Shrimping season is winding down but expected to continue into May for Volusia and Brevard Counties. This season has been epic for Oak Hill and Edgewater. Brevard was shut down most of the season, but reports are finally emerging that Railroad Bridge is giving up full buckets. The average shrimp size remains 5” and up. There has be no signs of the summer whites that dominated our winter waters last season. The problems facing shrimpers in these late spring months is catfish, bait fish and murky waters. The catfish in Volusia are in the hundreds and they hover over the lights causing black outs. The MacDaddy smart lights are the hero this season. The flash strobe feature blows the catfish off the lights and boils shrimp to the surface.
Oak Hill has hundreds of boats out heavily populating the river making it difficult finding any real estate. We know the season is coming to a close over the next 6 weeks for Volusia and N. Brevard. Albeit, bad news for us but the great news is S. Brevard and the Causeways will be looking to start their season. Riverbreeze boat ramp has been full many nights and you have to come very early to lessen the chaos at that ramp. Lopez boat ramp is closed to the Public this season, open for residents only. This puts all the pressure on Riverbreeze boat ramp. The shrimp sizes continue to be on the “great” side of the conversation. We should be culling out 3-4” baby shrimp in April and we are freezing 5” and larger! These are sizes we chase in Jan and February in Oak Hill. Then March is smalls to mediums and April more smalls than any other size. This year things are backwards, so it would not surprise me to see Brevard pull consistently this month, and the sizes will cross the May 1st starting line bigtime. For daily intel changes, visit the Florida Shrimping Academy – Tips & Tricks on Facebook.
