The Pleasure of Fishing: Where have all the shrimp gone?

Either during preparations in the misty hours of dawn or while cleaning up after a morning trip, the interruptions have become frequent and indistinguishable.

"Excuse me, Captain, but can you tell me what the devil is going on with the shrimp?"

People that I know and that love fishing are in a quandary. The bottom line: Fresh shrimp are in very short supply.

Now, you have to understand that bait shrimp to the fisher is like oil to an engine — an absolute requirement. To try and fish without some fresh shrimp in your bucket is almost impossible.

You'll remember the article from a few weeks back where we finally admit that the fishing this spring is different, much more difficult and not as good as prior years.

The causal factors for the decline in our backwater and nearshore fishing over these past months are identical to those causing the decline in the availability of our bait shrimp. The storms of last summer and fall play some role as the culprits, but the major factor — again — is the inundation of our coastal waters by Florida Water Management of polluted fresh water from the Okeechobee watershed.

The wanton disregard of environmental impacts caused by the release of billions of gallons of such waters from the Okeechobee will, at the end of the day, rank as one of the most heinous events in the history of our state's ecological legacy.

The shrimp we use in our fishing are of several varieties. The small ones we see that are generally under two inches in length are grass shrimp and are taken from inshore waters like Pine Island Sound. The larger ones that are taken up north near Homosassa or on the east coast are generally called pink shrimp, although they're brown in color.

Regardless of species, however, these crustaceans need to have a stable habitat for both forage and salinity level. Unfortunately, the fresh water intrusion that we mentioned has had a major effect on both issues. The algae that blankets the bottom and the yo-yo effect of salinity levels of our inshore and backwater locales has produced a habitat that is anything but stable.

So the suppliers are catching less shrimp, which just exacerbates the plight of the fisher. They now have less fish and less bait to entice them with.

With all of this going on, the laws of scarcity take over. There are the early morning waiting lines; the moderate rationing by the marinas and bait shops to enable maximum distribution; and, of course, the frayed tempers.

So what's a fisher to do?

I've had several experiences with the shortage that may tickle your "fishingbone," and somewhat lighten the situation.

One of my charter customers, upon hearing that live shrimp were in short supply, brought his own expensive artificials for his gang to use.

We fished backwater, up in and among the mangroves, requiring some deft casting to points and cuts. His "gang" were good fishers but quite rusty at pinpoint casting.

We had a limited supply of nice live shrimp, but this fellow insisted that the artificials were the way to go. As a result, we spent the better part of two hours trying to extract these artificials from the limbs and roots of mangrove trees until we depleted his supply. With but one minimum-size redfish and a couple of snapper, his loss of a half-dozen artificials put the cost of the filets at record prices.

We switched over to the live shrimp to finish out the trip with a much improved filet-to-cost ratio. Lesson learned: Use the live shrimp you have first.

Then, during the same week, I had a fellow bring all his own rods, reels and tackle. His companion for the trip was his wife, a nonfisher type along for the exposure to the exquisite nature surrounding our backwater fishing arena.

We, again, had a limited supply of fresh bait, but our angler wanted to use some of his own soft artificials. All was well until he opened that tackle bag and unsealed a package of the most obnoxiously odoriferous soft bait imaginable. After two or three downwind whiffs of those foul-smelling baits, his wife threatened mutiny. The soft bait was stowed and we used fresh shrimp.

Short of these dire actions there are some things you can do to maximize the "fishability" of the fresh shrimp you acquire. First, don't overcrowd the shrimp in your bait container. A container stuffed with too many shrimp will restrict the available oxygen that your crustaceans need.

Another tip is to try and keep the bait-water temperature between 65 and 77 degrees, which is the ideal. You can do this by occasionally adding a chunk of ice to the tank, even though that will minutely effect the salinity level.

And, finally, if your day goes poorly and you have some live shrimp left over and no handy saltwater to immerse them in, just remove them from the water and put them in the fridge in a sealed plastic bag. They will be dead but fresh when you go to use them the next day or so.

Hopefully, nature will cure itself and the good fishin' and shrimpin' will return — it always has.