Article 7 Part A How to Bait a Hook With Grass Shrimp | |
How to Bait a Hook With Grass Shrimp
It has been a while since I posted anything concerning the topic of catching striped bass on grass shrimp. The problem I ran into is how one would go about describing the procedures to bait up ones hook. I tried to draw a series of how to sketches but after trying to draw something up (spent four hours messing around with a draw program) I realized it was hopeless. While it is easy to bait up your hook, it is not so easy trying to describe the procedure. Finally I decided that the only way that would be possible for me to demonstrate the procedure is by a series of photographs. Of course, we had to await the reappearance of the grass shrimp to begin. Well, right now grass shrimp abound all along our coastal waters so here we go again. There are nine photographs.
The first photograph shows an un-baited hook. While typically I use a 3/0 hook snelled with brown thread, I decided to use a 4/0 hook with red thread hoping that the photographs would be somewhat clearer. As it turned out, the photos came out better than expected. The first couple of shots had to be tossed out because they were blurry. I found out that by using a close up high magnification, and snapping the picture while holding the camera meant that even the slightest hand movement would be magnified as well. After I found an old tripod, the problem was solved.
The second photograph is the start of the procedure to put a grass shrimp on your hook. One will eventually use three grass shrimp on a single hook. Pick out the largest shrimp you have which will be females with egg sacs. The point of the hook goes in at the base of the egg sac.
The third photograph shows how the shrimp looks as one works it up the shank of the hook. The natural curvature of the shrimp matches the curvature of the hook so you should not have any problem in getting the first shrimp on.
The forth photo indicates why the eye of the hook had to be removed. The eye of the hook would have broken up the shrimp had it still been there when the shrimp is slid up the hook’s shank.
The fifth photo shows the shrimp being rotated 180 degrees about the shank of the hook. This is a very important step as it will become obvious why it is necessary when the second shrimp is placed on your hook. Since only six photographs are allowed per post, this post is followed by part B which shows how to get the final two shrimp on the hook.
The sixth photo (See part B) shows the second shrimp being placed on your hook. Follow the same procedure as for the first shrimp except do not rotate it about the shank of the hook.
As the seventh photo shows, when the two shrimp are pushed together they match perfectly. Actually, they no longer appear to be two separate shrimp but rather a single enormous shrimp. This follows the same reasoning behind the whole idea of using any type of chum for any fish species; i.e. always put the best you have on your hook. When you are trying to chunk up a striped bass, you always save the best chunks you have for your hook. When black fishing, you would not try to chum the togs up with hermit crabs while fishing with green crabs. When I chum up a school of scup I use clam snot purchased at $10 per four gallon pail. What goes on my hook is whole calm tongues at $22 per gallon.
Photograph eight shows the last shrimp being put on your hook. Since this post is one of a series of articles describing how to catch striped bass on live grass shrimp we do have a problem here. We ran the shank of the hook amidships through the center of the first two shrimps; hence, they are deader than door nails. Therefore, we want to keep the last shrimp alive and kicking to entice our quarry. Place the point of the hook just aft of the egg sac.
The last photo shows how the completed baited hook should look. When a hook baited as shown, is dropped amidst a mass of grass shrimp chum, it does not take genius to figure out what the main attraction is going to be. It makes no sense why a striped bass would go after a single small shrimp when something as enticing as your baited hook gets placed before him.
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