Brain Teaser

So a few years back I had someone give me brief instruction on how to hook a live shimp. I thought I had it down but lately I’ve been rethinking if I’m doing it right. At first I had read articles mentioning to hook it right under the horn.

While this kept them kicking, I found myself losing quite a few from popping. I started to think I was just popping to hard, but Matt pops about three times harder than me, and seems to never lose any. After further inspection of the shrimp anatomy, I discover that there are really two black dots, one small (closer to the horn), and one slightly back a bit. So which one is the brain? I’m still not sure, but I’ve been hooking them similar to this…

between the two dots, which seems to keep them kicking for at least three cast. I’m open to suggestions from our readers on the proper way to hook, and if you can point me to images, it would be great.

From experimentation I’ve found that a 2/0 treble hook tends to produce the best (more to come hooks soon), but due to trying to get these out once swallow has become a challenge, for both me and the fish, so next time I’m out I want to give circle hooks a chance. Only issue I’m having is finding information baiting a shrimp on a circle hook, so all suggestions are welcome.