2012 Shrimp season

S

SENSEI

New member
today went far better than I was expecting with the long outgoing minus tide.
we set our four pots about 7:30 am today and let them soak for about 50 minutes. there were a lot of people out there and so we had to set a little farther north than we wanted to. after the first pull of the four pots we had 264 shrimp in the boat. the second set was enough to make our limits and had to throw back all but three we needed to make our share. weyhad four people on the boat so we were able to bring home 320 of those tasty spot prawns

Boy, it is really hard to put back those shrimp that are over your limit.....lol.....
(stupid rules anyway)

we had our limits by 10:00 am and then had to sit out there and wait for the tide to come back in far enough to be able to get the boat back on the trailer. 10:45 was a 2.1 minus tide. we need at least a 4 foot tide to get back on the trailer.we were able to land at about 1:45 pm.
 
0800-1420 hours...lost track of the drops, pulls...re-bait, drop again. Came home w/ 119. We had four people on the boat, including my g-daughter and son. Not even close to limiting.
 
glad to here you both got shrimp. this is the first opener in years that I have missed. Had to pack up the house and fill the Pods container today and tomorow. getting set to move next week.
 
South Lopez Island for us on Saturday. 3 limits, but had to wait for afternoon slacking incoming tide.
ALERT, ALERT, ALERT!!!
One pot buoy sucked under, never did come up, stayed until sunset. I know it's still there, will pop up on current changes. If found, it has my buddies name, Barry Martin. Please call him or message me. Neighbor also lost, 40 pounds of weight. Scott McCauley, let me know if found or call his number on buoy.
Always wait until current is 1 mph or less or else buoy goes under.
-Will be up there Friday and Saturday this week on early tide.
Anyone else? Launching out of Cornet Bay.
 
I "lost" a crab pot that way. I watched it be pulled under by the current. An Island County Deputy found it, called the number and we got it back. I now tie big orange fenders on a trailing line. They have ~60 lbs bouyancy. I'm planning on bringing one trap up to the FH; just need to find out where to drop it.
 
Today was the second day of the 2012 shrimp season. we went out and had a beautiful day on the water. the sound was flat and we were able to go any speed we wanted. I had to take her up to about 5200 rpm to shake out the cobwebs....lol..... the gps speed was 32 mph .

we proceded to catch our limits again. it took an extra set to get our 320 shrimp .we were still packed up and done shrimping by 10:30 am.

I am hoping that the powers that be will give us another day. if not we will have to go out to area 7 south and fish Biz Point. it is an extra 15 miles of travel and we have to traverse Deception Pass to get there.
 
Way to go Roger. I'll be shrimping at Biz Pt per your earlier suggestion. My buddy and I will be going put tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!
 
After our dismal success in Marine Area 9 on opening day, we decided to motor over to Pleasant Harbor in MA 12 (Hood Canal) for the Friday and Saturday fishery. Dropped our pots at 0900, pulled 'em at 1000, and we've got our limits, plus a few that fell in boiling water while stowing our gear. That gave us enough time to head back in, tie up the boat, and then head over to Dosewallips Flats to gather a limit of butter clams and oysters during the minus tide. Later that evening we enjoyed fried oysters and grilled shrimp over a campfire.

Gawd, I love this state! :)
 
There were 4 guys in a TomCat (Pipe Dream) next to us when we pulled into Anacortes... they had a LOT of shrimp. You folks grow 'em BIG up here! Port Isabel/Brownsville is known as "The Shrimping Capital of the US" because of the commercial fleet size, but it would take three of the shrimp back home to make one up here.

When is beef season? :wink:
 
So we hit Biz Point on Saturday morning. What a GLORIUS day, totally flat water, no wind, sunny skies in the 70's. We did ok on our first pull, which was west of Biz Pt. Moved to the north side of Biz Pt and did terrible. Six for 2 pots!

Because the conditions were so great, we decided to go to Iceberg Point on the south end of Lopez Island. Got there around 11:15 and dropped the pots. After about 45 minutes, we noticed that the flag stick was starting to get pulled under by the current. Luckily, I had purchased those big Polyform yellow buoys, size A2, for additional flotation. Good thing too because our pots would have been sucked under. We saw a few boats searching for their pots which unfortunately were sucked under by the tides. I'll never shrimp again without those big buoys.

In any case we pulled our pots and did pretty well considering the time of day and the fact that our pots were probably suspended for a few minutes. All in all, we didn't limit but didn't do too bad. Next time, if the conditions are the same, I'll be going out to Iceberg Point first thing in the morning. Of course, those conditions hardly ever occur in the SJ's.

Oh well, there's always next year!
 
localboy":1ovola7w said:
Rick that first opening day was rough. Buddy said south point of Camano was the place to be. Oh, well....
Click to expand...
Some friends of ours shrimped in Hood Canal on opening day and pulled up 9 limits, plus they threw over a limit back at the end of the day. They would get a few limits, shuttle those people back to the dock, load new people, and then go get more limits. Ergo, we decided to fish there last weekend.

I've heard that Camano is a good spot.

We had a float get pulled under at Iceberg the first year we fished there. Ended up missing the Friday evening dinner at Downriggers because we were out at slack tide looking for it. Sure as heck it popped up, all shriveled from the pressure. But after a day or two, it looked normal again and we still use it.
 
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