Freshwater shrimp or scuds are
crustaceans that live in freshwater. Very
common in lakes and ponds throughout
North America; lakes and ponds that are
neutral to alkaline in productivity and
water chemistry. They're a very important
trout food source in the lakes and
interior regions of British Columbia.
It's that rich heavy diet of freshwater
shrimp that imparts that nice dark
orange reddish flesh color to the
trout's flesh; it's the carotene in those
shrimp. So, scuds or freshwater shrimp, as
you can see in this aquarium, live in
amongst the vegetation that lines the
bottom of the shoal and towards the edge
of the drop-off of the lake. Oftentimes
anglers will say well I've drove by a
lake and I saw all kinds of shrimp free
swimming everywhere in the
water column.
That's probably an indication that
there's either no fish in that lake or
very very few, because if there are free
swimming shrimp they'll quickly get
eaten by any available fish species that
are in that lake. So for our purposes for
fishing in lakes, and particularly when
fishing for shrimp, we're gonna
concentrate our efforts on the shoal and the
edge of the drop-off where these guys
live. Shrimp mate numerous times during
the year. The females will develop a
cluster of eggs on the underside
of her thorax region and the eggs will
hatch. Then they'll become free
swimming. Shrimp can live for several
years in the lake. They molt
four or five times a year and they feed
primarily on detritus: decomposing flat
vegetation. But if there was odd
some dead animal matter like a dead fish
they'll graze on the flesh of that
carcass as well.
They can be eaten by fish or trout and
char at all times of the year, as I
mentioned earlier, but they are more
focused early in the spring and later in
the fall. That's because at those two
times of the year there are minimal
other insect hatches occurring so the
fish resort to bread and fibre food
sources like freshwater shrimp. So always
because they're so ready available and
trout can eat them year-round. Scuds are
one of the most staple trout food sources
you'll find in productive still waters.
It's important to learn how to fish
them properly.
Remember that scuds live in the
vegetation hugging the bottom of the
shoal areas. They're in shallow water to
the edges of the drop-off. So most your
stud fishing is done in 20 feet of water
or less. Lots that will be done in six,
seven feet of water just over the mats
of weeds that are on the shoulders of
the lake. So scuds are hugging and hiding
amongst up vegetation so we got to get
our presentations down to the bottom.
Common lines for fishing
to type three, even a type four
sinking line. Remember the
numbers - three, four, five, six, seven - tell
you the sink rate. Three inches
per second, four inch per second, two
inches per second. This
would be a typical set up. This is a type
three full sinking fly line and I've got a
I've got a nine-foot leader on and
attached to my fly a tapered leader that
ends in a six pound test and I've got my
shrimp tied on with a non-slip loop knot.
So it's going to move through the water.
I'm just going to strip some line out
and then I'm casting right towards the
toolies over there because we're on
shallow water. I'm waiting now... this line
sinks at three inches per second, so you
slowly sinking now through the water
column. I'm gonna wait maybe
20 seconds to let it sink
and then I'm gonna start just a strip retrieve.
Two to four inch retrieve like that.
Fairly steady. Just trying to keep it off
the weeds but as closest to the
weeds - the bottom of the weeds - as
possible. All the way in. And we're just
waiting for the bite. Notice I keep
my rod tip right on the water. I don't
hold it up high in the water; I want to
keep it low so it's the strip
straightest line connection I can have
with my fly line. So that when I lift
it I've got a long up stroke to set
the hook. So again, throw it back out there. We can
also do a hand twist retrieve like this.
Pretty steady and then give it a couple
quick pulls and then like that. Another
hand twist retrieve. Let it go and twist. Couple more pulls and then retrieve.
Shrimp are
great to fish all year long but they
really excel early spring because
there's not a lot of other insects
hatching yet and then they really do
well late in the fall. Again, because
there's no insects hatching so fish late
in the fall go back on to food sources
that are available. Shrimp,
leeches, damselflies, immature damselfly nymphs,
water boatman, backswimmers.
Ok, so shrimp, you want to have them
in your box because
they are such a stable food source and
fish do feed on them.