I went to Indian River, which for you non Floridians is an estuary on the treasure coast, that is "inshore" salt (brackish) water.

The snook, speckled trout, redfish, flounder, and other inshore fishing can be very good.

Anyway, it's been a long time since I fished with live shrimp.  I bought medium shrimp, used a #2 mustad "live bait" hook.  There were lots of bites but I didn't catch anything.  The bait was either gone, sucked dry, or eaten all around the hook.

Whatchatink?

When I live in New Orleans we used live shrimp on a type of jig head, it was the only time I ever used a jig , until last year. Catt probablly knows them and I don't know about the other fish you are after but they worked great on RedFish and Specs, on Lake Ponchatrain.

Sounds like you were fishing in a pin fish school.  The pin fish will suck you dry of your shrimp.  That is why I almost always use soft plastics, jigs and plugs. I heard the trout bite has been pretty good in early morning and late evening though.  The snook are going crazy here in Palm Beach as well.  Plenty of snook activity around the bridges, spillways and inlets.

Definitely Pinfish. They are a nuisance when fishing for gamefish, but they can be pretty fun on ultralight tackle.

Definitely Pinfish

So my bait was stolen by...

bait.

Just my luck.

thanks.

That is why I hate fishing gamefish with shrimp. What I do is get very small shrimp (about the size of a quarter) and put them either on a sabiki line or a rig with a very small hook. Target very small pinfish, threadfin herrings, finger mullet, etc. and hook them in the back with a circle hook.

A 3-4" finger mullet is deadly on all inshore species.

It's probably Croakers or other pinfish.

Definitely Pinfish. They are a nuisance when fishing for gamefish, but they can be pretty fun on ultralight tackle.

x1,000,000