seems like teh sandshrimp are hard to come by of late. need that crutch. what are some alternatives you guys use? have heard of coon strip shrimp , what about spot shrimp? what size prawns would a person use?
thanks

51-60 count dead shrimp + just a pinch of krill cure.

click "search", then type in the word "prawns".......should 8+ pages of reading..........

Have a good day..........

Cooked prawns 51-60 count and cut into 2 or 3 pieces. Less expensive than sand shrimp if you buy on sale. I've never had any luck with raw prawns although others do. I caught 3 winteruns the day after Thanksgiving all on cooked prawn. No bites on eggs. I caught summeruns on cooked prawns, eggs, crawdads, and sand shrimp last summer too. I can't keep cured sand shrimp on my hook.

Raw Coon Shrimp and Nate's Bait Prawn Cure.

Questions?

The new Gulp sandshrimp have been working well up North here, guys smatter them with sandshrimp gel and you pretty much have a indestructible artificial bait that smells right, looks right and gets it done.


http://www.berkley-fishing.com/products/soft-bait/gulp-alive/ghost-shrimp-assortment

As good as the real deal?, probably not, but in all honesty sand shrimp is a bit of a crutch like chunk roe. You spend more time aquiring bait, changing bait and worrying about not having bait. All that time could be spent learning to read water, covering water and flat out time in the water, which with Steelhead is huge.

Sportco has a good supply of sandshrimp, never had an issue getting some.

But the other posters are right, don't let acquiring bait keep you from fishing. I've got as many steelhead on artificial lures as bait.

May I suggest taking up fly fishing as an alternative to sand shrimp? Keeps the hands drier and warmer and more sensitive to what's going on when fishing in the winter. That should count for something.

Sg

Those gulp shrimp look interesting, but when you pinch their little heads off do they scream and fight back? Didn't think so. I like that crunch.

I also like to shoot those heads at the crackers in the front of the boat. Keeps them on their toes.

White and pink yarn balls with some good shrimp oil has caught me a ton of steelhead over the years.

Cured prawns

Jigs!

hope to hit a river tomorrow river should be low and clear see what works best ....have salt/sugar cured and procured prawns and jis ready to go.

Another option of GULP! is their shrimp (bit different than the ghost shrimp) and best of all they make these in a 2" version as well as more colors.

http://www.berkley-fishing.com/products/soft-bait/gulp/shrimp-gulp

I started playing around with these last year running them off divers in place of bait. Can't brag yet that they're "better than the real thing" but will keep experimenting. Run nice off a 1/0 long shank aberdeen hook

Salmo g. approved

Mmmmm.....nice looking bugs, Twitch !
Where's the cocktail sauce ?

Twitch, did you tie those or buy them somewhere? Man, I want some of those, they look so good I'd eat 'em!

Like said above 51-60 count prawn meat cured in your favorite egg cure.Dial'em up the night before ya go.Good luck,
SZ

There is no substitute for fresh sandshrimp while steelead fishing. Have you ever thought of digging your own? Sandshrimp are easy to dig and if taken care of they can last 3 or 4 days.

i have family that does real well using prawns or baby cray fish from the creeks for steelhead i have also used crayfish on the skok found a big one put him on the hook casted out and nothing as i was reeling in a jack come swimming out of nowere and chopped the crayfish right off the hook a foot off the bank so crayfish should work very well as that is what they feed on when smolts before going into the big blue