Buddy of mine that has a house in Apalachicola invited me to go cast net shrimping with him, and maybe a little fishing on Saturday. I met him at his house at 7:30, and we eased his Trembly mullet boat into the ramp at Breakaway soon after. Conditions were perfect, just a little breeze, nice temperature.
We decided to try out in the Bay first, as close to the bridge as we could. Nothing at several tries. Noticed that the pelicans were diving farther out in the Bay, so we decided to see what they were eating. Turned out there were gigantic schools of large Gulf Menhaden (LY's), and along with the pogies were the shrimp. The biomass in that bay was enormous. The schools stretched for miles, and if you cast the net you could easily catch 5-25 lbs at a time of big (6"-12") fish, plus shrimp. We kept about 50 lbs of LY until we ran out of room in the cooler, then had to throw them back while we picked shrimp.
In the end, we kept about 5 gallons of shrimp, which were variable in size from small to large. This took a LOT of LY picking, and they slap the deck so when you picked them up they coat you with slime from head to toe.
We did not see much hitting either the shrimp or the LYs, although we did net some trout and a couple of nasty, huge sail cats. We also motored over to St. Vincent Island to try and cast net some mullet or flounder, but the tide was so low the usual spots didn't work well.
Picked heads off of the shrimp for what seemed like forever back at the house, showered, and drove back. Fun, different type of fishing day.
EJ
Shrimping At Apalachicola
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