Fishing School
Lures/Hooks
This lesson will show you a great rig for using live or frozen shrimp to catch a variety of species.
Best of all, it involved very affordable equipment that can outfish much more expensive gear because you’ll be using it smartly by having a snag-free offering while other anglers are wasting time getting stuck on the bottom.
Here’s a video showing the rig we recommend for beginners to easily catch a lot of fish:
Recommended Equipment:
Note: Please use J-hooks only when you are actively fishing because the fish can get gut hooked if they have time to eat the bait. If you’ll be setting rods in a holder and not actively fishing, make sure to use circle hooks.
Hook Size Tips:
When fishing with shrimp, it’s important to select your hook sized based on the size of the shrimp that you’re fishing with.
Here’s a quick table to help make it easy:
- Size 2 hook: Small shrimp – under 3 inches
- Size 1 hook: Medium shrimp – 3 to 4 inches
- Size 1/0 hook: Large shrimp – over 4 inches
Weight Size Tips:
Since most of the feeding activity happens on the bottom, it’s very important to use enough weight to get your bait on the bottom. So make sure to use a weight that is able to easily get your bait down into the strike zone.
But it’s smart to go as light as you can so that you can feel for strikes as good as possible.
Here are the situations where I use the following sized weights:
- 3/16 oz: Under 5 ft of water
- 1/4 oz: : 5 ft to 10 ft of water
- 2 x 3/16 oz: 10 to 20 ft of water
- 2 x 1/4 oz: 20+ ft of water
Leave a comment below if you have any questions.
thank you sir. i love the circle hook but you just explained why i miss so many fish since i started doing the weedless rig with shrimp. to me this rig makes a much more natural look. shrimp drift by with head down or straight out but seldom with head up or towards the current so this rig works great and i need to buy some straight hooks.
It is indeed an excellent observation regarding the rigging of the shrimp, which resulted in the tail end being snag-free. I must admit, I was genuinely impressed. I even copied and pasted the information into my fishing notes for future reference.
It looks like messing with the trolling motor got you to hit. Something different in the retrieve…
I’ve been having a problem here in Perdido Key with catfish. I seem to be catching too many when using shrimp fishing the bottom. No sheepshead, or any gamefish. This is under a bridge which looks like the one in your video. Any suggestions? Thanks!
move to different spots as luke mentioned else where. cat fish roam everywhere while good fish hang out around structure and it sounds like you haven’t found the structure they are at.
What are your thoughts on using a high vis jig head instead of the bullet weight?
I’m not a fan of high vis jig heads, but they certainly can work too.
Why remove the tail? Why not just rig it through the tail? Seems leaving the tail intact would give you a more solid set. Newbie to inshore, so just asking questions!
Removing the tail has 2 benefits: 1) it allows for more scent to be released into the water which will draw in more fish and 2) it allows for hiding the hook into the shrimp which is a big plus for those of us who fish areas with a lot of fishing pressure.
Thanks you Luke for all these lessons – Some tips I have known or heard before but have forgot and others are very good new information. I think the main mistake I am doing is the line is too heavy. I use braid main and mono leader, but I think lb ratings are too high. I’ll change both to smaller for sure. Also, I am too fast to pull when I get tapped with smaller fish. Need to be more patient.
WOW! Great info. Thanks for weedless shrimp hook up and when to retrieve. I always thought pin fish had taken my bait and I would pull up my rig.
I never use bait but was wondering what the 2 x 3/16 oz size and the 2x 1/4oz means? not great on math fractions but know a quarter ounce times 2 would be a half ounce.
What he means is 2 3/16oz weights back to back, or just a single 3/8oz weight. Same with the 1/4oz like you said. Just back to back quarters or a single 1/2oz. Hope this helps!
The last time i used live shrimp the pinfish kept stealing them, but i don’t remember how I rigged them. I’ll definitely try the weedless rig next time. If you ignore all the little taps from the pinfish, and only set the hook on big takes, does that keep the shrimp on the hook longer? Maybe I’ll just go with pinfish as bait 🙂