bait for the fresh? where and how?

[jeffo]

hey guys.
looking at trying some baits next time i fish borumba to see if i can get a few fish.
a couple of questions for you freshwater guru's.
1. where around (or between) the sunshine coast and borumba can i get my hands on some shrimps? and whats the best way to get them?
2. are shrimps the most succsessful bait for the fresh?
3 best method to use them?... under a float or with a little sinker?

any help you could lend me (ill give it back ) would be much appreciated.
cheers.
jeff

[quinn]

Hey,
1. I have no idea who sells shrimp around here, but im sure there are some that do.. The best way to get them that i know of is to just find a dam that you know holds shrimp populations and set a simple homemade trap. Somthing like a 2 liter coke bottle with the top cut off and turned around with some bait inside. It works a treat...
2. Shrimp are one of the best baits to use in my opinion for bass, golden perch and maybe saratoga. Not too sure about saratoga though. Also worms and yappies are fine as well.
3. The time of day, location and target species will determine how you will fish using shrimp as bait. A float should really only be used at dusk at dawn when targeting bass. But the best way to fish shrimp would be with just a small sinker straight onto a hook. Cast and let it settle on or near the bottom.
Hope this will help you..

quinn..

[TimNQ]

Or go make a deal with your local pet store and get cheap bulk guppies

[agnes_jack]

Jeffo
Used to fish borumba a quite a few years ago. I dont know if you can still access it but we used to go to the bottom of the spillway where it flows into yabba creek. Right at the very end of the spillway there are a few cracks and little pools of water that were always chokkers with small shrimp. We used to put as many of these as we could manage to jamb on a hook, then toss them into the flow at the end of the spillway. Always managed a few good yellas there. There is also access to yabba creek a few hundred metres further downstream at a causway where there is a heap of weed. Running an appropriate size net through the weeds here used to get us a few big shrimp as well. At the same causway at night you can find some extra oversized shrimp with a torch, that are quite easy to scoop up as well. As I said its been a while so I dont know if you can still access the bottom of the spillway, but Im sure you can still get to the causway. Dont overlook all the little areas around the bridges that cross yabba creek on your way in there either!

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Jeffo,
Only been freshwater fishing a couple of times myself, so I'm pretty much a novice. If you were wondering about catching your own shrimp, hope this is of some help.
A mate lent us a couple of simple homemade shrimp traps the first time I went - we have since made our own. They are made out of fairly stiff plastic mesh (like gutter guard or the sort of stuff they put on oyster lease racks) and are shaped like those tube shaped poddy mullet traps with a cone entrance at either end and a flap in the middle to remove the shrimp. Let me know it you need more of description than that, and I'll send you a pm to explain further.
Anyway, chucked in a couple of fish heads and left over night. Magic, next morning there was around 30 to 40 shrimp in each trap. Rig was just a size 1 suicide with a small ball sinker sitting right on top. Then we just cruised the edges of the dam, pulled up to a likely looking tree (no sounder), stuck a couple of shimp on and lowered it down beside the trunk. After it hit the bottom we lifted it about a foot, and jigged it up and down in about 1 ft lifts. Caught a heap of redfin (which everyone seems to talk about like they are trash), but found them a great fish to eat - filleted and skinned. Also got a good sized eel tailed catfish at one spot, and a couple of yellow belly - all chucked back. errr sorry, I mean released.
So we certainly found shrimp was good. Last time I went though, the dam was down to 11% and I put the traps out and got 1 shrimp in each of two traps over two nights. I do not know why they weren't there like before unless it was just a different season, or the water level had stuffed them, temperature different, or what. Maybe the fish became so concentrated that they just decimated the shrimp population - don't know. Trolled and cast instead on that trip. Caught and set free three yellow belly and a couple of cod, all on hard bodied lures so was an interesting trip. Tried spinnerbaits and frangers, but didn't manage to hook anything on them. Next time perhaps.
Good luck. Hope this is some sort of help.
Cheers,
Jeff

[jeffo]

i know the traps your talking about jeff....
tony i will have a look around the bridges you cross on the way to the dam next time. as for the place up noosa river, i think a pm migght be required to get some more info

[goodoo]

yabba creek has plenty of shrimp try a couple of bait traps over night or a 20 liter drum with some grass and half a cake of uncented soap make sure you punch or drill some small holes in the bottom and tie a rope on the handle

[jeffo]

a thought i had, will the salt water shrimp work? i mean if i got them live and dropped them down. If they didnt get eaten before they died theres no fish down there...right!?
but yes like i said i shall have a look in yabba creek and try and get them there. thanks for the help guys.
jeff

[jimbamb]

Hey Jeffo,
I use tinned cat food( Sardines) in the shrimp trap.Its cheap an easy.Just open the can about half way an put it in the trap.Works for me!!

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

By the way, does anyone know where is the best place to put the traps? Or is there a season or moon phase when they are about in greater numbers?

The first time we chucked them in when the dam was full, it was on a heap of rip rap (10inch rocks) which they put up around the top of the dam level to stop wave erosion. I imagine this would provide lots of little hole for shelter for the shrimp.
Second time the dam was at 11% but threw the traps in near what looked like a weed bed - not a one. Next night I put them over near some boulders on the edge of the water and got only 2 shrimp - 1 in each trap. ??? ???
Thanks.
Cheers,
Jeff

[caveman]

i seen them forsale in a tackle store a while ago for .35cents a shrimp

[agnes_jack]

Jeffo
if your keen to try saltwater shrimps try under the bridge at the entrance to doonella lake. We used to stick our traps in there in the evening and got heaps. Picked up some big flatties and a few jack at the same spot with those shrimps on the runout tide. Im sure they would work in the fresh if you can keep them alive long enough!

Tony