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Ghost shrimp (Callianassa californiensis) are frond from Alaska to Baja California.
Adults grow to
about 4 ½ “ long and the males tend to have one claw that
is extremely larger
than the other. The color of a ghost shrimp will
range from a pure white to
a deep and rich orange-gold color. More often than not
they are a mix of
white and orange-gold.
Ghost Shrimp live in the sandy and muddy inertial zones,
bays and
estuaries. They dig deep burrows which are often shared
with other fish and
invertebrates. They eat detritus which is small pieces of
organic waste
and plankton.
Ghost shrimp also make exceptional bait for fishing off
the coast of
Southern California. Fish like corbina, surf perch,
halibut, bass,
sargo, spotfin and yellowfin croaker just love the
delectable little shrimp. We
carry these little gems when ever weather permits.
Our ghost shrimp
come from the Puget Sound area of Washington and tides,
and rain storms can
affect their availability. We sell them for $9.98 for a
box of 30 live
shrimp, while the frozen shrimp are $4.99 a box of 24.
Many anglers prefer to collect there own live ghost
shrimp. This can be
accomplished several ways. The most preferred way is with
a slurp gun or ghost shrimp
pump.
This is a large tube with a ball inside that produces a
vacuum when the
handle is pulled up. The ghost shrimp digger will
typically search for exposed
burrows at low tide. When the mouth of the slurp gun
is placed over the
hole of the ghost shrimp burro, and the handle is pulled
up, all the
sand is sucked up and hopefully the ghost shrimp as well.
When the contents of
the slurp gun are expelled the operator searches through
the discarded sand
for the shrimp. California Law states the capture limit of
ghost shrimp is 50. We sell slurp guns for $24.95 each
(these are also called ghost shrimp pumps).
The second way is to find a spot in the days and estuaries
where lots of
holes or burrows are exposed at low tide. When a
likely spot is found
the digger simply begins to stomp the ground very hard.
Often times the
stomping needs to be done to the point where the sand
becomes so worked over that the digger will begin to sink
knee deep or more into the sand or mud. This
action causes the ghost shrimps burrows to collapse and
the shrimp exit
to the surface where they can be easily gathered. Mind you
this can be
exhausting work and sounds easier than it sounds.
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