Good Friday Shrimping On The Indian River

I planned on going fishing when I returned home from work this evening but instead spent Good Friday shrimping on the Indian River with some old timers.

It was too late to fish Peacocks Pocket when I got home from work so I decided to hit the fishing piers to see if there was any action with the shrimping community.

I arrived a little after 8:30 pm and the pavilion was crowded as usual for a Friday evening.

Lower Fishing Pier

There were several shrimpers and a few fishermen on the lower pier and almost nobody shrimping on the upper (higher) fishing pier.

The sport shrimpers on the lower pier were not doing too good while I was there.

The sea trout were murdering the shrimp and very few of them were escaping to the surface where they could be dipped up.

I walked the lower pier and only a few shrimpers had any in their nets or their 5 gallon buckets so I took a few pics and walked to the upper pier to see how they were doing.

There were three guys at the corner of the pier who had their lights set out in deeper water.  When I checked out their buckets, none of them had any shrimp to brag about.

As I stood there for a while, it was quickly evident why.  There were at least a couple of hundred sea trout over the light sets ambushing the shrimp as they were swimming into range of the dip nets.

Most of the sea trout  were under the slot but several were at least 15" plus.  The larger sea trout were hanging just outside of the shrimp lights down deep.

I mused to myself, of all the times to not bring my fishing rod with me!

There was a slight current moving the shrimp around but it slowed down to almost nothing around 9:00 pm.

The shrimp that were being dipped up were medium size tonight and no jumbos were in anybody's bucket as far as I could see.

There was almost no wind on the water this evening and it was shirtsleeve weather.  All in all a gorgeous night.

I took several short videos that I later edited into this YouTube video that shows mostly sea trout, a small tarpon and a ladyfish chasing shrimp around the lights.


Unfortunately while I was visiting the fishing piers this evening, nobody was dipping any jumbo shrimp that this area is noted for.

This Good Friday shrimping expedition on the Indian River would have been great if I only had the foresight to bring along a light spinning rod and a couple of  D.O.A. Shrimp.

Well, Tomorrow's another day.

Tight Lines.