Fishing School
Lures/Hooks
This lesson will show you a great rig for using live or frozen shrimp to catch a variety of species.
Best of all, it involved very affordable equipment that can outfish much more expensive gear because you’ll be using it smartly by having a snag-free offering while other anglers are wasting time getting stuck on the bottom.
Here’s a video showing the rig we recommend for beginners to easily catch a lot of fish:
Recommended Equipment:
Note: Please use J-hooks only when you are actively fishing because the fish can get gut hooked if they have time to eat the bait. If you’ll be setting rods in a holder and not actively fishing, make sure to use circle hooks.
Hook Size Tips:
When fishing with shrimp, it’s important to select your hook sized based on the size of the shrimp that you’re fishing with.
Here’s a quick table to help make it easy:
- Size 2 hook: Small shrimp – under 3 inches
- Size 1 hook: Medium shrimp – 3 to 4 inches
- Size 1/0 hook: Large shrimp – over 4 inches
Weight Size Tips:
Since most of the feeding activity happens on the bottom, it’s very important to use enough weight to get your bait on the bottom. So make sure to use a weight that is able to easily get your bait down into the strike zone.
But it’s smart to go as light as you can so that you can feel for strikes as good as possible.
Here are the situations where I use the following sized weights:
- 3/16 oz: Under 5 ft of water
- 1/4 oz: : 5 ft to 10 ft of water
- 2 x 3/16 oz: 10 to 20 ft of water
- 2 x 1/4 oz: 20+ ft of water
Leave a comment below if you have any questions.
Wondering about the set up for kids?? Plan on using this set up for me and my wife but I have a 4 year old and 6 year old that will be fishing along side us. Do I use same weight? Smaller weight? and smaller hook and smaller pieces of shrimp to catch smaller fish?
They can do well with the exact same equipment you’re using. For maximizing their action, it could be smart to go with smaller chunks of shrimp on smaller hooks so that they can catch the small pinfish too that otherwise would be stealing baits off of the bigger hooks.
Went out today and did some bridge fishing in Tampa Bay. About 30 feet of water. Current was ripping. I was using the size 1 hook with live shrimp and felt like I had to use 1 oz weight to get the bait down to the bottom. Is that weight normal? Caught some small stuff but no keepers. Any advice?
Also. Couldn’t get anything on the kids poles with same 1 oz weight but smaller hooks and chunks of shrimp. I was using size 6 and 8 hooks.
Won’t a jighead do the same thing as this?
Yes, jigheads can work well with this type of fishing too. But they aren’t quite as weedless, and they are much more expensive than the bare hooks and weights combo.
2 separate 1/4 oz bullet weights for 20’+ of water? DO you orient both he weights the same way or nose to nose/ butt to butt?
Great video on rigging weedless! I hate to admit it, but I’ve lost so many hooks and other tackle on getting snagged with shrimp.
Awesome, made it so simple and easy to remember
Can this tactic be used on grass flats, or in the marsh area for specks and reds? If so should I work it like a Prawn Original or an artificial bait?
thank you sir. i love the circle hook but you just explained why i miss so many fish since i started doing the weedless rig with shrimp. to me this rig makes a much more natural look. shrimp drift by with head down or straight out but seldom with head up or towards the current so this rig works great and i need to buy some straight hooks.
It is indeed an excellent observation regarding the rigging of the shrimp, which resulted in the tail end being snag-free. I must admit, I was genuinely impressed. I even copied and pasted the information into my fishing notes for future reference.
It looks like messing with the trolling motor got you to hit. Something different in the retrieve…
I’ve been having a problem here in Perdido Key with catfish. I seem to be catching too many when using shrimp fishing the bottom. No sheepshead, or any gamefish. This is under a bridge which looks like the one in your video. Any suggestions? Thanks!
move to different spots as luke mentioned else where. cat fish roam everywhere while good fish hang out around structure and it sounds like you haven’t found the structure they are at.