When it comes to landing sheer numbers of fish, it's hard to beat these
tiny titans...

Story by Tom Vassallo

From the Spring Run of White Perch to the summer fun of the wily weakfish and onto the early fall "schoolie" bass run...there is one bait that New Jersey anglers should never overlook. Years ago, I can remember as a teenager the hottest bait in the Toms River in late April and early May was the tiny "grass shrimp". Those who were lucky enough to locate fresh grass shrimp were treated to some of the best white perch fishing in New Jersey along the banks of the Toms River. Now, I was usually of the opinion that using killies at that time of year resulted in catches of much larger fish, but when it came to landing sheer numbers of fish, it was hard to beat these tiny titans for white perch. But grass shrimp are a major component of the diet of many New Jersey gamefish and when fished properly, can land you fish when others are asking where the heck the fish are!

Grass shrimp are not the easiest of bait to find, catch or keep alive once you have them. Therefore, if you can find someone who can supply you with a fresh supply when you need them...well you are pretty much set. There are ways of catching them yourself. I used to use a fine mesh scoop net with a wooden handle. I found that trudging along the grass marsh flats in my waders and scooping under the edge of the marsh grass overhanging the edges into the water surface would result in a fair amount of shrimp. However, this is way too much like work! The shrimp are sometimes plentiful and some days they are practically non-existent. If you need an ample supply of bait, especially for chumming, you will probably need to use a "shrimp trawl" behind a boat. You will require a license to shrimp with one and you also must be VERY careful to release ALL undersized crabs and game fish that may become trapped in your seine. Failure to release these "babies" can result in serious fines.

When netting or trawling grass shrimp, you MUST release undersized juvenile game fish and crabs. Failure to release them can result in serious fines.

Grass shrimp are very sensitive to heat and sun. They will "cook" in minutes when left in the sun. They also require a LOT of oxygen to keep them alive. Therefore, you must use a live well or build a shelf with screening in your cooler to keep them above the ice and also high enough to keep them from freezing and dying. If you are still with me, you are probably thinking I am crazy and that no bait is worth the trouble. Well, let me tell you, once you have fished for weakfish with grass shrimp, you probably won't want to fish with any other bait!

I was introduced to weakfishing with grass shrimp by Frank Johnson from Waretown. Frank was well known to many other bay anglers as the guy to contact if you wanted to know where the weakfish were hanging in Barnegat Bay. He was a "bobber" fisherman and used a slip bobber set-up. This was simply a sliding bobber with a rubber band tied on the line to set your depth. Historians have traced this technique as far back as the 1800's. There are new commercial rigs that are easier to set up and use. One that comes to mind is the "Redi-Rig" float. They can be found online if your local bait and tackle doesn't have them in stock. Once you find some fish on the finder, use a two anchor set-up. You need to set the boat so the shrimp chum and the bobbers will float with the tide, away from the boat. Use a small cup to remove the shrimp from your cooler and toss a small handful into the water. A simple circle hook or baitholder hook will hold one or two shrimp on your rig. Let the bobber slide to the rubber band stopper and watch your bobber. I believe there is no better way to catch weakfish in the bay!

Instead of using the old rubber band and sliding bobber, "Redi-Rig" has developed a system that is perfect for bobber fishing with grass shrimp and other baits at depths up to 100 feet.

This technique has also worked for me for "schoolie" bass. If you are lucky enough to locate a school, simply fish the same way you would for the weakfish and hold on! One day, Frank and I landed and released nearly 100 bass. Talk about fun! Some anglers will tell you that this technique was good in the old days for smaller weakfish which now must be released. I have found that if you land some small snappers or porgies (make sure the porgies are at least 9"!) mixed in with the small weaks, chunk them and put a chunk on a bit larger hook. Continue to chum with the shrimp, but try to get the chunk baits to the bottom. On a fishing trip with my Dad and some other buddies, we landed a cooler full of 5-7 pound weakfish using the grass shrimp chum and snapper chunks!

Last but not least, on a "Tog" trip along the North jetty of the Barnegat inlet I also used this technique. However, we were chumming with the grass shrimp and fishing weakfish rigs with green crab. We landed some of the largest tog I ever caught using the shrimp as chum. So although the miniature grass shrimp is not big in stature, it is a titan when it comes to baits for New Jersey game fish. Try to locate some shrimp and get used to using them for white perch this spring. Once you experience the action and fun of using grass shrimp, you'll definitely be "hooked"!