I just booked a deep sea fishing trip out of Galveston and was curious as to whether anyone has heard of any opportunities to catch shrimp (shrimp for people, not for bait)? I know it’s legal (with a saltwater license) but not sure how one would do it.
Shrimp pots
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I grew up in Freeport Texas the shrimp capital of Texas. I caught hundreds of pounds of shrimp inland near the intercoastal waterway with a cast net. I caught some in the Gulf with a sein net and I worked on a shrimp boat where shrimp nets were use with “doors” the wooden anchors that form the base of the net scoop. We caught thousands of pounds of shrimp with the shrimp trawlers.
As far as catching them on a deap sea fishing expedition I’d focus on Gulf fish.
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This is helpful, thanks.
I don’t want to do this on the deep sea trip - I wanna do it on another day (if realistic) or possibly on another trip.
How would this cast net thing work? Would I procure a boat? How does one find the shrimp?
Bubba Gump clearly I’m not.
Thanks!
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A cast net takes a little practice to get good at it, but essentially is can be used in almost any shallow water. (It depends upon the actual rope you’re going to be holding/pulling on.) I cast into about 3-4ft of water easily and caught lots of shrimp.
The URL above is a simple cast net from Amazon. You’ll want to ask the locals where they might use a cast net to catch shrimp. Shrimp used to be much more plentiful and I caught them regularly, but anymore there are regulations surrounding their catchment and they are much more scarce.
Look for shallow bodies of water that are easily accessible. You’ll likely see other people casting there, too.
It doesn’t require a boat although I’ve done it before. Usually in Christmas Bay further up the coast from Freeport toward Galveston, where my dad, brother and I caught hundreds of pounds (multiple burlap bags full) of gulf oysters. Walking next to a flat bottom boat you could feel them with your feet and then retrieve them and put them into a burlap bag. I’ve eated dozens of raw oysters right from the shell while in the Bay.
I also have been on many a scuba dive in the Gulf where we spear fished, particularly for grouper.
While seining in the Gulf with my friends I’ve caught 500-600 lbs of fish at at time right on the beach.
We would keep the red snapper, flounder, speckled trout and occasionally other fish, but we would sell the mullet to the bait house for chum/bait. All in all it could amout to $1000 a weekend for all of us.
(This was in the early 70s.) All has changed there now. You need a commercial license to do what we used to do all the time.
Oh and one more thing you do for almost free is crab. You take a chicken neck tie it to a string/thin rope and trawl with it. Dragging it from about 6 feet out in shallow water and putting a net over any crab that follows it onto the bank. I’ve caught several dozen at a time just with a single chicken neck.
Then I would come home and my family would hold a fish fry for the whole neighborhood. We ate like kings from fresh seafood right from the Gulf. I never knew what the cost of shrimp, crab or red snapper was until I moved to Dallas.
I hope this helps. There is nothing more fun than a deep sea fishing trip as long as you don’t get sea sick and I never have. There is so much to do along the coast. I miss it living here in Dallas.
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Thanks! I’ll do the deep sea fishing and then perhaps just scout for a future shrimping expedition.
I haven’t either but last time I went (off Galveston) with a group of uncles, half the boat was sick and puking / sympathetic-puking below decks. It was disgusting!
Thanks again!
Enjoy your trip. Post pictures of your catches. There are some beautiful fish in the Gulf.
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Salt Water is the best fishing there is! If you are out wading in the shallows, don’t miss the chance to use some of those shrimp for bait. At dawn and dusk the Trout and Red Fish come to the shoreline to snack, and they will bite at almost anything. If you stay after dark, you will probably see some Flounder fishers with flat bottoms and spot lights spearing them in the shallows, too. The jetties are also very good spots, but don’t go wading there because they have some big predators lurking.
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Everyone on the boat caught their limit of red snapper and a lot of vermillion snapper. I caught a nice amberjack but they aren’t in season.
I was surprised at how clear and blue the water is once you get way out there.
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That’s something I wanted to do with my kids when we went to Port A in March, but like always we ran out of time.
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I fixed that by booking the trip a couple of weeks ahead. Nobody wanted to lose their hundred bucks. Like so many other things, if you wait until you have time you’ll never do it.
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Like I said, some of the most fun you can have. Now wait until you cook those red snapper. It is my favorite fish of all time.
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