shrimp trap for bait

What do you guys use for catching shrimp in the bay for bait?  I have used a hoop-net for crabs with some fine mesh sewn into the bottom of it, but there must be something smaller that would work?  

Also, do you catch much shrimp drifting the trap around on the bottom or do you need to anchor?

Off the pier next to the Dumbarton we'd drop a milk crate lined with wire mesh, a can of cat food and a 5 lb weight (laying flat on bottom to make sure it'd lay correctly).  Not sure on drift vs anchored, never tried the drift.

I might give this a shot in the up coming sturgeon season.....grass shrimp at Laine's was like $17 a pound

has anyone ever launched from ravenswood open space on the west side of dumbarton bridge?

has anyone ever launched from ravenswood open space on the west side of dumbarton bridge?

Nope, but on the east side, just in front of the fishing pier parking lot, there's a small sandy beach that you can easily launch from as long as it's not low tide.

What do you guys use for catching shrimp in the bay for bait?

  If you can find a somewhat calm area with grass you can bait a couple of gunny sacks toss them in then pull em out in a hour or 2 you should get shrimp and maybe small perch,bullheads or mudsuckers.

you can bait a couple of gunny sacks

That's a neat idea.
Mike, how do you rig the sacks to stay open and weight them to stay on the bottom?

Couple of rocks and a piece of wire. Had so so success in Bay to much tidal movement, but in the delta its killer. Don't know if its legal, Game Warden saw them one time and he just wanted to know what we caught in them. You don't want the bag open very much or the bait will swim out sorta folded over worked well.

these dudes have a 2' diameter hoop net called the nylon shad scoop.  1/4" mesh:

http://www.sterlingnets.com/specialty.html#sp1


for bait i tie a neodymium-boron magnet (from a hard drive) down to the bottom of the net.  then i get some kitty-cat food in a steel can and stick it right down.  never falls out and you only ever have to tie one thing to your net, the magnet.