# Recreational Shrimp Trawling



## txfishbait (Jun 21, 2007)

Anybody have their own recreational shrimp trawl?

Do you use it mostly for bait shrimp or table shrimp?

I know its very popular over in coastal Louisiana but i haven't seen it much in Big Tex.


----------



## fishinfool (Jun 30, 2004)

i think there are a couple other threads here about sport trawls. i have used one a couple times, only caught lots of little jack cravell and other missilanious fish and jelly fish. i think of the 3 hours we drank, i mean pulled the net we caught like 10 shrimp. we put in at the boat ramp at the base of the north jetty and went through the boat cut and draged the net up and down the beach and in the shallow areas. i know there are folks that catch a good bit with them. keep in mind you have to get the TPWD permit for them to be legal and obey the rec. shrimping regulations. good luck.


----------



## Blue Water Breaux (Feb 6, 2008)

we stopped around 5 years ago...we had a 40' net we pulled behind the boat...great times...used to pull up tons of shrimp off the beaches of SLP...most of the shrimp were good size and quite a few, even though they lacked in tablefare, were up to 7-9". We also caught a TON of stingrays, BIG stingrays too. that was always fun feeling the pull of the net and seeing what we caught. tough, hot work, but it was always a good time and we had tons of free shrimp, croaker, mullett and stingray for bait. Try it out, its a great time, just make sure you are extremely familiar with the underwater structure you plan on trolling...those nets and planers get expensive REALLY quick!


----------



## [email protected] (May 24, 2004)

*txfishbait *- The regs governing "Individual Bait-shrimp Trawl" can be found on page 46 of the current TPWD Outdoor Annual (the little book they give you when you buy a license.)

Listening to folks talk about shrimping out of their bay boats "back in the day" I thought I just had to have one. Tales of 100 pound days were more than I could stand, I needed some of it.

So off I went to the local net maker in Port Lavaca; $250 later I had a brand new - fully compliant - sportsman's net complete with cork line, lead line, tickler chain, draw lines, the whole works. The guy wished me luck with a wry smile as he folded my five fifties and tucked them in the bib pocket of his overalls. I went straight to the TPWD office in Victoria and plunked down another $25 for a tag for my new net, the kindly woman smiled and thanked me as she wished me luck.

Now for the rest of the story: The regs are very restrictive allowing planing doors of only 450 square inches (i.e. 15"x30") and the webbing cannot be tighter than 8.75 inches when measured across a consecutive series of five stretched meshes. In short, doors of this size are insufficient to open a 20' net, the best they will do is a tad more than the width of your transom, maybe nine or ten feet. A net with mesh as "loose" as described will capture few shrimp, most make it through and escape if ever captured within the narrow swath of the net.

We tried many times but never managed more than a few shrimp per drag. The best we ever did was maybe two pounds during several hours of effort. Interesting to note the big shrimp boats in the same area were having a great day. I would also like to say that hauling the net into the boat and cleaning all the mess that gets dumped on the deck is no small task.

My advice - Save your money. Buy your bait and/or table shrimp from a local bait or seafood house and use your time to go fishing instead. "It simply ain't what some people crack it up to be."


----------



## wading_fool (May 3, 2005)

[email protected] said:


> *txfishbait *- The regs governing "Individual Bait-shrimp Trawl" can be found on page 46 of the current TPWD Outdoor Annual (the little book they give you when you buy a license.)
> 
> Listening to folks talk about shrimping out of their bay boats "back in the day" I thought I just had to have one. Tales of 100 pound days were more than I could stand, I needed some of it.
> 
> ...


x2.........think we used ours one weekend and that was enough! Its still in a buddies attic somewhere I think


----------



## wil.k (Aug 22, 2005)

I have a sport trawl ,been taking up space for years ,Tried it a few times it was hard work for very little shrimp, picked up some interesting trash though.


----------



## Leemo (Nov 16, 2006)

hard times Mississippi....


----------



## Redfishr (Jul 26, 2004)

You could probably do just as well with a castnet...


----------

