Pink shrimp, an important commercial shrimp in Florida and Mexico, are caught in Texas but do not represent a major part of the landings. They inhabit bays from late fall through early Spring, primarily along the middle and lower Texas coast. Other shrimps of minor commercial value occur in the Gulf. Among these are the seabob, with its long head spine, the rock shrimp, with its hard outer shell, trachypenaeids , with their rough carapace, and a deep-water type called the royal red shrimp. With few exceptions, shrimp are caught with trawls.
Lines run from the shrimp boat to each door.
As the shrimp boat tows the trawl over the sea bottom, the trawl is held open by the kite-like spreading action of the doors. Shrimp and bottom fish scooped into the open trawl pile up in the cod-end. When the net is boated, a line that holds the cod-end closed is released and the catch falls to the deck. The heads are thrown away. Before Gulf shrimpers found out about trawling, they used long seines set close to shore and hauled by men or horses.