shrimping

DaveS · Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 7:18 pm Post subject:

I talked to one guy....(not a C-Dory owner) who tangled his pot line in his prop...waves then over the transom....very close call...he was close to whipping out his knife and saying goodbye to his new pot.

Jake B · Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 7:28 pm Post subject:

good to hear the boat was a quick fix! sat forecast is not looking that great at all. hopefully it changes for those wanting to fish it. we will only be out the following 2 wend. this saturday is irrigation festival weekend so were busy with that.
hopefully wend forecast holds.

SENSEI · Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 2:17 am Post subject:

we went out today (Wed.) for the second day we get in MA 8-2
we had to work for the two limits we got.
it was a beautiful day on the water. shirtsleeve weather and calm water.

tcr_pnw · Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 11:29 am Post subject:

8-2 treated us well yesterday with 4 limits by noon. ended up dumping 50-60 back out of the last 2 pots. made a run back to drop off gear and back out to drift Hat Island for some Ling. Only got an hour and a half in but was fun searching for sand dabs regardless. Great day on the water!

rumor has it we might get a day three...

starcrafttom · Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 11:59 am Post subject:

If you need sand daps around hat try the east marker. Its a pole on the Everett side of the island in 15 ft of water. Start there and drift off the edge into 100 feet. We get hits at 30 to 60 ft sometimes deeper. We Also have found them on the bar between hat and Camano head in 60 ft. You have to move around to find them sometimes. Also starry flounder on the edge of the flats in front of Jetty island.

PaulNBriannaLynn · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:58 pm Post subject:

We went after some spot shrimp over the weekend with area 7 west is still open daily until September. We left cornet bay around noon saturday, and with the strait surpisingly calm we decided to go around the outside of lopez and through cattle pass. It was our first time going that route and the pass was good fun with alot of tidal rapids and great scenery.

We got up near deer harbor about 1:00 and dropped our 4 pots while hoping for some easy limits. Then took off to Jones island and deer harbor to explore. When we came back to pull our gear, there was nothing there. I had two large floats on each of the 400' length of line, so I could not believe the current had sunk both floats. I was pissed and had a suspicion somebody might have took our pots. We anchored in a cove overnight near deer harbor and made some burgers on the bbq. They normally would have been delicous except I was expecting shrimp dinner!

First thing in the morning it was a very low tide, so we went back to where we set our pots and there they were! The floats were compressed and wrinkly but otherwise fine. At least one of our pots had been picked by another fisherman while we were away. The bait can was put back into the pot, but not inside the bait compartment and the main door was all bent up. Kinda weird, but at least whoever did it had the decency to not steal the pot and just take the shrimp. Im guessing another shrimpers line got tangled with ours and they had to pull two pots at once.

We ended up with two limits of nice big spot shrimp and learned a valuable lesson. The islands require a bit more floatation, then we use in the Puget Sound. I will be adding a large yellow inflatable fender to my current floats and am hoping that does the trick.

We had a very nice calm ride back through cattle pass and deception and burned about 20 gallons for the whole weekend. Its probably cheaper to just go buy shrimp at this point, but whats the fun in that!

redbaronace · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:47 pm Post subject:

C-Dawg · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 10:18 pm Post subject:

Salmon Fisher · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:14 pm Post subject:

I have made every mistake in the book while shrimping. I look for tides that are really small and I generally will not set pots with over 1 knot of current on either side of slack current. We always babysit the pots and pull after 1 hour. Generally, all the bait is washed out of the pots after an hour and when you pull, you then know if there is any life in the area.
Can't wait to get back up there for some summertime shrimping.
Good job on the shrimping and valuable lessons learned.

SENSEI · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 3:28 am Post subject:

the only trouble with using the large inflatable bouy's is they have a tendency to drag the pots if too much current.

I wrote a diagram that is here.

you can take one pot off and run singles if you want

Larry H · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 11:13 am Post subject:

We are in the Broughton Islands, BC and I pulled my first set yesterday. Got 20 spots and coonstripes in two pots. The commercial season just ended here, so the take is a little light right now. Looking forward to getting shrimp daily for the summer.