How to rig coon shrimp??

[ryank]

How do you guys rig coon shrimp for drift fishing? I used a sewing needle and threaded it on the line it works great but I had to keep re-tying my leader every time I needed to re-bait there has to be a better way than what I'm doing. Any input would be appreciated very much! Thanks, Ryan

[worm slayer]

I've never free drifted them but we would have them under a bobber at Herman creek and just run them up the hook and pull the egg loop around them a bit to hold them on. Maybe try a little strechy thread cause you can pull on it and it will break off when you need to rebait.

[Chinook SSSF]

Not sure you could keep anything but the tail together long enough to bother with? Seems to work better with most other fishing methods...I could be missing something but in most cases when using shrimp tails or prawn tails..you cam tie the tail on with elastic thread.. I can only get them to stay together for a few side drifts as it is so IDK about casting the crap out of them : P

[ryank]

Yeah, I would thread the whole shrimp on and a few casts later the head is gone and 5 or so casts later the tail is gone too, but I guess that's bait fishing! I'm just not used to using bait. I like the stretchy thread idea I will try that.

[Chinook SSSF]

No its not like that, you should try drift fishing just part of the tail or prawn tied on the hook. Forget trying to make it look good. Coons are an odd bait, just have to stay with methods that work or try using elastic thread. Seen this done with prawn and jig as well. Like a section of prawn or coon tail tied in. You can get elastic thread in several colors such as red, black or white. I would go with red. Look online. But you can tie the tail in with a few wraps and it will fish for 20 minutes.

Consider the size of river your fishing as well. They will stay on better when softly tossing them around on a spinning rod in a small stream. Long hard casts with a baitcaster on a larger river are going to not against you. In this case go with float, and still consider wrapping the whole bait.

[spactrukn]

Maybe you could run the hook through the shrimp and half hitch your leader around the tail? This works pretty good with whole sand shrimp

[Osmosis]

Ryan you don't need to rebait if the head falls off. just a chunk of the tail works fine. I know lots of guys that buy the big cured prawns and just tear the head and tail off and use the chunk of meat and thats all.
I've never bothered threading them and they stay on decently for me. I hook them through the first plate on the tail that you can see the whole plate of (the first one that doesnt have any overlapping it), and send the hook towards the head. then I pop the hook out of the carapace or "hood" making sure not to tear it. Then just put the egg loop around the tail and send it swimming.

[Chinook SSSF]

True, I think he is right about that, he showed me. They stay on better to be honest if you do not thread them on.

[ryank]

Ryan you don't need to rebait if the head falls off. just a chunk of the tail works fine. I know lots of guys that buy the big cured prawns and just tear the head and tail off and use the chunk of meat and thats all.
I've never bothered threading them and they stay on decently for me. I hook them through the first plate on the tail that you can see the whole plate of (the first one that doesnt have any overlapping it), and send the hook towards the head. then I pop the hook out of the carapace or "hood" making sure not to tear it. Then just put the egg loop around the tail and send it swimming.

Thanks Alan, I will try this on my next outing. You know if you guys have any of the orange coons in stock? I want to try those out too, do you have a color preference between the pink or orange ones?
Ryan

[Osmosis]

I like both the red and pink. Red works best for me this time of year. the orange is best in muddy water, but he rarely does 'em up. when the water gets a little warmer he does purple that turn out real nice.
You'll have to get a couple friends together and order about 10lbs for him to do a batch of orange if you want to try it out. They are like orange peel orange.
Not sure if you meant actually orange or just the reds so I may have answered this wrong for ya.