The Shrimp Are Running Good In The Indian River

Several sport shrimpers this evening told me that "the shrimp are running good" in the Indian River.

For the past several weeks the shrimp run on the Indian River has been sporadic at best.

Every time I drove down to the fishing piers to see what was being netted, the locals were making excuses for the less than stellar shrimp run.

Tonight was a totally different story.

As I drove into the parking area underneath the new bridge, the absence of parking spaces told me that either a hell of a party was going on or the shrimping was shifting into high gear.

   

 

  
Both the fishing piers were loaded with people. I estimated at least a hundred people were shrimping, fishing or just walking around enjoying the evening on both of the fishing piers.

Even though everyone seemed to be catching shrimp, the shrimpers on the lower pier weren't doing as well as those who were on the higher, longer fishing pier.

I talked to several sport shrimpers on the lower pier who said they were "killing em" on the upper one, so I took some of these pics and moved on to check out the action on the other pier.

As you can see by the pictures most of the shrimp netted this evening were medium to jumbos.

I didn't see any small shrimp in any of the buckets or any blue crabs this evening.

As I walked the pier, I talked to several people who were all having a good time shrimping. I learned that a few people had already limited out and left.

Two of the guys I spoke with had netted half a bucket of medium to large size shrimp and several other shrimpers were quickly getting there.

The shrimp "are running good" in the Indian River right now and from what I was told, it's just the beginning of the run.

I heard that two shrimpers had half buckets of shrimp but went to their trucks to "dump" them into coolers so they could continue shrimping. Not Kosher!

The videos I took and edited below show some of the action and inaction during the time I spent there. I only stayed about an hour and left at about 10:00 pm.

I could have stayed all night, but since I didn't bring my net or any of my fishing gear, I just took some pictures along with these videos.

The weather this evening was superb. The temperature was in the low 70s or high 60s with no wind and the water was clear for this part of the river.

Shirtsleeve weather in January! You gotta love it!

Before leaving, I asked about the shrimping in Haulover Canal and was told by a couple of knowledgeable old salts that the run had not yet reached that far.

As of right now, the shrimping is best around the Titusville bridges up to the south side of the railroad bridge that runs into the Cape.

As far as Oak Hill is concerned, the shrimp that are being caught there are all small. "Bait shrimp" as some of the locals refer to them.

I had planned to go fishing this afternoon and try to catch that big gator sea trout I missed last week, but I had to clean out our Koi pond and do some work around the hacienda instead.

With any kind of luck, I'll get out tomorrow and see how the fish are biting.

Till then, Tight Lines to your all!