Live Shrimp Rigs

Freshwater water shrimp can be caught by dragging a fine meshed scoop or landing net through the weeds or by setting a collapsible shrimp trap, often with either a cake of soap or meat as the attractant.

You can catch bass, estuary, golden and silver perch, trout, Atlantic salmon, and many other native fish species throughout Australia using live shrimp.

I have found that the trick to getting the best results is to make sure that the shrimp is alive and kicking. This means that your hook placement is critical.

A single or multiple shrimp on a hook, while using a number of different rigs, including the paternoster, running ball sinker down onto the hook, a running sinker down onto a swivel and a leader of about a metre, suspended under a bubble or stemmed float, a small spit shot or just unweighted, will get you a few fish.

You can check these rigs out in Gary Brown’s Essential Saltwater Bait Rigs in the ‘Rigging Guides’ section of the website.

Technique 1

How many times have you been using a shrimp and you get a bite / strike and just come back with the body? This is where you need to select a hook size and length that when you have passed the hook through the body of the shrimp, the bend of the hook will pass out through the body so that the hook point and barb are just near the back of the head. While ensuring that you don’t kill the shrimp. To help hold it in place, you will need to tie two to three half hitches around the tail.

Technique 2

If you are mainly catching very small shrimp, don’t worry as they are extremely effective when a number of them are placed onto the hook at the same time. If one or two happen to fall off you will still have more on the hook.

Technique 3

I have used the tea bagging method around drowned trees and snags. It’s just a matter of either tying up to a tree or putting on the spot lock on your electric motor and lowering the bait to the bottom. Once it’s on the bottom, just slowly lift the bait off the bottom to about 50 to 80cm and then lower it back down again. This movement with usually entice the fish to take the bait.

You could use the paternoster rig, the running sinker onto the bait or the running sinker onto the swivel and a short leader.

Suggested Combos

Okuma Barbarian Spin Rods - BN-S-702NT, X-Light, 7'0" Nibble Tip, 2-4kg rod, matched with an Okuma JAW Spin Reel - JAW-30 and spooled with 6lb Platypus Pulse Mono or Pulse X4 Braid, for either out of a boat or off the shore.

Okuma Barbarian Spin Rods - BN-S-1162NT, Med/Light, 11'6" Nibble Tip, 2-6kg rod, matched with an Okuma Epixor XT 20, 30 or 40 size spin reel, spooled with 6lb Platypus Pulse Mono or Pulse X4 Braid. The additional length of this combo is ideal for shore based fishing freshwater lakes and impoundments.

Okuma LRF Gen2 Spin Rods - LRF2-S-742L, Light, 7'4", 2-5kg is great for when you are getting those very sensitive bites. Match this with either an Okuma Epixor XT 20, 30 or 40 size reel.

You could also select a baitcast combo, such as an Okuma Cerros rod, matched with a Ceymar C100H-A baitcast reel.