Every Sunday, Bruno Garcia from the Charente-Maritime fishing federation answers questions from listeners, fishermen on France Bleu la Rochelle.
Pink shrimp or gray shrimp?
Loïc de Bourgneuf would like to get into shrimp. He is interested in this crustacean and would like some advice.
Bruno Garcia : So shrimp fishing or shrimp fishing? It is important to distinguish between the two even if, when you want to fish for shrimp, you must first obtain them. This first step after which you do what you want with your captures. Either you eat them or put them on the hook.
So precisely if we are talking about shrimps there is another distinction to be made, pink or gray?
We find on our Atlantic coast Charentaise – maritime both depending on the season. The rose has a rather northern distribution and is not necessarily very present on our coasts in summer, even if we still find a few of them. It will be in greater numbers from September to October when the sea will have lost a few degrees. Currently you will more easily find grays which are also called the goat in Charentais.
How do we catch these shrimps whether they are pink or gray?
The many techniques are pretty much the same regardless of species. If you can free yourself at the time of low tide you prospect the puddles on the foreshore. You always have shrimp that got trapped by the ebb tide and got trapped in those water holes. You provide yourself with a small landing net with fine mesh, a small container and you prospect the puddles. The second solution is the balance. A circular or square gear with a fine-mesh net always. You put your scale between the stones, before you will have put crushed mussels or a piece of offal, pork liver for example or even melon skins, it’s the season and it also works very well.
Good places to put the scales?
Head of bay north of La Rochelle. The dikes made up of large blocks, large rocks contain interesting shrimp populations. The last solution is the winch as we say in Charentais, the windrow that you push in front of you at the bottom by immersing yourself up to your waist or even a little more. Be careful with this technique not to be surprised by the rising tide. A very famous sector is the Pointe du Chay to the south of La Rochelle. This area rich in shrimps is particularly rugged with a lot of relief when you are on a high point you are not necessarily aware that around and to come back to the edge you will have to go through low points where you will have more footing.
Which fish are seduced by a shrimp?
All fish are fond of shrimp, I would say that it is their daily life. Whether it’s a pout, a plaice, a goby, a sea bream, a meager or a bass, they will all fall for a shrimp, but be careful for the latter, which is the bass, shrimp fishing very regularly leads to catches of small size below the regulation size. Fish that must be carefully unhooked and released. As a reminder, the common bass should not be kept below 42 cm and the speckled bass 30 cm. For lean it is 45 cm.
Do we keep these shrimps in water if we want to keep them alive?
Especially not ! dry and preferably in a felt beret at the bottom of the fridge. A beret preferably black, if you opt for a green or a red it will rub off on the shrimps and you will get baits of a not really natural color.