Makin’ Bait – Ghost Shrimp Pumping

Ghost shrimp are one of my go-to baits when it comes to fishing from the pier and surf. They are incredibly effective when the fish are being a bit more finicky and sometimes are the only thing that can get a bite. Some days on the pier ghost shrimp are the only thing that sheepshead will even look at. All you need to collect these baits is a bucket, shrimp pump, and a bait net or floating mesh basket. So I’ll show you how to make some bait by showing you how to find and pump these weird-looking crustaceans out of the sand and mud.

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Ghost shrimp is a general term used for the Axiidea infraorder of decapod crustaceans. This infraorder is made up of a ton of different species that exist all over the world. While in Florida there are no regulations on the books that is not the case everywhere, with some places such as Texas having limits and regulations on collecting these shrimp. So be aware before you pump, getting live bait is not worth a ticket. Another thing I want to touch upon is to take only as many as you will reasonably need. Please don’t overharvest these shrimp, they do perform an important role in the environment and we want them around for a long time.

From my personal experience in Florida, there are two species in the Northern Gulf/Panhandle region. One species that lives on the gulf side beaches that gets larger with a long weak claw, and a smaller species in the bay systems has a shorter and much stouter claw. The bay shrimp can draw blood with that claw so do be warned. While the gulf side shrimp are larger they are more of a pain to catch being right in the surf. So I’m showing how to collect the shrimp in the bay. The basics hold the same for both species though on locating and pumping them.

To locate the ghost shrimp you need to find these holes and mounds shown in the pictures above. They look like little underwater volcanos, usually, you will find them in pairs. These holes are the ghost shrimp’s burrows, if you get to the spot early enough you can sometimes even see their claws sticking slightly out of the hole if you sneak up on them. You want to find a large group of these holes together. I have found trying to pick at the odd hole here and there is not super productive for getting bait.

Once you find a good group of holes it is time to pump them. In a smooth motion place your shrimp pump on top of the whole and then pull on the pump. This will pull a slug of sand and mud out. You want to either eject all the sand and mud onto the shoreline or into a bait net or floating mesh basket. Either method works but if the shrimp are situated in deeper water away from the shore you will need the net. Once you eject the sand check to see if there is any movement on shore or in the net/basket. If you don’t see a shrimp pump the spot again, again pressing the pump to the surface of the sand and sucking it up in the pump.

Make sure you are using the suction to pull up the sand and not pushing the pump down. If you push the pump down you are more likely to just cut the ghost shrimp in half vs actually getting the whole shrimp. I recommend trying up to 5 pumps on a single hole before moving on. Finding the ghost shrimp isn’t guaranteed so don’t get discouraged if you don’t get them right away. Some days you find a couple of dozen right away others you can spend an hour pumping to find only a handful of shrimp.

Another tip I have is after pumping a lot of shrimp holes in an area, go back over the area again while wearing polarized glasses. Often I have managed to find some ghost shrimp that I had managed to pump out of the sand but hadn’t actually gotten onto the shore or into a net. They can often be found in the divets in the sand where you had been pumping.

I won’t sugarcoat this though, this can be grueling work especially when it’s hot out. You are going to be bent over knee-deep in the bay pulling up sand and mud. But if you do get some of these shrimp they are hard to beat. The day I pumped these ghost shrimp I landed the only sheepshead on the pier for the day. We had been watching them feed on the piling all day and people had been soaking sandfleas and live shrimp all day but hadn’t gotten a nibble. I brought out my ghost shrimp and immediately had a bite.

Eugene L.

Eugene L. is currently a writer for OutdoorHub who has chosen not to write a short bio at this time.