Shrimp Report

By: Capt. Lee Noga

Lots to talk about in the world of shrimping. Oak Hill & Edgewater reports remain divided. Meaning Edgewater is pulling lower than their neighbor Oak Hill/Lopez area. The run seems to begin just a tad North of Riverbreeze boat ramp (CM 73) and extending as far South as CM 9a in Oak Hill. The most pressure is from CM 4 to CM 7 from center channel to West Side. Oak Hill turns on immediate vs. an hour delay in Edgewater. Water clarity visuals are about 2 foot. When clarity is gritty drop the white LED out of your lights to reduce the glare. Bait fish and cat fish continue to reduce our visuals as they hover around our lights. Social media are buzzing about the MacDaddy smart lights “strobe” function knocking them off the lights. My suggestion vs. retiring your nets due to bait fish black out. Set a light at your feet (6pm position on clock) 1 foot off bottom, let the cats hover it. Set your other lights at 9 and 3pm, let bait fish hover. The cats will dive bomb and bust bait fish for you in intervals. Set your lights real close together in a tight set, don’t spread for grandiose set otherwise the bait black outs will shut down all your lights. Volusia sizes are 3-4 inch range for majority, small percent of 5inches and up. The Volusia jumbo shrimp are summer whites dominating Brevard County and entering Volusia via Haulover Canal. Brevard County is cast netting full pulls during day and night at Max Brewer relief bridge. Titusville Pier inconsistent, Haulover Canal quiet, Railroad Bridge inconsistent. You have to take the risk and be willing to stay from sunset till late morning at any of the Titusville hot spots. Side note, many full pulls in Key Largo of large pink shrimp. Melbourne boys are scouting Eau Gallie and Mather’s Bridge. The fronts and whipping winds have given them some success (tease) netting 3 digit pulls of nice large shrimp (other nights they see 1-3 shrimp). I cannot get confirmation if the Melbourne large are consistent with the invasion of the white shrimp into Brevard that is rumored to have come down from Jacksonville in masses from Hurricane Matthew. Our S. Daytona – Ormond summer white shrimp run last June/July were small but plentiful. The white shrimp in our waters now are 6-8 inches something we have not seen in 3-4 years and does not happen like in a normal cooler winter. We are in extremely bizarre times in 2017. We seem to be missing a generation of shrimp that should be 4.5-5.5 inches (pink and brown) species in Volusia. Is this collateral damage from Hurricane Mathew? I don’t know. Best news is this season is much better than last season and that is with a Hurricane delivering a glancing blow to the lagoon in October. The Hurricane left us wondering if we were going to have a season. The 2004 Hurricanes shut us down in 2005. Volusia spitting really small shrimp but 5 gallons is do-able on out-going tides pretty consistently. Season winding down. Follow the intel on Facebook, “Florida Shrimping Academy – Tips & Tricks (State Wide).

Captain Lee Noga
Academy of shrimping
www.leenoga.com