A friend of mine told me that in port o'connor he almost doubled his catches just by using shrimp from around the bays instead of what the boats brought in is this in fact true and how would one go about successfully accomplishing this?

I've caught them with a cast net, but it's slow work, and you have to know of a good spot. You'll also catch more at night.

build a push net, and push it along the edge of a channel, in some grasslines. We push shrimp up down in the landcut frequently. Work the edge, and keep the net bouncing off bottom in a couple feet of water through the grass, and in 20-30 minutes we have enough bait for an entire day. And it's in much better shape than anything you can buy

First post an' this guy's already answering questions!

We can sometimes catch them in the canal at my grandparents house in Galveston. It's hit or miss if they are in there. At night if you shine a flashlight down into the water along the bulkhead and in the boat slip, you can see their eyes glowing red. Then we just dip net them. This method is best as a supplement to our bought shrimp, because there is no guarantee, and we usually don't catch enough for a full night of fishing. But, it has definitely kept me fishing when I would have otherwise been out of bait.

I've done that as well, South Padre. We were standing on the pier at the hotel and dipnetting a shrimp here or there from under the lights as we needed them. Didn't even have to worry about a bait bucket, lol.

Is it legal to catch shimp at night? Just askin.

I am not sure... To be honest I had never thought of that when dip netting them from the canal. Here is the TPWD page.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/annual/fish/shrimpreg/

What do yall think? It kind of looks like it might not be.

Look at the bottom, it depends on if your in the major bays, bait bays, outside waters and different zones. So it sounds like you better make sure of where you at when trying to catch shrimp.

Right. I agree. It appears to me that for Galveston Bay, it would only be legal in the times and seasons listed at the bottom. I would have thought that the seasons only applied to the commercial shrimpers etc., not people catching a few for personal bait use. But, judging from the website, that is not the case. Good to know.

Glad I read this thread and the reg's. I usually buy but thought with all of the talk about catching, I was going to at least try it.

Guess I just got lucky. Last summer I went with friends to galveston and fished the jetties off the seawall. Bought a cast net and in 2-3 throws off the jetty caught a minnow-bucket full.

Thats what I was going to try this time.

Well, I guess you can still do that as long as it is in season and during the time specified.