Shrimp trap pot - how effective?

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

I bought a collapsible Shrimp trap pot net, to have a go at fishing for prawns / shrimps this summer. How effective are they? I intent to drop it at the boat mooring, next to the boat, in shallow water (near the Hamble) with a bit of bait inside and leaving it for a few hours.

Have you tried this with any luck? or is it a gimmick?

 

[l'escargot]

It will work if you use it in an area inhabited by prawns. I wouldn't have thought that the Hamble would be that well populated with prawns as they tend to be found more around sand and rocks as opposed to mud and don't like fresh water. You are more likely to bring up a netful of shore crabs.

 

[sarabande]

umm, I thought the Hamble was an exclusion zone for fishing 'cos of the debris.... ??

 

[Croak]

First time out, I got a lobster, a huge prawn and two fish,(NW coast of Wales)All in the first catch.

But only got shore crabs since (SW and W coast of Scotland)

 

[Frankie-H]

I bought a collapsible Shrimp trap pot net, to have a go at fishing for prawns / shrimps this summer. How effective are they? I intent to drop it at the boat mooring, next to the boat, in shallow water (near the Hamble) with a bit of bait inside and leaving it for a few hours.

Have you tried this with any luck? or is it a gimmick?

Never tried your trap I'm afraid but years ago we used to pull shrimps by the handfull out of the old tyres, which hung around the walls of our Essex marina.

 

[VicMallows]

I'd never heard of a shrimp trap (we used to use fishing nets -on poles- in the rockpools when I was young). However have often been tempted by the collapsible crab/lobster pots. Anyone had much success with these on the South Coast? Watching the commercial chaps hauling their pots it usually seems that the vast majority on a string come up empty

I would love to know where all the best cockle/winkle beds are .... but anyone who knows would be a fool to publish them on here !!

Vic

 

[fireball]

I'd never heard of a shrimp trap (we used to use fishing nets -on poles- in the rockpools when I was young). However have often been tempted by the collapsible crab/lobster pots. Anyone had much success with these on the South Coast? Watching the commercial chaps hauling their pots it usually seems that the vast majority on a string come up empty

I would love to know where all the best cockle/winkle beds are .... but anyone who knows would be a fool to publish them on here !!

Vic

I dunno about Cockle and Winkle beds - but I can tell you all the places not to fish ... I've not caught anything yet! .... some say it's because I sail to fast....

 

[Robin]

If you can't find cockles in Chichester something is wrong unless there has been some kind of cockle plague! Get out in the mud at LW and rake with your hands, easy. Put catch in a string bag and suspend in clear water off the boat overnight to get rid of any grit.

We have a folding lobster pot but it is still a lobster virgin and only just past first base with crabs. The problem we had was bait, because when we were anchored where it was worth setting we had none and when we had some, like a spare mackerel, we were not in a place to set it. I did buy a couple of cans of pilchards to try, the idea being to puncture the cans and let the juices seep out but we never got to do the trial. The pot is going to the USA mind to try on their blue crab and the really huge prawns that I can't bring myself to call shrimp like they do but which arrive in huge numbers in the ICW mid summer. We will also be trying our hand with a cast net for those shrimp. I saw a video of them in use just off where we will soon be, 20 or 30 small boats out netting them in droves all about 6" plus long.