[Mark Sleep]

On the big tides recently, I have been scouting round at low water, a bit so far this year, but also did a fair bit of walking last year without a rod. In the rocky/broken ground areas I have seen, I have noticed more shrimps than anything else. I know that the smaller fish would be more adept at hiding, but still, some areas have been teeming with nice big fat shrimp (or prawn? Dont know how you classify). We know Bass feed on them, but so do Pollack, so do Wrasse, no doubt Bream and Triggers would go at them. Christ, maybe even Giant Gobies are no doubt partial to it.

Anyway, seems to me that this would be the predominant prey species encountered in these areas. You hear of people doing well with floatfished live prawn, but not many lure fishing with them.

Does anybody have any experience of using them? I am keen to buy a few and experiment. Hoping to get some in the region of 5-10g, hopefully will be able to insert a small glass rattle so that on a twitched retrieve I can make it 'tick' softly. Also would like to experiment with very light life like imitations that I could drift and 'trot' using bombarda tactics.

Plenty of people are happy using things like crawfish imitations, small and large, so why dont we hear anything of shrimp imitations? Surely if we were to accurately match the hatch by using lures representitive of what the fish are expecting to find and feed on, these lures are massively underused?

I look forward to your thoughts. And if anyone could provide any links to suitable looking lures (especially that one from Nantes in Mikes photos!)

 

[Mike Kennard]

Hi Mark, in Australian bream fishing circles shrimp imitations are quite popular. Have a look on the Mofish tackle website for ideas. I know they use Gulp shrimp in 2 and 3in quite a lot in their bream tournaments. In Japan they use shrimp imitations soft plastics for bream too but I don't know who makes them.
Another method they are using is a small crayfish pattern plug like a Rebel Crawfish rigged with a modified Texas rig setup. That way they get a bit more noise from the lure. The rig uses two bullet shaped worm weights with a glass bead trapped between them running free on the line above a clip. The glass bead sits in the bell shaped part of the bullet leads and rattles when retrieved. At rest the plug will rise pulling line through the weights. Flicking the rod tip creates more noise. No reason why a shrimp pattern rigged the same way would not work.
I have tried Rebel Crayfish for bass as they are similar size and shape to a squat lobster but never caught bass on them. I have caught flounders on them though.

 

[wjmoree]

I know Berkley is doing shrimp imitations as well in their Gulp Alive series, but I guess the ones made by Flashmer or Storm are more convincing.

Flashmer: http://www.pecheur.com/achat-leurre-mer-flashmer-petit-bouquet-pack-de-10-4517.html

Storm: http://www.pecheur.com/achat-leurre-storm-wildeye-live-shrimp-pack-de-2-21053.html

 

[Keith White]

I have found most shrimp imitations too large to truly imitate ours.

However: You've seen the effect the tiny little craws have.

I personally believe the shrimp to be a number 1 source of food for nearly all the LRF/HRF targets here Mark.

I know from personal experience that Spey flies are 'deadly' and they are effectively, shrimp and prawn patterns.

I'm about to send a great fly tier a challenge. I want some prawn tied jigs. We need size 6, 4 and 2 I reckon on 1 and 2g heads.

LRF encompasses the use of dressed jigs and this is where the skills of the fly tier cross over.

On Bombarda or the 6g Japanese floats and casting eggs I've asked Mick to order, Mr Elliot has already sent me some beautiful works of art.
Just waiting to do the review and testing at a time when we can maximise species. Easter onwards I reckon. He ties the most fantastic stuff for great prices and I reckon we could be opening up another area of expansion here for forward thinking tiers.

 

[Mike Kennard]

I have found most shrimp imitations too large to truly imitate ours.

However: You've seen the effect the tiny little craws have.

I personally believe the shrimp to be a number 1 source of food for nearly all the LRF/HRF targets here Mark.

I know from personal experience that Spey flies are 'deadly' and they are effectively, shrimp and prawn patterns.

I'm about to send a great fly tier a challenge. I want some prawn tied jigs. We need size 6, 4 and 2 I reckon on 1 and 2g heads.

LRF encompasses the use of dressed jigs and this is where the skills of the fly tier cross over.

On Bombarda or the 6g Japanese floats and casting eggs I've asked Mick to order, Mr Elliot has already sent me some beautiful works of art.
Just waiting to do the review and testing at a time when we can maximise species. Easter onwards I reckon. He ties the most fantastic stuff for great prices and I reckon we could be opening up another area of expansion here for forward thinking tiers.

I was thinking along similar lines the other day. I don't know how viable is was but I was thinking of a shrimp pattern fly (crazy charlie?) on a finer wire fly hook with dumbell eyes. I am sure it would not be too difficult to make them up to 3gms or so. Jigheads are a good idea too. Likely to be a lot cheaper than equivalent plugs.

 

[Ben Field]

Here are a couple I have. The top one is a Tackle House shrimp on a low density head of just a few grams. It looks lovely in the water. Doesn't sink too quickly but with 3 quick taps followed by a pause, it does look very good.

The second is the Tiemco Enigma. Different type of lure being a sinking hard bait, but retrieved slowly across a shingle bottom its a lovely crustacean/shrimp lookalike.

 

[Keith White]

I love that Tackle House one !!
Where did that come from ? How much etc...

 

[Ben Field]

The really unfortunate thing is that I have been struggling to remember what it is. Japanese of coarse, and I'm pretty sure it came from Shimreels for about £6 or £7. Bu**ered if I can find another one though! I'm gonna keep on looking until the day I do though!

 

[Keith White]

Obviously guys, when we get super small and we still want movement and buggy in our lures, fly tying materials do lend themselves quite nicely.
I know we've been 90% soft lure focused but, it may have been more productive, at times, to work with dressed jigs.

btw:

Keep looking Ben. I want one.

 

[Mark Sleep]

Thanks chaps, some interesting stuff there. As has been observed, there are so many about, it makes sense to fish them more.

I was aware of various 'flies' tied to imitate shrimp (maybe there is scope to look at some of the bonefish flies) and they would be useful float jigged/bombarda'd. Would still be good to have the option of a more realistic feeling imitation as well. The speed of some of the bites you were getting on the little metals Keith shows how quick fish in general can sample then reject lures if all doesnt feel well.

But then I suppose shrimps are fairly hard bodied anyway. Hmm, all new to me so some experimentation needed.

PS After seeing the size of some of the beasts in the low water pools, as I am sure Paul B especially would testify, super small isnt going to be needed the whole time. Some of them were going 4inch plus, would probably put a bend in a MC Zaltz!

 

[Alex Jordan]

Post some pics of Andy's ties Keith!
Asked him to make some GT secret squirrel flies and imitations for me