I started trying to cure them last year and had some success, at least with curing them and keeping them from rotting. I caught 1 winter run and 6 Chinook with them last fall. The first try wasn't pretty but it did work. Hard and brittle and not very durable but caught fish.

Second batch turned out a lot better. Much more flexible, a lot more durable and simply look a lot better. They last a good 5 casts if not longer and have a good sand shrimp smell to them. Color is a little off but I am working on that. This batch has accounted for 5 hook ups and 3 landed summers.

This last batch, untested as of yet, seems to be better than all of them. Will have to see how durable they are as I haven't been out in a while. Hopefully they will produce at least as well as the previous 2 batches, hopefully better.

For those who care:
Boil shrimp in salt water for 1.5-3 minutes
Cool
Mix standard sugar, borax, salt, water mixture with favorite cure.
I leave mine until color is good, about 24-48 hours.

And they hold up just fine after freezing.

Prawns is easy, have lots of them but wanted those sandies when things were tough and they only wanted them. Not to mention for Fall Chinook. I tried prawns for them last year and nothing would touch them even with eggs.

Never taken a salmon on just shrimp of any kind. Hopefully I can change that this year.

+100
There way more cost effective as well... A pound of 51-60 count costs 7-8 bucks.

I dig my sand shrimp so only $3 in gas for whatever I get so not cheaper for me. I won't buy sand shrimp, especially since this cure seems to work.

Been trying to find 70-100 count raw in the shell for months without any luck. I hope to catch a shrimper in dock at Westport this year to get some but never caught one there last 2 years.

Nothing like cooking sand shrimp to freshen up your microwave.

What would be a "standard sugar, borax, salt, water mixture "?

I keep a 35 gal aquarium in the garage. Holds about 20 doz sandies at any given time... simply net'em out as I pull the boat out of the garage. BUT I wouldn't mind experimenting with curing a few too...

Twitch, what kind of water mix do you keep in there to keep them alive? Salt? Fresh?. .. . . .sounds like a good way to go.. .

Thanks .

I fill up a bunch of 5 gal. water jugs with water from the bay when I pump the shrimp. Every 4-5 days, I drain out ~25% of the aquarium, and top off with fresh (bay) water from a jug... they last a looooong time if you don't overdo the densities. Oh...and I run 2 filters and 4 air stones.

1 Quart water
1 cup sugar, non-iodized salt, powdered borax
1/8 cup cure

Mix it all together and stir until a majority of them dissolve, won't get a complete dissolve unless you heat it.

Some say to heat it to get full dissolve but I don't and have had bad results with eggs doing that. I normally leave mine for 2 days in the brine.

AuntyM, I may try that but as kinda leary of them exploding because of the soft nature of the sand shrimp. Worth a try but will make sure the wife is at work when I do.

Twitch, How long is a LONG time? If you can keep them alive for that long in an aquarium I have a 55 gallon barrel that is begging to be used for something.

Anyone that tries the aquarium idea, a little advice. Set it up long before you ever add the shrimp. This gives the tank a chance to get the bacteria it needs to process ammonia and cycle the bad stuff quickly so your sand shirmp don't die right away. I will go through the whole cycle and setup thing if someone wants me to but best advice is to set it up, get the filters runing and then drop in a prawn. Let this run for a couple weeks or until the prawn is gone. Then add some shrimp, maybe 10, likely to die. Then add more until they stay alive and then slowly increase the numbers you add. I would bet you can even feed them some fish flakes crushed up since they are filter feeders.

Prawn, you mean live ? And the ten suicide shrimps, they get pulled out after they are dead? . .. .. trying to get the idea here, are you building up a food chain, or testing the waters. . .. . .

A dead prawn is used to establish the cycle that keeps ammonia and other bad stuff processed. The first few sand shrimp may survive if the cycling process is done right. It is a complicated process if you want to it "right" but it doesn't take much to make it work. Just have to keep something in there to keep the tank ready for more shrimp.

I have a full article on it if anyone wants it.

You could also use bacteria (filter media) from an existing fish tank to get start your tanks bacteria

Make sure it is a salt water tank. Or even take some rocks, seaweed or other stuff from the ocean and put it in the tank. Sand may even be better and have enough bacteria to start the whole tank off quickly.

The article on it would be good .. . .

Well the article is overly complicated and based on keeping fish in an aquarium but I will send it to you if you want me to. pm me your email and will do so. It may be as easy as taking some sand, a couple rocks, setting up some filters and airation filling the tank and adding sand shrimp. It is not like setting up a brand new aquarium for tropical fish so who kows, it may be just that easy.


All of this could not even be needed because oyu are using fresh salt water from the bay or ocean, sand and rocks and it oculd all be ready to simply out the sand shrimp in and they could all survive without a problem.

I'd imagine the article would be more relevant to using tap water. Bay or ocean water should still have the bacteria needed to keep the shrimp alive while tap water has the bacteria removed for drinking. The tap would also have the chemicals (flouride, etc.) that wouldn't be present in the seawater.

That's about right if I had to make an educated guess. The filters won't be established with bacteria nor will the tank for a while but going easy on the number of sand shrimp to stat will give things a chance to build up.

Oh and don't leave the tank empty with nothing in it. The bacteria will die quickly once their food sources run out. A water change and replacing sand will help again but will cut down on the number of SS you can keep again.

I iamgine once oyu get a 50 gallon tank established it could support 50-75 shrimp fairly easily.

My cured shrimp were a little soft but they stayed on well. Didn't catch anything but getting 5-7 casts out of them was awesome. I think I can get them a little harder but not sure how. Maybe boil a little longer or add some salt to them, maybe some rock salt.

Salt is your friend for toughening anything up....

Keith