Learn to shrimp, Can someone at lopez teach me?

triehl27

I love to crab, but havenever shrimped. With the crabbing season up in the air this year, I'd like to learn to shrimp. Is there anyone who could give me a lesson or two at the lopez cruise? Thanks

Also is it just the basic shellfish licence needed?

Alyssa Jean · Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 8:27 am Post subject:

Yes just the basic. Good for crab, shrimp, oysters, and sea weed.
You need shrimp pots and a lot of line. You are down in the neighborhood of 230 feet. Strong arms or a pot puller. The pots need to be fairly heavily weighted also. The currants drag on all that line and the bouy can "walk' the pot right away from where you dropped it. There are some good spots off the S tip of Lopez. I have only shrimped a half dozen times so I am not the expert you are looking for.

flagold · Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 9:09 am Post subject:

How do you do this operation? What do you put in the pots? For us on the other coast it's a lot easier: you just shine a light on the water and dip them out. If you're around the brine marshes of Brunswick Ga and shine a floodlight in the water, they'll even flip right into the boat! The negative is you're blackened with mosquitoes if you're in the brine marshes.

Sawdust · Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 12:31 pm Post subject:

Go deep here - 300 ft+/- - "spots" run about 8-9 to the pound and limit of 80 spots (or 10 pounds combined). Pots need to be heavy cuz the current is tough. If I can make Lopez I'll be rigged for shrimp - and of course happy to show/take folks to the shimp places close to Lopez.

Dusty

Alyssa Jean · Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 9:26 pm Post subject:

Thanks Dusty, thought you'd pipe in here.

Bearbait · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 11:59 am Post subject:

I assume shrimping is done in Washington the same as here in AK. I generally look for 300' but bottom structure is more important than depth. You want the steepest, roughest country you can find but be careful you don't let the pot drift into deeper water where it will either sink the buoy or float off if your buoy is big enough to float the pot.
Bait choice doesn't seem critical. Everyone you talk to uses a bait that they swear is the best and range from cat food to a salmon carcass, and they all catch shrimp. I set all 5 pots individually because I pull with an anchor buoy system. If you have a pot puller you can put all the pots in one string, but you will loose the ability to prospect different areas. Some folks say they can see schools of spots on their sonar but I've never seen it.
Sometimes it seems to be hit or miss. I've got areas that usually produce shrimp but occasionally an area will seem to be devoid of shrimp that normally produces well. Last year I had 2 pots on a shelf at the same depth about 50 yds apart. One pot had 118 shrimp (the most I've ever had in a pot) and the other had 9, so who knows exactly what's going on down there.
Something else I've found is that using an expensive, pretty, round orange buoy seems to increase the chances that it won't be there when you come back. I think that when people assume their pot has been stolen what often happened is that someone cut the line and stole the buoy. I now use old liquid laundry soap bottles filled with foam as buoys and haven't lost one yet!!

flagold · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 12:16 pm Post subject:

Bearbait: thanks for the description, you guys are after totally different "shrimp" than we are in the South. Our white and pink shrimp swim along the top of the water in the spring and fall and can be caught by dipping them out of the water. A big one is 4". Billions of them float out of the salt marshes between Brunswick and Savannah Ga and will litterally flit up into a skiff when they're running heavy. 5 gallon bucketfull a night is the limit for sport (unless they've changed it recently).

starcrafttom · Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 12:01 am Post subject:

Well a few differences here in washington. You are only allowed 80 shrimp and you can only have one pot per bouy. bait is the same and every one has some thing different. we look for sandy bottoms in the sound and between 250 and 400ft. I pull by hand and it can be a pain.. in my back and arms.

Sawdust · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 3:52 pm Post subject:

Tom,

Unless there is a major change I won't be at Lopez. Jones Island should be good shrimping over the weekend - 250-300 ft., but watch the current. No need for numbers because the island will be surrounded by pots on opening day.

My favorite area is NW of Jones, but anything over about 1 knot of current can get dicey. I've pulled as many as 450 big spots in one set -- but that's unusual. This time of year 40-50 is a good average. Puss -n- Boots catfood my usual fare.

Good current numbers for Spring Channel - (East of Jones) - and the numbers seem to hold for the west channel too.

Wish I was shrimping!

Dusty