Shrimpin' Boat Fun

Nick bought this boat a little over two years ago. Here is its story, told by Nick.

I went fishing for awhile on it and then realized it is much more fun to just cruise around on with friends and hang out at different beaches and islands around Charleston. In the summer time my friends and I use it to go wake boarding although the boat is a little under powered for this it still works out and is a lot of fun.

For a 60 day period starting in mid September there is a shrimping season in this area. My boat is pretty much perfect to go shrimping with. During these 60 days you can put bait in the water to attract shrimp and then use a cast net to catch them. You are allowed to fill one 48 quart cooler per day. I only went out 4 times this year and we did pretty well our last time. I go with a friend of mine, Glenn, whom I work with. Glenn is much better navigating the waters than I am at night so we make a pretty good team.
It is quite a bit of work but it is a lot of fun. Depending on the tides, we try and get out to where we will be shrimping about 1 hour before dark. It is usually a 20 to 40 minute boat ride. On the way we make bait balls that are made of fish meal and clay. Once we get out there we set PVC poles in the mud near the shore line. You are allowed to have up to 10 poles. The poles from the first to the last one can not be more than 100 yards apart. Each pole must be marked with reflective tape and your shrimping license tag with your name and other information on it. Once the poles are set, we go down the line putting 3 or 4 bait balls near each pole.
Now that we have the bait in the water and have poles out marking the location we go out a little ways and wait between 30 min to an hour. Oh yeah, I should point out drinking beer is a pretty big part of this whole experience.....

So after the bait has set for awhile we go up and down the poles, throwing a cast net in the water and hopefully bringing up shrimp. Throwing the cast net is pretty hard to do and takes a little bit of practice. Its is amazing how much more shrimp you end up with when you have good throws. And yes it is easier to throw it with a technique involving part to the net being placed in your teeth.
The shrimp end up in a cooler on the boat. We usually spend around 3 hours doing this. We have yet to reach our limit (called "cooler out"), but we came really close the last night we went, which was the last night of the season. Most of the pictures are from the last 2 times that we went.

The next day we pop all the heads of the shrimp which takes quite a bit of time, and then package the tails in bags. The last time we went we ended up with 20lbs of shrimp after we took the heads off. Not bad. Most of them we put in the freezer or give away. Local shrimp down here sell for between 7-9 dollars a pound without heads, and a little cheaper with the heads on them.

Thanks for sharing your story, Nick!!! Anyone else with a great "what I do" story is encouraged to submit it to any of the emails on the left sidebar.