OK, you caught a lot of shrimp. Now what are you supposed to do with them?
Find out the best methods for cleaning shrimp, preparing them for eating or storing them for future use. If you do it correctly, your shrimp can last for a year or more in the freezer and come out tasting just as fresh as the day you caught them!
Trust us, it's quite easy to do and there are multiple ways of ensuring that your shrimp meet your needs, your budget and the refined tastes of your family and friends.
It is best to ice down your shrimp as soon as possible after you get out of the water. We place the shrimp in large gallon or two gallon Zip-Loc bags, add ice to the bag and then lay them in our cooler fillled with ice, layering them with a top layer of additional ice. They stay there until we are ready to take their heads off.
I'm right handed. I hold the shrimp in my left hand, grab the head with my right hand, twist and pull. If done properly, you will de-head and de-vein the shrimp at the same time. This de-veining can only be done with fresh shrimp. If you choose to clean your shrimp the next day, you will find, the longer you wait to clean your catch, the more the veins will break off from the head. So, clean your shrimp as soon as possible (your family and friends who eat them will appreciate it much more.)
The video to the right shows an alternative method using two hands. If you catch a lot of shrimp, you might find this method faster. For an even more laid back approach, check out our friend who invented the Sportsman's Shrimp Cleaning Table. He has a great idea going and has sped up the process quite a bit!
Here are two examples of the methods shrimpers can use to freeze shrimp. Which one you choose will be based on how many people you have to feed on a regular basis. Have a family of five? You will need to use the larger storage method. If it is just you and your significant other, the smaller freezer bag methods will works the best.
In all cases, remember to fill completely with water with just enough room for the water to expand as it freezes and use a high quality storage container/bag like Ziplock. The storage container method can get expensive if you can't reuse them.
OK, you caught a bucket of shrimp. You think a few of them are 'monsters' and some others are 'beasts' or 'gargantuan.' Some are 'griller's,' a lot are 'Alfredo' shrimp and a few are 'salad' shrimp. What does all that mean? To me, if I caught a monster, I'd start questioning whether the water was contaminated. Gargantuan is a little obscure and I have a very wide latitude when it comes to what I will put on a grill. I love to throw some pretty decent size shrimp into my salads and pasta Alfredo too. When it comes down to sharing our stories and reporting on our catches, we need to have a standard so that when we are all talking about the size and number of shrimp we caught, we are all on the same page. Measuring them with a ruler only works so far. What if the shrimp is thin but long? It is a long shrimp but nothing compared to a deep sea prawn.
To help us all, I am posting the shrimping industry standard terminology and sizes so that we are all using the same language.
This may seem more like a recipe but I mix Old Bay into the water I use to freeze my shrimp so that they freeze-marinate in the Old Bay seasoning until I am ready to cook them. Once I am ready to eat them, I just drop them into a pan and cook them. No need to defrost them or season them. They are ready to go. It's like a fresh-seafood TV dinner.
into the water I use to freeze my shrimp 
so that they freeze-marinate in the Old Bay 
