What Do You Do with Shrimp Heads?

There isn't enough meat in it to bother putting it on a hook, in my opinion.

It's best use is for chumming.

 

Best catfish bait ever whole.. in salt I chum mine in too, there is a tougher part at the front of the head of you peel off the shell and pull the chunk off that has the legs and butter, it's a bit rubbery, and the eyes are attached to it if you want it for saltwater bait for panfish, of course it works great for chum, and even better if you cut em in half lengthwise

 

Donate it to the fish Gods... I throw it in the water.

 

I usually chum the heads unless I'm running low on bait and want a few more pieces. Caught an opaleye on a shrimp head this morning. Generally i chum the heads and tails though

 

Put them in the water with your Ramen noodles and soup package. Add a drizzle of sesame seed oil, some shredded fresh scallion and a dash of red pepper flakes.

.....or....

use them for chum.

 

I've always used them as bait. They work just like the rest of the body. If you're worried about the shell getting in the way of your hook set, you can take it off and like coach said there's a nice hard spot between the eyes. But usually I just hook it straight through the legs and out the top of the head. I always get bites on it.

 

Yea, between the eyes if you deshell it or through the feet if you leaving the shell on. The only issue with head vs rest of the meat is you tend to lose it to bait thieves since it's more fragile. But if a bigger fish is nearby it'll eat the thing whole. I've caught my bigger blemmies and scorpion fish with whole head. If you don't feel a bite within 10-15 minutes reel it in to make sure it's still there. good luck

 

I'll sometimes use them for targeting sheep, sargo, and larger wrasse in the rocks and nearshore kelp. All like crustaceans and will take-in and bite down on the head to break down the shell. Helps to cut down on bait thievery...unless you get into a swarm of Halfmoon. Like piranha, those little buggers...

 

Chum

 

Sheepshead

 

Last time when i was fishing at the cliffs, we ran out of shrimp pieces, and i noticed the heads just laying there with all that jazz coming out - thought it would be decent bait. Sure enough, the fish took em down no complaints. Brought in two just legal size sheepies on em.