Shrimping in the strait

[Wanderer]

anyone willing to pass along info on the currents ?   Gave it a try all last summer but just couldn't pin down the current.   Just when I thought we were out there at slack tide the current was still pretty strong.  we put extra floats on the line and they were still pulled under......

[Wetwoodshunter]

Where are you trying? I have lost a few pots around deception pass but have learned from my mistakes. We fished in minus tides last year with no problems but I put 3 15lb downrigger balls in each pot and use a commercial buoy attached to the string. The pots don't move at all with that much weight but the buoys still get pulled hard and foam buoys can go under. The commercial buoys won't. I attached a pic of the buoys I use, notice they are not round they are like a long sausage.

Also, leaded line doesn't need as much extra. I like to fish 200-300' but have 450' on each pot.

[WAcoueshunter]

I use deepzoom.com for local currents.  It's pretty slick.  I drop at about 1.5 knots, then pull around the same on the other side of slack.  Don't want my pots out there in more than about 1.5 knots. 

I've also gone to longer trailer buoys, probably 25' or so on the line, to give me a little cushion in case I'm a little too early or late. 

[lokidog]

Be careful of areas where the flow of water is compressed. Deepzoom is a good program, it is innaccurate in a few spots one especially is the SE corner of Lopez.  I no longer drop pots on the incoming tide as it is ALWAYS stronger than the predictions.  We had three pots with 15 pounds of weight each go 3 miles once on a 0.5 knot MAX incoming tide. The outgoing tide seems to be accurate there.  I will drop up to a half hour before the slack on the incoming.

I have rescued and returned, literally dozens of traps off that end of Lopez.  If you do lose one, head towards Lawson Reef as the tide slacks, buoys will pop up all over out there.  Cleat your trap off and power to the SSW to pull it out of the rocks before attempting to raise it.

[BUTTER]

Alot of guys don't use enough line and once tide comes in pots go floating bye bye

[lokidog]

Alot of guys don't use enough line and once tide comes in pots go floating bye bye

Yeah, 400 feet is pretty standard.

Another reason to drop on the high to outgoing tide, at least off SE Lopez.

[RB]

Minus the Beer can here is what I use. Also as mentioned I run 400ft of leaded line and when in a high current area place a 3lb anchor with about 6ft of line attached to the bottom of my pot. I run the big Ladner pots and the only one I have lost was stolen as I found my buoys but no pot, or line and I know it did not just fall off because I use stainless clips and clevis to hold my buoys on.

LFS has a good price on the pellet bait, but add to it. Chub mackerel, seafood feast cat food and prawn oil mixed in with the pellets make a real nice slurry that the shrimp will devour. Good luck and have fun out there this year.

[lokidog]

Hey RB, now I know who to thank.....    JK, of course. I called a guy on pulling on of my pots once, we had located two of my travelers and buy the time we went to pull my second one, some other guy was pulling it.  Looking back, I should have contacted WDFW since my name and number were clearly marked on my big orange buoy.

I pretty much use the pellets now, and throw in a ling head if I can.  We used to make a mixture of pellets, fish fertilizer, canned cat food, ground up or chunked herring, etc. and would then freeze it in cups that you could drop into the bait cage of the trap. This worked well as it would slowly melt and produce a good scent trail.  The bad part was it smelled like barf.

As a side note, Coastal Farm and Supply in Mount Vernon has a pretty good price on nice traps and line.  They did only have one in stock last week but chatting with the guy it sounded like they will be getting more in.

Also, be sure to put your cell number on your buoy so you can be called while on the water and not have a message left for you at home when you lose it.   

[Stein]

As mentioned, you need current tables, not tide tables.  Another thing I tried last year is the skinny line John's in Everett sells.  It is still plenty strong, much cheaper and much less drag on the pots.

[lokidog]

As mentioned, you need current tables, not tide tables.  Another thing I tried last year is the skinny line John's in Everett sells.  It is still plenty strong, much cheaper and much less drag on the pots.

Until you puller quits and you have to pull by hand....   

[Stein]

As mentioned, you need current tables, not tide tables.  Another thing I tried last year is the skinny line John's in Everett sells.  It is still plenty strong, much cheaper and much less drag on the pots.

Until you puller quits and you have to pull by hand....   

I didn't have a puller until last year - 4 pots with 400' each and much practice.  Instead of grabbing the line and squeezing it, rotate your hand 90 degrees and use friction between the rope and your glove.  If you forgot your gloves, pay some guy with a puller to get your pots as that would really suck.

[lokidog]

As mentioned, you need current tables, not tide tables.  Another thing I tried last year is the skinny line John's in Everett sells.  It is still plenty strong, much cheaper and much less drag on the pots.

Until you puller quits and you have to pull by hand....   

I didn't have a puller until last year - 4 pots with 400' each and much practice.  Instead of grabbing the line and squeezing it, rotate your hand 90 degrees and use friction between the rope and your glove.  If you forgot your gloves, pay some guy with a puller to get your pots as that would really suck.

I keep a pair of gloves in the boat. Two years ago, I pulled by hand all season (my puller worked opening morning, and then didn't when I needed it), though I still used the pulley on my puller boom, that made all the difference versus pulling up over the rail like a crab pot.

[JimmyHoffa]

Could clip a buoy on the line and then tie the line off on a cleat and go. 

[Wanderer]

RB - your pic looks pretty much like my setup.  I only use 30 lbs at 350' tho.   so it sounds like I should move to 400 - 450'.  where did you get the yellow sausage shaped buoys ?

I have the navionics app on my phone and I bought the garmin vision for my gps.  both have current tables - just trying to figure them out tho is tough.

[lokidog]

Could clip a buoy on the line and then tie the line off on a cleat and go.

I've seen videos of people using anchor pullers with the sliding buoy thing and the force is so strong that it actually pushes many of the shrimp out.

[Wetwoodshunter]

RB - your pic looks pretty much like my setup.  I only use 30 lbs at 350' tho.   so it sounds like I should move to 400 - 450'.  where did you get the yellow sausage shaped buoys ?

I have the navionics app on my phone and I bought the garmin vision for my gps.  both have current tables - just trying to figure them out tho is tough.

I get mine from Seattle Marine

[RB]

RB - your pic looks pretty much like my setup.  I only use 30 lbs at 350' tho.   so it sounds like I should move to 400 - 450'.  where did you get the yellow sausage shaped buoys ?

I have the navionics app on my phone and I bought the garmin vision for my gps.  both have current tables - just trying to figure them out tho is tough.

Bought them from John's Sporting goods in Everett, two magnum buoys set flat end to end. Have had both of them under the ball buoy partially under with the flag buoy tight and the anchor has held them in place. John was the one that suggested the anchors as well.

[RB]

Hey RB, now I know who to thank.....    JK, of course. I called a guy on pulling on of my pots once, we had located two of my travelers and buy the time we went to pull my second one, some other guy was pulling it.  Looking back, I should have contacted WDFW since my name and number were clearly marked on my big orange buoy.

I pretty much use the pellets now, and throw in a ling head if I can.  We used to make a mixture of pellets, fish fertilizer, canned cat food, ground up or chunked herring, etc. and would then freeze it in cups that you could drop into the bait cage of the trap. This worked well as it would slowly melt and produce a good scent trail.  The bad part was it smelled like barf.




As a side note, Coastal Farm and Supply in Mount Vernon has a pretty good price on nice traps and line.  They did only have one in stock last week but chatting with the guy it sounded like they will be getting more in.

Also, be sure to put your cell number on your buoy so you can be called while on the water and not have a message left for you at home when you lose it.   

Yeah I know it would not be a nice guy like you that ran off with my pot "accidentally"  . Pretty sure I know who did it but they were gone by the time I realized it was gone. Three shady looking jack wagons in a skiff that one of my buoys was kinda close to an unmarked buoy while we were popping heads and counting, we were about a limit shy after the first pull and taking our time having fun shooting the breeze over a beer while working, so was distracted and did not notice my buoys being set free.

And X2 on putting your number cell number on the buoy, I have made a couple guys day by returning crab pots found out in the deep!

[Night goat]

Sares head has good shrimping off of fidalgo, north of deception pass. Use a summer heavy commercial pot and a two bouy set up (diver and trailer bag) with a lead line and you should be fine, alot of the time the bags get sucked under but if your pots are heavy enough, come back after the tide and should be in the same spot

[robodad]

Just curious if anyone knows if the daily limit for spot shrimp will stay at 200 or go back to 80 ?? Last year they raised the limit, just curious if that was just an emergency thing or not ?

[lokidog]

I'm sure it will be 80 for the start of the season.  I wish they had left it at that so there would have been more days to be out. Of course I have easier access than a lot of folks.    But, it would have been nice to get more people out there.

[sumpnz]

If the limit is going to stay at 200 I need to get out there this year. 

[lokidog]

If the limit is going to stay at 200 I need to get out there this year.

I really doubt it will since it will be the beginning of the new quota. I think they increased the limit so they would have to spend fewer days actually enforcing the game laws, not that I saw a single WDFW boat out all of last fishing/shrimping season.

[sumpnz]

If the limit is going to stay at 200 I need to get out there this year.

I really doubt it will since it will be the beginning of the new quota. I think they increased the limit so they would have to spend fewer days actually enforcing the game laws, not that I saw a single WDFW boat out all of last fishing/shrimping season.

Been a few years since I tried shrimping.  But the gamies came to check me out.  Not because they thought I was doing anything wrong, but it was the first time they'd seen a kayaker dropping shrimp pots.  They wanted to see me up close to make sure I really was that crazy.

I about did myself in that time.  Which is why it's been a few years since I've shrimped.  Currents were a lot stronger than I expected so getting back was a major grind, and the pulley I was going to use to haul up the pots didn't work out so I did it hand over hand (and had no gloves  ).

But now I have a downrigger.  I'll need to figure out how to set it up to do so, but I know a guy in AK that uses his to pull shrimp pots (and up there they go to 500') so that seems a whole lot more doable.  That guy replaced his lead line with about 100# braid and has a clip of some sort for the bouys that he can take off and clip onto the line on the downrigger.

[RB]

I'm sure it will be 80 for the start of the season.  I wish they had left it at that so there would have been more days to be out. Of course I have easier access than a lot of folks.    But, it would have been nice to get more people out there.

 

It would be nice if they left the quota at 80 and had more days, it would be an incentive for a guy to buy a boat and more gear. 

[WAcoueshunter]

Right, last year they wound up cutting the season short mid-summer after they went to 160 for the limit.  Would rather keep it at 80 and make it last.  That said, it sure was fun for me and my son to haul in 320 one day.  We got checked by these guys on the way back in, I think they assumed a 15' whaler in the middle of the Straits must be up to no good. 

[robodad]

Right, last year they wound up cutting the season short mid-summer after they went to 160 for the limit.  Would rather keep it at 80 and make it last.  That said, it sure was fun for me and my son to haul in 320 one day.  We got checked by these guys on the way back in, I think they assumed a 15' whaler in the middle of the Straits must be up to no good.

Yes I was mistaken, they doubled the limit to 160 not 200 like I said earlier sorry !!