Keeping Shrimp Alive
One of the absolute best baits for fishing in Florida waters is live shrimp. Live shrimp can be bought at most bait shops near the coast in Florida and are fairly affordable. The most difficult part of using live shrimp is keeping them alive!
There are three main factors that kill shrimp in bait buckets. Overcrowding, lack of oxygen and heat!
Overcrowding
Many anglers will buy a large amount of live shrimp to last them the entire day and place them all in a small bucket only to find that with in a few hours they are all dead. To help avoid this it is best to keep large amount of shrimp in a large container or multiple small ones.
A good rule of thumb is to keep no more than one dozen shrimp per gallon of container for any long period of time. If all other conditions are met, 50-60 shrimp can live almost all day in 5 gallons of water.
Lack of Oxygen
Shrimp in a small container will quickly deplete the oxygen in their water and die shortly after. A good solution to this is either a bubbler or a water circulation pump. Both of these disturb that water surface quite a bit and cause the water to absorb more oxygen. The more shrimp that are in a container the more water movement and oxygen that is needed.
Another simple solution for this is to use flow through bait buckets. These are the buckets that have holes in them and all the angler to lower them into the water so the bait always has a source for clean and aerated water.
Heat
Heat is a killer of all bait, and in Florida this is always a concern. When trying to keep bait alive for long periods of time it is best to keep the container in the shade. One of the best bait containers is a modified color. One that has just a small hole drilled in it for an airline to fit through. These types of bait containers help keep the water a stable and cool temperature.
Another good idea is to place a small frozen bottle of water in with the bait to keep the water cool. Do not put ice directly into the water as this will dilute the salt and possibly kill the shrimp!
Hate to bust your bubbles fellows, but contrary to popular fishing writers myths all the air in the world may not provide enough oxygen for your bait (like right now in the heat of summer), nor will ice or chemicals or bigger water pumps: Air is not oxygen…
Ice will chill you bait down, but you know what happens when those nice cool shrimp are hooked up and tossed into that hot water. They cook as quick as a blink of the eye.
[Reply]
Dan Reply:
August 8th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
You are correct, air is not oxygen, but oxygen is contained in air at about a 21% concentration! And aerating (a bubbler or water pump hitting the surface of the water) will aid in dissolving oxygen very well. It also solves another common problem of to much Co2 in the water. The surface agitation will gas-off the Co2.
I do not advocate keeping shrimp chilled, just a cooler temperature than the ambient air in Florida summers. Keeping the water in the bait bucket around the mid 70’s will not only keep the shrimp more comfortable but will also help the water dissolve a much more oxygen!
[Reply]
Excellent tips. It’s amazing the amount of people I see fishing with dead shrimp and then complaining that the only thing they ever catch is cat fish!
You try to tell them and then they say something like “I don’t want to go through all that trouble” . . .
[Reply]
Dan - Florida Shore Fishing Reply:
August 10th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
I also run into a lot of people who “dont want to spend the extra money on live shirmp” when they spend a fair amount on frozen every week and hardly catch anything worth talking about! Its worth the extra buck or two!
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