Puget Sound Shrimp Reports

timflan · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 7:40 pm Post subject: Puget Sound Shrimp Reports

I was out Saturday, but I didn't have any shrimp gear. I did, however, have a license.

Anyway, it sure seemed like a lot of boats were pulling up a lot of shrimp. Folks were limiting-out every which way, apparently.

Always willing to help out a fellow boater in distress, I offered to take this poor couple's anticipated overage off their hands. There's no charge for this very special service I offer! Smile

I wrote a little about this over on Navagear.

Jazzmanic · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 7:45 pm Post subject:

So Tom, when are you gonna start posting again? Laughing

I know you're watching. Wink

Peter

tom&shan · Joined: 21 Sep 2006 Posts: 316 Photos: Dakota

Saw this in the Seattle Times - any ideas on what they did "wrong" ?

Was it just the wrong kind of boat for the conditions ?

By Seattle Times staff and news services
HOODSPORT — One woman was dead and a man was in critical condition after a boating accident on Hood Canal Wednesday afternoon.
Washington State Patrol Trooper Krista Hedstrom said the two were trapped under a shrimp boat when it flipped in high winds. The woman, 75, and man, 79, both were unconscious by the time rescuers cut through the boat's hull and pulled them free, according to King 5 television.
The woman later died, while the man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His condition wasn't available Wednesday night.
Both are from Hoodsport. Their names were not immediately available.
Four people were on the 20-foot boat when it overturned, according to King 5. The two other people on board weren't injured.
"We just got close to shore," said survivor Ted Roorda, "and the boat just flipped on us."

Cutty Sark · Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 3:57 pm Post subject:

From what I read and can guess, it sounds like they got too shallow where the waves kick up and possibly got sideways and broached, or possibly the bottom hit and helped it go over. Two people were trapped in the boat and in the story it said the guys who got knocked out of the boat when it flipped could hear them talking. I'm guessing it was grounded on shore upside down and the people could'nt crawl out since there wasn't enough room, and the others couldn't flip it. Sounds more like pilot error, truly sad.

Sark

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 9:12 pm Post subject:

Well, a GOOD day shrimping on Crabby Lou today! Met my cousin and her husband on their 19' Arima at Everett at 6:30 a.m., got right in the water and out of the Snohomish River. We shrimped just past the Mukilteo ferry terminal in about 300 feet (thank heavens for the Ace Pot Puller!). We all limited, and nice BIG shrimp too, bigger than we recall at Hood Canal. Back at Everett and out of the water about 3:30 p.m., Susan E pulled in to the dock right behind us (had not seem Tom out on the water), had a nice if short visit. Only downside, we lost one of our shrimp pots, even though we were setting waypoints at every drop. Oh, well, it was not one of our good ones (the good ones are McKay - from Harbor Marine, right near the boat launch). Shrimp are packaged and in the freezer now, with about 20 kept out for our dinner tonight!

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 10:26 pm Post subject:

Got to add, we used just 5.6 gallons of gas for the entire day!

Dene · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 10:36 pm Post subject:

Bess-C · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 12:06 am Post subject:

I think Tom and Susan are boycotting until Hillary drops out of the presidential race. Then they'll be back on board.
Lyle

chewyjackson · Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Posts: 29

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 9:42 am Post subject:

I think you already got the straight scoop on the season - you need to go to the WDFW webpage to know what is open by marine area. Shrimping season is pretty short, and only on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Several of the marine areas are already shut down because quotas have been reached.

How do you it? We are no experts! But a couple of thoughts, I'm sure others will tell you a lot more. First off, we have found the brand of shrimp pots matters. We bought a couple at Redden Marine in Bellingham that are absolutely worthless (we lost one of those yesterday). We are sold on the McKay shrimp pots from Harbor Marine in Everett. Can't explain why shrimp go in one pot and not the other, or maybe it is because they can get out of the bad ones, who knows? You want 400' of leaded line, we only have 300' and it kind of restricts us. The yellow floats with poles and flags sure make them easier to see if there is any chop. Set a waypoint on your chartplotter for each drop for sure, it helps to come back and find it. Finally, a pot puller is a must - I can't imagine multiple pulls from 300' or more by hand. We have one of the early Ace Pot Pullers, they mount on a Scotty tilt base and plug into the old style Scotty 12 volt socket. It is S...L...O...W but a life saver (and it is, or was, fairly inexpensive compared to the big ones). Where to go, we do not have enough experience to tell you, but watch here. We have done Hood Canal a couple of times and now Mukilteo. Just get in the vicinity of the other boats! We have avoided spots where there are big currents - but people who shrimp those spots put extra weight in the pot, and they still lose pots, the current just takes them! All in all, we were delighted to find that Mukilteo was so productive, it is pretty close for us, and Everett is such a great boat launch. We'll probably start crabbing out of Everett too.

Capital Sea · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:55 pm Post subject:

Pat, you summed things up pretty well. What I would add is that round pots or 8 sided pots produce better than square ones. Taller (10"+) pots do better than short ones. My best pots were 18" tall with 50% of the sides as door cones. Two of these were stolen from a bit south of where you were shrimping. We were down with Susan E. Out of 16 potential limits we made 15.5 and all of large size. We use friskies salmon dinner for bait 10cans per pot.
A word about theft. Our pots have a bunch of lead in them and the ones stolen had 100 extra feet of leaded line and at least three floats (one had a boat fender as well). After limiting our 7am crew we were running back into Edmonds to pick more shrimpers up. This was noticed and we were fleeced. We are down between $600 and $700 in gear. We lost one pot the first Sat and attributed it to an accidental dragging but the pot we lost on Wed was stolen for sure. It was slack tide when we made the Edmonds run.
I did some research and noted that a theft ring was busted up in the San Juan's and many people back at the dock reported loss of pots where current was not a factor. So, I will be watching craigs list and would advise folks to stay with their floats since it is hard to judge your neighbors on the water.
Damn those shrimp are good though.