Grass Shrimp, an interesting article

Grass Shrimp are pretty much non-existent in bait shops this year and I've heard that the outlook for later on isn't good.

This article is 14 years old, but it echos what I've recently heard about the screwed up salinity due to drought and delta pumping, leading to the current scarcity of shrimp.

It's long but a good read, (if you like that kinda stuff)

https://baynature.org/articles/from-the-bottom-up/

good reading material thanks for sharing.

Great info/history!
Geez, Donald Trump seems like a saint compared to the way the Chinese were treated back then.

Back in the 60s I used to fish off the wharf in Martinez all summer long, we never caught much.  We were able to catch enough grass shrimp to keep ourselves in bait.  Used an old milk crate lined with burlap and weighed down with a brick, used any old fish head for bait, got allot of interesting critters in that net over the years. Bullheads, jelly fish, even baby dungeness when the water got salty in later summer,

Gonna try it again soon, ran into a warden today who said yes it's legal.

only Targeted sturgeon a couple of times in the eighties used grass and ghost shrimp for sturgeon . anyone have information on how water salinity effects the ghost shrimp population in the bay

Last time I dropped a trap at Martinez only came up with pile shrimp and Chinese gobies. No grass.

Last time I dropped a trap at Martinez only came up with pile shrimp and Chinese gobies. No grass.

What is a pile shrimp look like?

When I buy shrimp for bait the large majority are spotted and then a few are shaped a little different and have not spots, I figured they were a different species but didn't know what.

The articles mention 6 species but doesn't do allot of explaining on that note.

Last time I dropped a trap at Martinez only came up with pile shrimp and Chinese gobies. No grass.

What is a pile shrimp look like?

When I buy shrimp for bait the large majority are spotted and then a few are shaped a little different and have not spots, I figured they were a different species but didn't know what.

The articles mention 6 species but doesn't do allot of explaining on that note.

They look like little prawns. Pinkish orange in color. Sometimes get a couple mixed in with the grass when you buy from the bait shops.

Thanks, I know exactly the little shrimp you describe.

Interesting, I talked with 2 bait shops and a warden and they all have the same story, (cause I ask the same questions), grass shrimp very scarce due to long term drought, then big rains bouncing the salinity around, and even the pile shrimp off the Martinez wharf story.

I ran into the warden downtown Martinez so I figured he knew the area, asked him about legal methods of take for bay shrimp, as the regs. the way I read them only allow for specific shrimp traps, throw nets, trawls, or dip nets.  The old baited milk crate with a burlap liner doesn't seem to fit, but the warden said yeah that was actually OK.  Must fit in the reg somewhere, so I'm gonna go on a quest with such an apparatus this year just for fun to see what comes up in a few different spots around the bay system.