10/4/07
Who ya gonna call? Shrimp busters!
By Terry Madewell

TERRY MADEWELL/Manning Times

Drew Reeser with his limit of shrimp recently in what appears to be a good season.

There are a lot of folks in the Manning and Clarendon County area who do a lot of shrimping. Some are early season shrimpers, others wait until mid-to-late season to get bigger shrimp.

Some, of course, go throughout the season.

So far this season, things have been going great based on reports from various shrimp bait shrimpers all along the South Carolina coast. There were a lot of shrimpers out the first few days and they were doing very well. The biggest problem is heavy winds which did keep folks from shrimping where they really wanted to be on some days.

Reports from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) prior to the season was that there were a good number of shrimp available this year and the sizes we’re mixed. Based on those reports it seemed like there were perhaps fewer shrimp than last year (when they were super abundant but small) but the average size would be larger.

That is apparently the case, however any drop in numbers has not been noticed by most shrimpers. Opening weekend produced many, many limits of quality shrimp. The average size of the shrimp has actually been very good. This season has actually got off to an outstanding beginning.

Catching shrimp of a good consistent size is often a mid-season type of event for most shrimpers. Usually October is the primetime to do that. However, if you want to load up with shrimp, based on what happened to us and reports from others, go now. If you make a couple trips now and load the freezer with this great-eating bounty from the sea, you’ll have enough shrimp for the year and still not miss any days in the deer woods once the rut kicks in.

The best plan we’ve seen is to have at least two boats going together to checkout different areas. Plus, the new link in the system is to use cell phones for quick, direct communication to help everyone get in the shrimp. While I have been personally resistant to using cell phones to help me catch more fish or harvest game in the past, I’ve been in involved with cell phones pinpointing turkeys between different groups of hunters on the same property last season.

On opening weekend of shrimping season this year, we had three boats out working together and we communicated by cell phone. While it may sound a bit lame to some… it really does work.

My stepson Drew Reeser and I were in a boat together. We had one area to check that had produced very well early in the season on some years… but not last year. The other two boats went to other specific targets.

As our good fortune would have it, we hit the hot shrimp spot right at the beginning. In fact, as soon as we stuck our poles and baited them, Drew began throwing the net and caught scads of shrimp. In two passes over the poles, we had nearly a half limit.

During that time, we received and made calls. The other two boats were not finding shrimp so they came to our location. By the time they got there, the tide had changed to the point where the shrimp had left the area.

So experiments began again, but late that afternoon we were all close to that original location and we had our poles set close to one another. It was then a low tide with the water beginning to rise. We’d anchor together and sit and talk for a few minutes, and then we’d all go check our poles. If no shrimp were on the bait, we’d return. We did this twice.

The third time when we checked, all three net men made big catches of shrimp on the first throw. Game on!

As it worked out, we all three reached the 48-quart limit at about the same time and headed in together.

The next day we had the process refined a bit and we repeated the process only somewhat quicker the next day.

Using cell phones for improving your outdoor harvest in a new concept for sure, but it is a here and now opportunity. I may have felt it was ‘cheating’ at first, but I’ve changed my mind and have come over to the other side… especially after eating a bunch of those very tasty shrimp.

Between teamwork and communicating with cell phones, it’s a wonder those critters have any chance at all.