Freshwater River Shrimp Traps...ever Use Or Make Em'??

[da-cajun-angla]

I Learned From An Old Cajun Friend About Freshwater Shrimp. They Used To Bake A Box Trap Out Of Water Logged Cypress To Catch Their Catfish. River Shrimp Can Stand Upright And Are Not Clumsy Out Of Water And Have Pinschers Kinda Like A Crawfish. When U Stand In The River U Can Feel Em' Bitin On Ur Legs...the First Time I Experienced This It Totally Freaked Me Out! Theres Millions Of Em' Out There. They Can Strip A Fish Carcass In An Hour. All U Have To Do To Make A Trap Is Take A Regular Minnow Trap That U Can Find With The Smallest Sized Mesh, Make A Bait Hook By Shaping A Wire Coat Hanger Into A Spring-like Hook... Ummm...i'd Have To Bend One And Take Pics Of It For Ya'll...i'll Do That Tonight...anyways, Just Take A Fish Carcass Or Slice-up A Small Whole Fish Or Put Guts Or Maybe Shrimp In A Stocking, Hook It On And Throw Out Into The River...voila, You'll Have Beautiful River Shrimp. They Taste 100 Times Better Than Any Saltwater Shrimp Ever And The Catfish Love Em. They Are So Plentiful In The River That It Makes Up A Large Percentage Of Their Diet. U Can Also Use Store Bought Shrimp, But Use Small Pieces B/c River Shrimp Dont Grow As Big As Saltwater Shrimp. I've Had Luck With Both In The River And Elsewhere. If Any1 Wants Any Know-how On Any Kind Of Trap Building...gimme A Holler...thanks For Lookin'!!
Shaun

[Fred Rankin]

I now live in Benton, La. Years ago I went to the Louisiana
State Prison at Angola; not as a prisoner, I was visting a friend who was a guard that lived on site. He had shrimp traps in the mississippi river near Angola. He boiled some for supper. The shrimp were small, but spicy - I could not fill up, but I ate a lot trying.

Can you purchase river shrimp to eat? Where?

How far up the mississippi river do the river shrimp go?
What other rivers are they in and how near central Louisiana.

I think my friend's shrimp traps floated on top of the water. They were like slat traps made of cypress lumber.

[flandersander]

How would a guy go about making a small shrimp trap? there is a small resivoir near here and in my underwater camera i can see a whole ton of tiny shrimps. I have also seen whitefish eating these shrimps. They seem to hang on to the minnows i use for bait and i get a few stuck on when i pull my line up. I want to try using them for bait but i also want to try eating them. what kind of trap should i try? i also have one like this. http://www.wildco.com/pctr/125G10.jpg
would you recomend it if i put shrimp netting on it? what about if i turned the neck of a 2 litre bottle around? like this.http://photos17.flickr.com/20834919_b4f3a3b03d_m.jpg

[mullyden]

Ed Shields, who sometimes posts on BR area uses "river shrimp" for bait. The way he was describing it, you bait up a screen type trap. He said he throws them along willows in the river at high levels. He freezes them for bait for later use. He says they outfish regular saltwater shrimp quite a bit. Maybe he will post. Ed...Ed.....

[StuBone278]

I've caught some in the cast-net before, and I have to say, within a few minutes something had stripped me clean. Too bad I didn't catch any other bait that day. :confused2:

[flandersander]

Ed...Ed... What do you use for bait? What kind of trap do you recomend? Would you say that either of those traps would work?

[Shreveport Mike]

I've never even heard of them before! That's what I like about this site:big_smile:. I wonder if they're in the Red river as far north as Shreveport.

[ar_confederate]

I don't know if they're up here but I'd sure like to find out!!

[Katfishing Cajun]

One of the bait shop's down the road from me sale's them. I will have to try them out. The owner of bait shop told me that the commercial cat-fishermen use only one per hook, they must work pretty good!

[deerhunter4]

thanks for the post...was new to me...

I Learned From An Old Cajun Friend About Freshwater Shrimp. They Used To Bake A Box Trap Out Of Water Logged Cypress To Catch Their Catfish. River Shrimp Can Stand Upright And Are Not Clumsy Out Of Water And Have Pinschers Kinda Like A Crawfish. When U Stand In The River U Can Feel Em' Bitin On Ur Legs...the First Time I Experienced This It Totally Freaked Me Out! Theres Millions Of Em' Out There. They Can Strip A Fish Carcass In An Hour. All U Have To Do To Make A Trap Is Take A Regular Minnow Trap That U Can Find With The Smallest Sized Mesh, Make A Bait Hook By Shaping A Wire Coat Hanger Into A Spring-like Hook... Ummm...i'd Have To Bend One And Take Pics Of It For Ya'll...i'll Do That Tonight...anyways, Just Take A Fish Carcass Or Slice-up A Small Whole Fish Or Put Guts Or Maybe Shrimp In A Stocking, Hook It On And Throw Out Into The River...voila, You'll Have Beautiful River Shrimp. They Taste 100 Times Better Than Any Saltwater Shrimp Ever And The Catfish Love Em. They Are So Plentiful In The River That It Makes Up A Large Percentage Of Their Diet. U Can Also Use Store Bought Shrimp, But Use Small Pieces B/c River Shrimp Dont Grow As Big As Saltwater Shrimp. I've Had Luck With Both In The River And Elsewhere. If Any1 Wants Any Know-how On Any Kind Of Trap Building...gimme A Holler...thanks For Lookin'!!
Shaun

[flandersander]

I've never even heard of them before! That's what I like about this site:big_smile:. I wonder if they're in the Red river as far north as Shreveport.
I don't know if they are in the red river, but i live in central saskatchewan canada, right near saskatoon. I would assume that they are in all of the united states because the lake trout up at littlebear lake saskatchewan feast on them all winter.

[flandersander]

Shaun...Shaun... I'm giving you the holler you asked for. How would sombody go about making a shrimp trap? take a look at my other posts for links on what i have and what i am going to try. this goes for anybody too.:wink:

[flandersander]

and for bait? anybody?

[EdS]

Sorry I've been so late in answering your shrimp trap questions.

The first picture you had shown is exactally the kind I used to use. I ran about 30 of them. Years before we used homemade cypress traps and even the throats were hand whittled cypress. It took quite a lot of time to make them correctly, therefore, the move to wire traps. The old cypress traps had to be soaked for at least 3 days so they would sink in the river.

Here in St. Francisville we always waited until late April or May before putting out our traps as the water was too cold before that and the catch was next to nothing. Usually the water was high in May and I would place a trap among the willow trees along the bank, tied-off at a depth of 3 feet. I've tried every other depth but this worked best.

As for bait, you can use just about anything. I've caught them on fish hunks just thrown into the trap, cotton seed cakes, available at just about any feed store, canned dog food, and dry cat food ( which works WELL). Put the bait in a bag, like the kind onions come in, depending the size of your bait. Some people use old stockings, and I have too, but I use my pocket knife and put numerous small slits in the stocking after the bait is in.

Run your traps every day. And as the river rises or falls, adjust your depth to a consistent 3 feet. Be sure to mark your trap locations. I use flagging.

As far as I'm concerned, if I could fish the river with only one bait it would be river shrimp, but this is no gurantee!!! Last Sunday I fished, caught 36 with a friend of mine. Had river shrimp, worms and cut slicker. Caught NOTHING on river shrimp, 2 on worms and all the rest on cut slicker. Often there is nothing else they will bite but river shrimp. I believe they bite 'em best when the water warms up. If you use a double drop rig when you fish, don't bait up with 2 river shrimp. Use a shrimp on one hook and something else on the other because when you get a bite and set the hook the second shrimp most always comes off the hook. A waste of another shrimp.

I hope this has been of some help to you. If you do set out traps this spring please let me know how you do, and I sure hope to hear that you've done well!!!