R&D in your fish tank

[Putershark]

If you have a saltwater fish tank, then run down to the bait shop and buy a dozen shrimp. They are great (cheap) bottom cleaners, and you will really get a great (kids love them also) hands on long time education on how shrimp do several things such as...

1- You will finally see how a shrimp really moves which popping up off of the bottom is NOT their only way to move. Many times they will just crawl OR when pressed by something trying to eat one, with move quite fast by jumping up off of the bottom and they can also swim quite fast (much faster than you would suspect) in a straight line. Now I have seen a shrimp move 4 feet (size of my tank) in less than 1 second in a straight line when pressed by a hungry fish!

2- As far as colors go, you will also see shrimp blend into the bottom color (remember such when fishing) as the time goes along. The more sandy the bottom they have, the more they try and match that lighter color and this is something that does not take very long for them to change. The Glow color shrimp is great for reaction strikes, (part of its success I suspect) but no shrimp that wants to live very long in that area will stay that light if the bottom they dig into is darker and has ground up Oyster shells, mud, etc. Like I was taught when stationed up in the frozen north fly fishing for trout the old saying of "Match the bug Hatch" with shrimp, one might want to consider "Matching the Bottom color" to increase strikes. If anything, I have noticed shrimp lean towards being just a little shade darker (could be my tank lighting though) than the current bottom conditions. Also dead shrimp are very dark brown (had enough of them land on my floor and found hours later, Ha-Ha) so the root beer color has its advantages though I would like to know if anybody else is seeing these trends when fishing???

3- Circle hooks, great inventions I agree and using one in a DOA or Old Bayside shrimp and the removal of the "stock hook" (DOA brand) helps improve some of the wiggle action a shrimp does have (though small) when they are crawling around that the circle hook inserted in the front could returns to the lure. Now I have also used circle hooks in plastic crabs and if one uses the right size crab with the right hook weight and place it off center, you can cast one and it set on the surface floating till you pop it some. Then (killer crab like action) it will dive sideways for the bottom just like a real one will do. Something you might want to play around with in your pool (I have to use the fish tank) if you have one!

3- Bass worm rattle use... When you get the shrimp in your tank, you will also hear (though slight, kill the filters to really hear it) some of the clicks and grinding noises they make when digging around. I have inserted small bass worm rattles into some of my shrimp, but really have not cracked the code yet on when it would be "best" to use one? They (shrimp) do not appear to make any noise when pressed by a hungry fish so; having a small rattle inside of one when pitching docks may not be the correct effect/usage for a rattle. Moving one real, real, slow though (grass flat work in the cooler months) I suspect would be a better use for a rattle to make your bait "appear" as if it is rooting around and feeding. I have not seen a hook up ratio difference "yet" when doing such fishing. I would love to hear back from others on their findings when using rattles under the different conditions with a DOA or Old Bayside shrimp along with what color, tides, weather conditions, etc... I also use my tank to test and tune my other baits (jigs and crankbaits) so put that fish tank to good use and see which leader types and knots, etc. give you the action to your baits that you looking to get while not burning valuable fishing time on the water doing such


Tight lines!
Dave

[Putershark]

Went out again today to the local Bait Shop and they had some Pin Fish (Snook Candy) as well as some Fat Daddy Shrimp. So now the tank has 6 Pin Fish and 2 dozen shrimp cruising and crawling around my Pseudo Inshore reef tank all for the grand total of............... 7 bucks

Now I never use live bait when I fish, but this now gives me a change to watch how they (the Pin Fish) move and react more closely, this so I can in-part such action into my crank bait fishing and many times, would rather watch the my saltwater tank at night while reading, instead of the Lobotomy Box (TV) when there is no fishing shows on...

So you might want to consider building yourself some "Living Furniture" for your living room or den, stocked with your local water food chain members so you also can help improve your fishing skills even when not on the boat... The kids will get a lot out of the experience also

Dave