Shrimp Chum Block

Post by **Fish Masterson** » April 2nd, 2003, 2:21 am

Any one familiar with a way to make a chum block that you can put out, and leave for several days, then come back and cast net around it , to catch loads of shrimp? A friend of a friend told me that they used to do it regularly, and of course, I was skeptical, however, the idea does sound appealing, so was just wondering if this is for real, or what every ones thoughts were?
Fish Masterson

Post by **Chalk** » April 2nd, 2003, 6:44 am

Fish Masterson, I know several folks from around the Charleston, SC area that have told me about shrimp balls

. I have also seen some guy on TV doing the same thing up there too. It was pretty simple and straight forward. One method was to get some muck from along the saw grass line, about half of a 5 gallon bucket full and mix it with some powdered fish. Form some softball size balls and chunk out on a stake line. The other way was to let the balls dry in the sun for a few days then set them out. Have not tried it, though would like too. Chalk

Post by **Fish Masterson** » April 3rd, 2003, 2:47 am

Thanks for the information Chalk, it seems simple enough, can't wait to try it.
Fish Masterson

cmw · Post by **cmw** » April 17th, 2003, 3:40 pm

It works - that is the way we used to go shrimping when I was a kid. We used a clay soil, mixed in a ground fish meal and some water. Made balls about the sixe of a grapefruit and let them bake in the sun for at least a day. You want them hard so they will not disolve to fast. We lived on the St Johns river outside Jacksonville. Just at sundown we would toss them off the dock and wait 20 min or so. Then cast our net out over them. They would last for several hours. If you did not have a dock people would wade out to say waist deep water, put a stake out to mark their spot and go from there. This was back in the 50's. The shrimp would run up river in the fall and for about 6 weeks we went several nights a week.