique has never produced trophy bass for me. What it has done is allow one to catch large numbers of stripers at mid day during the summer when most anglers would have to target bass at night to be successful. Obviously, to be successful in chumming with live grass shrimp, an adequate supply of these crustaceans are required. Four quarts of grass shrimp would be what I would consider to be the minimum amount needed to even begin thinking of going fishing. Five or six quarts would even be better. In the fifties, one could purchase grass shrimp locally. I even considered being a supplier myself, but I viewed grass shrimp to be only a means of catching stripers. I wanted to catch stripers, not shrimp. However, the cost of grass shrimp was prohibited, so shrimp seines came into play. Since everything hinges on catching large quantities of grass shrimp and keeping them alive, the first couple of articles will describe how to take care of them. It would not matter much if you caught 10 quarts of them and then had all of them die. The next article will describe how to make a one man shrimp seine. This will be followed by a description of how one would go about using the seine and actual locations and general signs of what to look for to be successful. I know, it sounds stupid, that I cannot even get enough shrimp here in Connecticut to begin fishing, and here I am telling everyone else what to look for. The problem I faced in Connecticut was of getting bogged down in muck halfway up to my knees. The footings in Jamaica Bay were far superior. However, since I do not know what your particular area will be like, you may be very successful. Then a description will be presented of the gear needed. Actually, this is simplicity to the extreme, but some minor modification will have to be made to the standard O’Shaughnessy hook to allow it to be used with grass shrimp. Then the all important article describing the how-to aspect of chumming with grass shrimp will follow. The last article will deal with special chumming scenarios and the construction of a deep release chum device. I will try to get something out every week or two, with some minor delays around tax time.

Attached Images

shrimp[1].JPG (203.6 KB, 11 views)

74Formula233

Great start to this topic!

I hope you don't mind, I changed the picture to JPG format and attached it, deleting the BMP......the JPG shows a thumb, the BMP doesn't

__________________

Scup

I will not change my mind. Good thing to know is to save things as JPG. I am curious if chumming with live grass shrimp is still being done? I hope some feedback does get back from form members. Comparing notes is always interesting. There were not too many doing it back even when I was active. It always was a somewhat labor intensive way of fishing, that is to have to chase down your bait. The group I fished with had no problem with doing that. Today, well I just do not know if anglers would want to go through the trouble. However, since there those who fished using live grass shrimp it in the past, I find it hard to believe that there wouldn't be some out there today (especially youngsters) who really would want to give try, but do not have any idea where to start. Once success is acquired, one can easily fall in love with this technique as the fishing bug can really bite a young angler hard.

Andy

Great start looking forword to reading more...

__________________
http://cthuntingnshooting.com/

Scup

11/30/2007
Keeping Grass Shrimp Alive
Assuming you have acquired a gallon or two of grass shrimp and wish to keep them alive, the following worked well for me. Always try to keep them in the same waters as where you caught them.
Since they have survived well in the wild where you caught them, they will survive well in a floating bait box if placed in a nearby location. This means you will have to fabricate, or purchase, a couple of floating bait boxes that you can keep with you, or leave behind at your dock after you have gone home for the day. In addition there is one other type of bait box that will be needed for chumming with grass shrimp. The last is nothing more than a wooden box with a screen on the bottom and an open top. This will be your working box. When it comes time to dump a load of grass shrimp from your seine into something, the working bait box is what you will use. One would typically set it down near the shore in a few inches of water near where you are working with your seine. There need be nothing fancy about the working box which is approximately a foot long, nine inches wide, and about ten inches high. Nothing is critical here. I would drill two small holes near the top of the opposite ends so a length of line can be attached to it to facilitate carrying it around. The line is also needed when you tie it to the side of your boat during the actual chumming procedure. While not shown, should you become concerned that the working box will mar the finish of your boat, a couple of pieces of foam can be glued to the box to act as a bumper.
Floating bait boxes just seemed to be the way to go for keeping just about any live bait alive fifty years ago. If you wanted to go fishing, and did not have a boat, one could always rent one at the many boat rental liveries in and around Jamaica bay. Two of them that I remember on Emmons Ave (Sheepheads Bay) were “Bays End” and “Stella Marris”. Jamaica Bay had “Carl’s” and “Smithies”. They were rather complete rental facilities and would have just about anything an angler would need for a day of fishing including live bait. When one would purchase a couple dozen killifish for fluking, they would loan you a live bait floating box. All of these boxes were crude simple wooden affairs but they worked well; and it would seem that just about all of these boxes were of very similar designed. Grass shrimp being smaller than most killifish, would require a slight modifications to the design of these boxes as a finer size of screening would be needed, and of course if one wished to keep several gallons of shrimp alive, the box would have to be sized accordingly. These floating bait boxes were never meant to be left overboard when moving from one location to another. One would simply transit to the spot where one wished to fish, and place the box over the side when you arrived at your destination. More than once, however, we would take off and someone would shout “you forgot to bring the bait box in”. The box would bump the side of the boat while under power, however, the short rough ride would not seem to do much harm to its inhabitants. While grass shrimp are fragile, and when placed inside of the boat for transiting they are obviously not in water, they are not going to drop dead on you for the short transit to your favorite fishing spot. I had two such floating boxes. One was similar in size to what the rentals would supply and would be used to transport a tides worth of grass shrimp to the fishing area. The second box was a fairly large floating box and would never leave the dock area. This is the box where I would store shrimp for future use. In all the years of fishing that I had done with grass shrimp no one had ever stolen my supply of grass shrimp. I am starting to think that this just might have been case in which no one would know what to do with them even if they had them.
I will describe the construction of these floating bait boxes and the working box. There is nothing difficult or expensive concerning their construction. The only material that may be somewhat difficult to acquire is the fine mesh hardware cloth. Many decent hardware stores of the past would carry a three foot wide roll of 1/8” mesh welded wire galvanized cloth and sell you the small amount needed by the square foot. Even a 3/16” mesh would be fine, but the way mesh sizes run is they now define it by the number of meshes per inch. For example, 6 by 6 means six meshes to the inch. Today, you would be wasting your time trying to find such an item at your local chain hardware store. I would not use the common ¼” mesh that is widely available. It would prevent a mature adult grass shrimp passing through, but just about everything else would be lost. That everything else is valuable chum and you should retain it. While it may be possible your area just might have a one-off old fashioned hardware store, I have provided a mail order concern that still sells the required mesh by the square foot. Currently the price is about 70 cents per square foot.
The construction details of the working box are shown in Figure 1. My original box was made of wood taken from a soda pop case. Even the poorest selection of wood would suffice since one could always paint inferior grades of wood with epoxy. The epoxy would saturate into the wood extending its life for decades. The original one lasted for more than a decade and was never finished with anything. While not shown, I always would attach the wire mesh to the bottom using thin ¼ “ thick wood lath strips that would run the length of the bottom. I would pre-drill the lath strips to prevent splitting, and hammer the whole affair together using 1” galvanized lath nails (sometimes called lobster pot nails). The lath strips would hold the mesh better and provide some degree of protection to the mesh since the mesh is now recessed somewhat by the lath strips. If it takes you more than ½ hour to make this box up, you are doing something wrong. The next article will include a sketch of the floating bait box. I have not decided yet if I should try to draw it, or simply make one up and take a picture of it.


Figure 1

Attached Images

working box.jpg (26.1 KB, 7 views)

Scup

Floating Bait Boxes
There are several ways to keep grass shrimp alive, but the simplest one is to use a floating bait box. The inserts include a picture of a small floating bait box that was used to keep killifish alive for fluking. The exact same design works well for grass shrimp with the exception that a finer wire hardware cloth is needed. A 3/16” mesh is great but hard to come by. The finer 1/8 will also work very well and can be purchased at McMasters and Carr by the square foot. There are no dimensions given for the construction of the bait box as there is really nothing critical about its sizing. To transport about a gallon of shrimp to the fishing scene, I would use a box of at least the following dimensions: 8” high, 9” wide, and 14” long. Of course, the larger you make the box, the better. To store several gallons of grass shrimp for future use, you should at least double the size of the above box. I always had two boxes. One for the boat, the second and larger one, would be kept at the dock for reserves. The design of these floating bait boxes have been around for more than fifty years. The wooden top protects the grass shrimp from the sun. Even if the box should rest on the bottom in a few inches of water during an extreme low tide, the open ends will still insure an adequate flow of water. The door itself is of a very simplistic design. The two wooden cleats hold one end of the door secure while the line keeps the other end of the door in place. The spacing of the door cleats matches the inside of the box so there will be only a slight left/right movement. I have never seen one of these boxes made with the additional locking tab that I place on the top. Normally it is not needed. As long as there is tension on the line, it cannot open up. Even if tension is removed, gravity still works and will tend to keep the cover in place. Once, when I carelessly threw the box over the side, it flipped upside down. Even then, it did not open up because the wooded door does float and tends to push itself up against the top side edge of the box thus still remaining closed. Only once, I had lost the contents of the box. A guest aboard my boat was asked to retrieve the bait box. This was the first time he had ever gone fishing. Being curious as to how one would open the box, he turned the box upside down looking for a way to open it, while still holding it over the side and with line dangling freely. The cover fell off, and its entire contents were immediately lost along with my temper. To prevent this sort of stupid accident from ever happening again, I added the locking tab on top.
The picture shows a box that I had made so many years ago, that I had forgotten about it until I saw it sitting on top of a stack of lobster pots. The floating bait box has sort of become obsolete due to no fault of its own. Fifty years ago, before the draggers came into their own; there were no creel or size limits for fluke. One could expect to spend eight or more enjoyable hours on the water fluking. There was a real need to keep large amounts of bait alive, since on a good day, one could easily go through more than 100 killifish without batting an eye. The bait box was a necessity. Today, with the very restrictive creel limits, one usually grabs a dozen or so of the largest killifish in their trap, and tosses them into a bucket of water. Unless things go really bad, an hour after starting out one has to start to thinking about heading home or fishing for something else as the fluke creel limit has been reached. Not only would the bait still be alive, but there was not even enough elapsed time for them to become stressed. The floating bait box today is no longer needed. However, for going after Striped Bass, and using live grass shrimp in quiet back bays and rivers, the floating bait box still makes very good sense. While it is possible to catch a decent sized bass in the back part of a bay, it is not likely. If one wished to catch great numbers and great sizes of Striped Bass then one has to fish great locations and the back bays are not conducive to this. Still, if you find enjoyment in catching large numbers of rat bass on lightest of light tackle (catch and release) then chumming with grass shrimp just might be your ticket to a wonderful fishing experience.
Now that you have the means or at least the knowledge to keep grass shrimp alive, the next article will describe the equipment needed to catch them. In particular, the construction of a one-man seine will be described.

Attached Images

	floatingbox1.jpg (54.3 KB, 1 views)
	floatingbox2.jpg (58.8 KB, 1 views)
	baitbox 001.jpg (321.7 KB, 3 views)

Scup

Seines For Catching Grass Shrimp

At least four quarts of live grass shrimp are required to fish a single slack tide. While one might catch a few in a killifish fish trap or by using a long handled fine mesh scoop net, I have found to catch large amounts of grass shrimp in a reasonable amount of time a seine is needed. Basically there are two types of seines one can use. They are the two man seine and the one man seine. Both work very well. The two man seine is the type everyone is probably the most familiar with. Since grass shrimp are slow movers, a four feet high by about 10 feet long seine is adequate. Attach a pole at each end and get yourself a partner and you are ready to go. My problem was no one ever wanted to help catch the bait. There were plenty of volunteers to help catch the stripers, but getting a second person to help with a two man seine almost never happened. Hence, I had to assemble a one man seine.
As strange as it may seem, the exact same brown linen minnow seines made fifty years ago are still available today except they are now made of woven polyester. The mesh size is 1/8 of an inch. Actually, these low cost seines were of rather poor quality fifty years ago and today their construction has probably went downhill even further since likely they are imported from Asia. The problem one has with these seines is that after just a few outings, the whole thing starts to unravel. The woven meshes start to slip, the material itself has to be cared for by washing it in fresh water and drying it after each use or even the material starts to rot out. In an attempt to get more than a few weeks use out of one of these seines I was forced to make up a make-shift net preservative. While I have never used fine mesh nylon netting such as the lightweight “ACE” 24 pound test netting that is sold with a 3/16” mesh (Memphis Net and twine Company carries it), I would not hesitate to use it. However, it too should be coated with a net preservative to stiffen it up and to lock the meshes.
To start construction of your one-man seine, get yourself a pre-made seine of four feet high by six feet long with 1/8 inch mesh. This low cost seine is in Jann’s Netcraft 2008 catalog for under $8.00. If a 3/16” mesh would have been available that would be my first choice but it is not available in polyester. The next step is to purchase or make a net preservative. The preservative does three things for you: it locks the meshes together and prevents them from unraveling, it lengthens the useful life of the net, and it stiffens up the whole affair making it easier to use. Since the seine is of such a modest size, and most preservatives come in five gallon sizes, it might make sense to make up a small batch on your own. There is no question that commercially available preservatives are superior to home brews, but considering the cost and postage (some preservatives are hazardous due to petroleum ingredients) one just might consider making up a small batch. I will describe what I had done to make up a net preservative. I would look for a used can of varnish in my basement. Thin the varnish, about fifty-fifty, with denatured alcohol; this watery like solution worked very well in preserving seines. Soak the net in it, and then hang it out on a line, in the shade, to dry. After the net has completely dried, get yourself two six foot poles. I used a bamboo of the type called Calcutta, a thick walled and very strong bamboo. Aluminum one inch tubing sold in hardware stores would work just fine.
Remember that if you are of short stature, you can always cut a few inches off the top of the poles, however, I would use the net a couple of times first to familiarized yourself with its operation before you try to modify it. The next step is to attach the poles to the ends of the seine. The bottom of the net should be attached to the bottom of the pole. I would not tie the net to the poles. Most would simply tie the top and the bottom of the net to each pole. Do not do this as the net will not be able to stand up to the stresses caused by this method of attachment. Get yourself some twine, and stitch the net to the poles. This will take you a little bit more time, but the net will last longer, and there will be no gaps between the mid part of the net and the poles. A coat of varnish will lock the stitching in place.
Now comes the most important part of rigging this type of a seine. You will make a pocket in the center upper part of the seine. Look at the enclosed sketch. Note the top dead center of the net called “C”. Eight inches away from “C” you will note the points marked “A” and “B” respectively; fold the points “A” and “B” together. Now stitch along the top of the net from “C” to “A” and “B”. When done, the top of the net should be 16” shorter than the bottom of the net because of the pocket you have sewed into the top. This pocket does two things for you. First, the net is now splayed from six feet at the bottom to something over four feet at the top. This allows the net to conform more to the geometric shape of the human body than if it was not modified as such. In use, you will grasp the poles as if you were grabbing a staircase handrail, with the top of the poles extending under your armpits. The second reason for the pocket is to allow the emptying out of the grass shrimp. When it comes time to empty your net, all you have to do is raise the bottom of the poles above your head while holding the net open and give it a shake or two. All the shrimp will roll down into the pocket you have sewed into the top of the net. It then becomes simple to crock your arm under the pocket (you do not have to hold on to the poles at this point) and dump the contents of the pocket into your working box.
The first couple of times you use this type of net your arms might ache somewhat but you should get used to it quickly. The shrimp themselves are not what adds much to the weight or drag of the net. It is the garbage such as seaweed that causes most of the aches. If there is a slight current, one would always walk into the current. The whole idea behind this type of net is to keep the bottom of the poles low which will cause the weighted bottom of the seine to drive the shrimp off the bottom and into the net. One should try to keep the seine’s bottom splayed outward as much as possible. I found that it would be slightly easier for me to lead slightly with the pole in my stronger hand. Once the shrimp come off the bottom, there is no escape for them as they can swim very rapidly in a jerk like motion for a short distance (a foot or so) but not enough to escape the seine. Typically, you will use the seine at low tide in at most three feet of water.
In the next article I will provide the exact coordinates of my favorite grass shrimp locations in and about Jamaica Bay.

Attached Images

onemanseine.jpg (89.1 KB, 6 views)

Scup

Some of my favorite Grass Shrimp Locations

Thanks to several of today’s satellite freeware, one can easily reminisce about fishing locations we had loved but which are far removed from where we currently live. The whole idea of writing a series of articles describing how to go about using live grass shrimp for catching striped bass came about as I navigated Google Earth (or Microsoft Earth) and started seeing many of my favorite grass shrimp locations. It brought back very fond memories and provided the exact GPS coordinates of the locations so that the information can be passed on to others. Typically, every grass shrimper would keep his favorite locations a secret since they could easily be cleaned out by a single person on a given tide. Since it is unlikely that I will ever return to Jamaica Bay, there is no problem for me to divulge these locations which I have never told anyone about for more than fifty years. I was quite secretive about these areas even when I fished them and I doubt that anyone else knows anything about them. I never saw anyone else trying to catch grass shrimp in any of the locations I am about to describe. Therefore, next summer, make yourself a one man seine and put on some waders, or bathing suit, and have at it.
Unfortunately, the first, and my favorite spot has changed somewhat over more than fifty years. Look at GPS coordinates 40˚ 36’ 05.57”N by 73˚ 48’ 32.17”W. You will find yourself few hundred yards north of the Far Rockaway train trestle.
More than fifty years ago, a large barge had stranded itself there; it was a derelict. While it might have been a derelict, it sides were still intact fifty years ago. The north side of the barge rested in about three feet of water at low tide. The shade afforded by the high sides made it a grass shrimp heaven. They would attach themselves to the barge’s north side in great numbers. I would simply make a single pass keeping one pole touching its side (and with a slight rapping action) knock the shrimp off the barge and into the center part of my seine. Now you know why I would stitch the poles to the seine rather than tie it. The gap that would exist between the pole and the sides of the seine, if only tied, would cost me dearly in lost shrimp. One pass, taking about ten minutes, would usually yield more than a gallon of grass shrimp. As Google Earth now shows, the barge has rotted somewhat over time. While this particular barge may now be history (it is hard to tell from the aerial photographs), likely there will be other barges, or vertical surfaces that can provide shade for grass shrimp in your area that you can make use of.
My second favorite shrimp location, and quite close to the barge is GPS coordinates 40˚36’ 16.17N by 73˚ 48’ 51.51”W. You will find yourself at the base of a low bridge used for the Far Rockaway trains. After gleaning my gallon of shrimp from the barge, I would always head to the above location since it was only minutes away and I always liked to top off my reserves of grass shrimp. At the shores edge of this bridge there were placed large and very flat stones to form its riprap base. Riprap is nothing more than stones placed randomly about the base of bridges to protect it during severe winters. The combination of the stones and tidal action would break up dangerous ice flows. The stones in this particular area were about two feet under the surface at low tide. Once again, the shade from the bridge, and the flatness of the submerged stones made it a natural haven for Grass Shrimp. Another advantage was the smooth flat tops of the stones made it very easy to clean the shrimp off in good numbers. While the surface area here was far smaller than the barge, it was still very easy pickings. I often wondered why anyone would use such nice quarried stone for riprap; that was until one fine day, during an extreme moon low tide, when I decided to catch some shrimp there. I had just started to make my pass when I noticed something engraved into the surface of the stone which was now submerge by about a foot. “Here lies so and so, beloved ##### etc.” I was standing on someone’s tombstone! One would assume that when the riprap was needed during the construction phase of the bridge, in some God forsaken location in New York City they must have been reclaiming a graveyard. The unwanted grave markers were simply dumped here as riprap. Since I knew the forgotten souls were not interned at my feet, and I meant no disrespect to those who have passed on, I continued about my business. Still, fifty years later, I still think about those gravestones. None of us are likely to ever be mentioned in history books. We will be remembered by our children, and perhaps even by our great grandchildren, but after 100 years have passed who will know, or even care, that we once walked the face of this planet. Oh well, what more can one hope for than when death reaches out for us, we can at least leave something of use behind for those that will follow; even if it is only one’s marker.
The next and final location is not as precise as the first two. The following GPS coordinates 40˚ 35’ 40.40N by 73˚ 49’ 29.20W merely represent the center of a very large expanse that I caught shrimp in. There is no shade here, and the footing could sometimes be tough. I did not shrimp here often, since the first two locations usually fulfilled my needs, but when I wished to fish several tides or build up my shrimp reserves this is where I would head. The results here would be very variable. One day I would push my seine 20 feet and catch more than a gallon of shrimp. The bottom must have been paved with them. The same spot two days later, and my arms would ache after pushing the seine for hundreds of yards and end up catching only a quart of shrimp. Grass Shrimp migrate. I never could figure out why they move about the way they did, but like most types of fishing there are good days and bad days. There is not much more I can tell you as to where to find your cache of grass shrimp, but may there be a stranded barge in your future. The next article will describe the simple tackle needed for catching stripers on live grass shrimp.

Scup

I was hoping that some form members would reply to my writing about "Catching Striped Bass on Grass Shrimp" but nary a word. Since I almost always done this alone, I was curious how others went about it. From the # of views, members are looking at what I have been writing, but no response at all. Now I am starting to wonder if maybe I just might be the only one left that has done this type of fishing. When I was just a kid, I heard stories about this technique being used for Weakfish in Peconic Bay where dozens of small boats would tie themselves together bow to stern in a necklace like fashion. All would be chumming with grass shrimp, and all would be catching. Weakfish, right now, seems to be another species that our regulators have let down. Even at the commercial docks this past season, I do not believe I saw a total more than eight or nine fish brought in. Too bad, as I did love to catch Weakfish and they were not bad eating as well.

Scup

The Simple Tackle Needed to Catch Striped bass on Grass Shrimp.
The tackle needed to catch Stripers on live grass shrimp is extremely basic. I always liked a bait casting outfit. Just about any bait casting rod that can handle striped bass is suitable. Another advantage of a bait casting outfit is if it sized properly, one will not be over matched even if one should tie into a keeper sized bass. It might take a while, but even if an occasional extra large bass should seem to test your outfit, there is enough reserve capability available for you to stay with your fish. The whole idea behind chumming with live grass shrimp is to keep things light. A conventional boat rod and reel will work as well but typically things will start to get a little too heavy for my liking. In my opinion a spinning outfit would be detrimental for catching bass on grass shrimp. There are just too many things that would make the use of a spinning outfit awkward, at best, to use for this type of fishing. I never liked monofilament line for this type of fishing either and I will explain why shortly. I liked to have my fingers on my line as I fish, and one really does not know where your line is going to end up as your bail brings the line closer and further from the rod. The main advantage of a spinning outfit is to cast, and casting does not have much of a role for this style of fishing.
I am trying to remember what bait casting reel I used fifty years ago. Since I was relatively poor, I probably went with the Penn 9 series. Penn made, and still does, an inexpensive series of level wind reels called the 9, 109, and the 209. The spools could have been had in either plastic or metal and both worked. Since there is not much stress placed on the reel in this type of fishing, I would opt for the lighter plastic spool although I would not lose much sleep if I had the metal version. While these inexpensive reels were often advertised as having a “world renowned level wind mechanism”, I found Penn’s level wind mechanism to be horrible. This is not to say the reels were inferior, the level wind part of it just stunk. Even if well lubricated, there was a lot of internal friction within the reel thus preventing a decent cast from being made. Fortunately, casting is not a prerequisite for this type of fishing. My major objection to Penn’s level wind mechanism was that it would fail in the field after just a few outings. I still use these reels and nothing has changed much; they still fail in the field. Penn knew about this shortcoming. The earlier reels even came with a spare pawl that was hidden under a screw in the side plate. Every time the fishing got hot and heavy, it would seem that the pawl would fail thus jamming the entire reel. Way too much time was spent fooling around replacing pawls so the fix was to just to remove the entire level wind mechanism. Then the reel would work fine for decades. It would cast further, and be fairly trouble free. Of course one would now have to thumb your line to keep it level, but my thumb has never failed me in over fifty years. Of course, with the really fine level wind reels available today, one now has a lot better choice than I had. Still, even a low cost reel will suffice for this type of fishing. The only part of your tackle that is somewhat critical is the line. I used 27 pound Dacron. There were several reasons for this. First you would want a line with no memory. Monofilaments had memory. This type of fishing can be very visual; one has to keep an eye on his line as your first indication that a bass has taken your bait is seeing your line suddenly heading off in a particular direction. Since at slack tide you will be fishing with no weigh at all, monofilament line, with its memory, tends to form circles, or loops, in the water. Even worse, should you try to set a hook; you will end up just straightening out a few loops without even coming close to setting the hook. Trying to see monofilament in the water is not too easy either. Now there were some grass shrimpers that did use monofilament. When the tide was still moving, they did as well as I did since one would then have to put on some weight and this combined with the current would keep one’s line straight. However, when the tide slowed to a crawl, I was the king! Back then we did not have Power Pro. Today I would use 65 pound test power pro. Now you might say hold on a minute, I thought you said that one should keep things light. Well power pro line of 65 pound test is actually very similar to 27 pound test Dacron. Power pro actually has less stretch (a good thing) and like Dacron it has no memory. If one would purchase 30 pound test power pro it would be so thin that it would be hard to feel what is happening with your fingers. There is always a chance that the thin line could get caught up between the spool and reel’s side plates and finally this line is not an easy thing to see in the water. I would opt for the 65 pound test power pro. If this bothers you, just think of 65 pound test power pro as being 27 pound test Dacron on steroids.
The only thing that is somewhat out of the ordinary for this type of fishing is the actual single hook needed. I have never found a hook off the shelf that met my requirements. Hence you have to modify what is out there to meet your needs. The problem is this: grass shrimp are very fragile. It is very easy to tear them apart if one would try to place them on a large hook or a hook with an eye on it. Remember the old snelled Mustard Chestertown (flounder hook) that used to be standard fare for flounder fishing. Without a doubt, this was probably one of the world’s worse fishhook designs, but there was some reasoning behind its use. Go to the following web site: SeaWolfe Tackle - Saltwater fishing tackle at it's finest and you will see what I am talking about. Note that the hook has no eye. Fisherman would thread fragile worms onto the hook and up its shank. The eye would bust up the worm if it was there, so the hook was attached to your leader by snelling your leader to the hook using (in this case) red rod winding thread and cement. I did the same for the hook I would use for putting on grass shrimp. I liked the Mustard bronzed O’Shaughnessy (3406) hooks in a standard length shank of about a size 3/0. While this is a relatively small hook, it is made of high grade hardened steel, and it is forged. Both of these manufacturing processes are where the hook gets its strength from. You really would not want to move too much up in hook sizes as the diameter of the hook’s shank will start to become just too much for the fragile shrimp. This is a type of fishing in which you are matching your hook to the live bait that you will be using and not to the species of fish you are trying to catch. This particular hook in smaller sizes like 3/0 has become quite hard to find but there is nothing magic about its selection. A tin finish would work just as well and everyone seems to sell that. The problem I find with fish hooks is that there are so many decent hook manufacturers placing products on the market one can easily become confused as to what to use. Should you wish to go with circle hooks have at it. I never used them fifty years ago and I have never deep hooked a bass using this technique even though I landed thousands of them. I always fished a single rod, and my boat did not have a rod holder. Now let’s get back to how you would modify your hook. First you have to remove the existing eye. If there are any youngsters reading this please observe the following warning: do not try to clip the eye off with a pair of diagonal cutters. The high quality harden steel of the hook will cause the hook’s eye to fly off in a random direction and with enough speed that could easily cause eye damage. A safer way is to purchase a carbide hacksaw blade at your local hardware store, still put on eye protection as things can sometimes go really wrong, and with the business end of your hook buried in a vise’s jaws, hack saw the eye off using a hand hacksaw equipped with the carbide (no teeth) blade. Another reason for doing it this way is if you borrow your father’s diagonal cutters, and try to cut the eye off, even with eye protection, you will likely ruin your father’s diagonal cutter. Most cutters sold today are made in Asia and of far poorer quality of steel than what most hooks are made of. Since there could be some sharp edges remaining after the eye has been removed, smooth things out by using a hone or some emery cloth. The attachment of about 2 feet of 30# test fluorocarbon leader is simple enough. In use, you will only need an 18 inch leader so use two feet to allow for a knot. If you have a fly tying vise then great, but even without a vise it is no big deal. As the web site shows, overlap the shank of the hook with the leader; give it a coat of fly tying cement, and start close wrapping with rod winding tread. I liked a brown passive color although I really do not think color is of much importance. Whip finish the end, and give it a final coat and you are done. I would now place a Spro Power swivel of about a size 4 between the power pro line and your leader. These marvelous swivels were not available fifty years ago, but they are very small and work almost as well as the more expensive ball bearing swivels. Once again, the pound test of these small swivels goes out of sight (130 # test) but if you would use a 30# test swivel, the thin diameter of the wire used to form the swivel’s eye will create a stress point where you will attach your leader. Use an improved clinch knot here as it requires your leader to be passed twice through the swivel’s eye. Power pro line comes with a small booklet that will illustrate what knots to use for attaching it to your swivel. Do not worry about strength here as your 65# test line is overkill anyway. The only remaining items required are some split shot and pinch on sinkers and a few rubber core sinkers would not hurt either. Keep to the lighter sizes as even if a heavier weight is needed than what you might have on hand, you could always make up for it by using several smaller ones. These weights will be added or removed, as needed, as the current will dictate just how much weight is needed. The weighs go on in the vicinity of the swivel. The next article will be short one describing how to bait your hook. I am not looking forward to writing this one up as I should have caught a bunch of grass shrimp three months ago, put three of them on a hook and take a photograph of it. Too late for photographs now, so I will have to struggle with my DRAW software to get things looking proper.

Attached Images

Tackle.jpg (61.0 KB, 7 views)