SHRIMPING 2009

S

SENSEI

New member
we had a good day today out on the water for the oppening day of shrimp season. we had to work for our limits but were able to put 240 spot shrimp in the boat in about three hours time.
there was an 16 angler out in our same area and they were doing well also.
cannopt wait for Wednesday to go do it all over again......lol.....
 
We bagged 240 by noon. The first pulls were great and then it slowed down. Morning water was calm and by noon it started to rain and to kick up some swells. Not much of a tide. We were at the usual spot Tom, between Edmonds and Everett on the East side.
Where were you two Roger and Tom?

On Wed will be seeking four limits and it looks right now like rain and wind.
 
we were up off of Camano Island.
the wind and rain made for some waves that would spray on us when pulling the pots. pt got better later in the day. we didn't get out on the water till about 10:00 am due to work. we will definatly be out early morning on Wednesday
 
We got our limit of 400 (three adults and two kids) but it took us about 5 hours. We had to work for them as well as I do it the old fashioned way- no pot puller.

We were amongst the crowds south of Mukilteo.

Friday was even better as we got 50 and 25lb halibut around Dallas Bank (in the Strait). The sad thing was the one that got away- another 50 lb'er that we had gaffed in the mouth but went into flapping/spin mode when dragging him across the gunnel and somehow found freedom. Beautiful day as well. Saw two gray whales.
 
last night I chopped up two bell peppers and a load of mushrooms and cooked them down in butter and a lot of Garlic. After it was cooked pretty well I added the peeled shrimp and covered them with the peppers and simmered for a few mintues. Susan loved it. Cant wait until wednesday.
 
Anyone planning on going shrimping during the Friday Harbor CBGT? I think Caryn and I will give it a try. That is if the quota hasn't been reached of course.
 
You know I will be shrimping this weekend. The limit here in the sound that is reached in short order is separate then the limits in the san juans. the area 7 seasons is much longer.
 
There's going to be some pretty strong tides around the Islands this weekend. Where do you usually drop pots around there? I was thinking of the south end of Lopez during slack.
 
C-Dawg, a friend of mine who does a bunch of shrimp and cod fishing up in the islands gave me these coordinates last year: Cod 48 36 010 123 04 560 and shrimp 48 37 430 123 02 870
He gives good advice as a rule.
 
Unfortunately those coordinates might have helped me last Saturday. We were out early and shrimped off the north east side of Orcas Island and worked hard for about two dozen shrimp. I would love to get back out there this Friday if I can swing it at work. Those suckers are tasty.

Also had some fun catching a few lingcod.
 
Since you brought it up Jimmylee, anyone have any tips for catching lingcod in the San Juans? Jimmylee, Starcraft Tom, SeaDNA Roger, anyone else? I've never gone lingcod fishing but it sounds like fun. :smilep
 
I tend to fish large plastic baits, sometimes tipped with herring. I had some good luck on Saturday with white scampi tail baits fished in 90-100 ft. of water. Rocky outcroppings are good places to bounce these around.

Peter - I will send you a PM regarding some measurements for a radar arch I'm having fabricated.

Chip
 
How far into the strait are you headed for halibut? Salmon bank and surrounding area worth a try? Need something to do while our pots soak.
Karl on C-Daisy
 
heres a update to the shrimp season.

WDFW summary
Here is a quick update of the 2009 prawn season opener for Puget Sound, there were reasonably good tides and weather on Saturday, at least in the morning:
MA 7 (San Juans)-
Effort was way, way up over last year’s opener, probably mostly due to favorable tides (last year on the opener the tides were marginal) – counted 258 boats shrimping versus 92 last year – the tides make a huge difference in the MA 7 effort and catch rates. The average number of pots fished per boat is a little over 3. As expected with the better tides, catch rates were better than last year, 59.1 prawns/potday vs. 35.1 last year, and as usual the Iceberg area catch rates (64.4 prawns/potday) were on average higher than the rest of MA 7.
MA 8 (Everett-Saratoga Pass)-
Effort was up quite a bit from last year – counted 1183 buoys on opener, last year the count was 858 buoys. Catch rates were up, 58.6 prawns/potday vs. 48.7 last year. Was open 4 days last year, probably will be 3 days this year.
MA 9 (Edmonds area)-
Effort similar to last year – buoy count was 587 this year vs. 563 last year. Catches rates were better; 61.4 prawns/potday vs. 48.9 last year. As usual this area had the smallest prawns outside of Hood Canal, averaging 13.2 count/lb. Reached quota in 2 days last year, will likely be the same this year, closes this Wednesday afternoon.
MA 10 (Bainbridge I)-
Effort up from last year – counted 279 buoys, last year’s opener was 188 buoys. Catch rates were up; 61.4 prawns/pot vs. 46.3 last year. Was open 3 days last year, closes this Wednesday afternoon, but hopefully there will be enough quota remaining for at least another weekday opener.
MA 10 (Elliott Bay)-
Significantly higher effort here – counted 510 buoys, last year’s opener was 281 buoys. Catch rates were down a little; 55.6 prawns/potday vs. 61.2 last year. Was open 3 days last year, it will be 2 days this year, closes this Wednesday afternoon.
MA 11 (Vashon)-
The effort was up a little over last year – counted 478 buoys, last year’s Wednesday opener was 414 buoys. Catch rates were similar; 46.8 prawns/potday vs. 45.7 last year. Even with the larger quota here since 2007 we still exceeded the rec share in one day. This area had the largest average prawn size prawns, barely beating out a couple other areas with an 11.1 count/lb.
MA 12 (Hood Canal)-
Effort was down slightly over last year – counted 1,358 boats shrimping versus 1,467 last year. This has been a trend over the past couple years, as Hood Canal seems to be the only area where daily fishing effort is actually slowly decreasing each year. Catch rates were close to last year; 61.6 prawns/potday vs. 64.4 last year. As usual the average size was a bit smaller than the other areas – averaging 14.0 count/lb.
With the better tides for the opener this year I expected participation to be up, but I was surprised at how drastically it went up in some areas. It had seemed to me that fishing effort in most areas (other than MA 7) had kind of leveled off over the past couple years – but I guess not after what we saw Saturday.
 
Today was another stellar day of shrimping. had our limits in two pulls and were off the water by 12:30.there were a lot of big shrimp , probably 10 count to the lb.
 
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