Shrimping Under The A. Max Brewer Bridge

After driving home from Mobile, Al. last night, I decided to check out the shrimping under the A. Max Brewer Bridge fishing piers in Titusville, Fl. 

I had reports from a neighbor that the shrimp this past week were running bot it was a hit or miss proposition as to the time.

I drove down to the fishing piers and parked around 9:30 pm.  Even though the air temperature was only in the low 60s, the wind was blowing making it chilly enough for me to grab my Frog Toggs.

The parking lots were full, so I assumed that people were either netting a lot of shrimp or catching some fish.

As I walked to the lower fishing pier, the cast netters were lined up along the seawall working hard to harvest a few shrimp on every throw.  The water was choppy, but it didn't seem to deter anybody from trying to load up their 5 gallon buckets with a "full pull" of shrimp.

I took several pics and a video of the cast netters (below) before checking out how the dip netters were doing on the piers.

The first two dip netters I spoke with on the lower pier were not doing all that well.  They only had a few shrimp in their buckets and said the shrimp weren't running as good as they were last week.

The dip netters farther down the pier were doing a little better and several guys had the bottom of their

buckets covered with shrimp in the jumbo category.  

Several others along the railing were holding shrimp in the pockets of their nets.

The people I spoke with said that they were missing a lot of shrimp because of the choppy water and that it was better last week.

I thanked them for the information and walked to the higher fishing pier where there were several people dipping for shrimp.

The water didn't seem to be as choppy there but much fewer shrimp were being netted. 

One guy that was preparing to leave said that the shrimp weren't running as good as they were last week.  

He told me that last week he dipped 300 to 500 shrimp when the water was calmer and he could see the shrimp better.  I asked him about how much that would be in a 5 gallon bucket and was told that it was about half way full.

He also remarked that it took him all night to clean his catch.

That's a problem I wouldn't mind having.....

It was getting cold, so I wished him well and left the area.

I did notice that although there were a lot of small fish fry in several areas over the lights, there were not any spotted sea trout around feeding on the shrimp.

That is probably why I only spotted three guys fishing from the piers.

I hope to get out and wet a line tomorrow if the weather permits, but I have all week to fish if it's crappy.  

Till next time, 

Tight Lines.