Big Daddy,

Have you ever considered being a hand model?

No not a hand model.....

Maybe a hands on A model.

Start serving and I'll book a few trips!

Yesterday was my first day of shrimpin' ever....the two guys with me were also shrimpin' rookies. We had two borrowed pots (one legal, one illegal we came to find out), one had 400' of cord, the other had 275', we do not have a pot puller.

Went over to Hat Island area and dropped the short cord pot in about 225' and the long cord pot in over 325'. Went and got some live bait for lings, came back and did our first pull after about an 1.5 hour soak. We were shocked when we pulled our first pot (the shallow one) and it had 79 beautiful shrimpies in it....deep one had about 30.

So we re-baited and put both pots in about the same area that our kick ass pot was in, about 225' of water. Tried for some lings, came back and only found one of our pots, and it was empty! We were in shock again....one pot was long gone and one had nothing in it. WTF? Extreme ripper tide?

Questions for the experts:
What is your process once the shrimp are on board? Keep them alive? Clean them and ice them immediately? And what is your preferred methods of cooking them? Hard to go wrong with any method.....those things are so damn good eating. Please don't tell me to watch Forrest Gump.

Ike

Ike, I am no shrimping expert, but Kaiser D has been showing me the ropes a bit. We usually just chuck them into a cooler or bucket straight from the pot. If you aren't in a hurry you can pop the heads-then and there, but we are usually trying to get the pots back down and after lings in a hurry. They seem to keep pretty well out of direct sun and heat. A cooler with some salt water would be better if you have the room.

If you are catching them out of season, or keeping more than a legal limit, I recommend putting them in a garbage bag and stuffing them down the front of your pants or bibs. Kidding of course. Ask Kaiser

Last weekend I let a batch sit around in a pot of cool salt water for a few hours before cooking and they were perfect.

I would be curious to know how they freeze? I haven't been fortunate enough to have so many that couldn't be eaten in a sitting or two when fresh. How should you take care of them and freeze them if you are lucky enough to have a shrimp cup that overfloweth?

PS - nice work on that first load and sorry about the pot! Major bummer. Any lings?

Thanks for the advice! Pound for pound I put them above crab, ling, and halibut for the tastiest morsels we have available around here.

Ike

Try this recipe:

Chop up some garlic and ginger and mix with Panko. coat shrimp in flour and then in eggs and then in the panko mixture and then deep Fry at 350 deg for just a couple of min. do not over cook. Best shrimp I have ever eaten.

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