2026 Spot Prawns

[pickardjw]

Anyone fortunate enough to spend Mother's Day on the water for the spot prawn opener?

Coworker brought me some pots today to borrow. Need to make sure they're good to go and I'll be out there on the next opening. Love learning new things!

[Lunkerchaser]

Got our limits out of Pleasant Harbor, water was nice!

[Kingofthemountain83]

I haven't been in a few years since moving to Puyallup from Kitsap... Miss it... It's worth it...

[HntnFsh]

We were a couple miles north of Pleasant Harbor and got 4 limits in 2 pots. Dumped at least that many back from our other pots. The launch we used was unusually busy for as early as we got there. Got back to the house and had the boat cleaned and everything put away with an hour of the first day of shrimping left! AS busy as the launch was the area we shrimp probably had about 1/3 as many boats as usual.

There are some pretty hardy people out there. Saw 1 person sitting on a trailer at 6am smoking a cig and drinking a beer!

Heavy law enforcement out here Sunday!

[kball4]

6 limits on 1 pull, Duckabush.  Not many people out, truck broke down at Misery Point Launch ramp backed things up a little getting out.

[MADMAX]

I heard there was a lady down at misery point yelling at everybody about being loud and near her waterfront property
🤣waaa

[fishngamereaper]

I heard there was a lady down at misery point yelling at everybody about being loud and near her waterfront property
🤣waaa

It's the house next to the ramp.
She's a family member of the owners. Her stay is apparently temporary. She's been a pia for a while. Thinks she owns everything.

Glad everyone did good..I kind of miss it ..but mostly don't. The last few years it's turned into chaos. Figured it would of been bad with the PS closure.

[pickardjw]

I heard there was a lady down at misery point yelling at everybody about being loud and near her waterfront property
🤣waaa

She really put the Misery in Misery Point, eh? 

[MADMAX]

I heard there was a lady down at misery point yelling at everybody about being loud and near her waterfront property
🤣waaa

She really put the Misery in Misery Point, eh? 

No that would be the drop off the ramp

[SkookumHntr]

very good shrimping this year!

[pickardjw]

Any idea how crazy this Sunday will be out there in Hood Canal? I imagine it might be more busy than the opener.

Curious (anxious) about how overflow parking works at these boat launches...do people just find spots along the road/highway once the lots are full? Any predatory towing/ticketing that goes on?

I could launch at the Mason County launch south of Belfair and overnight on the boat on a friend's mooring ball. Not sure if I could park the truck and trailer overnight at the launch though. No info on the internet...

Also thinking I could launch in Mats Mats bay and make the run over. Anyone know if that launch gets hit hard?

[fishngamereaper]

Any idea how crazy this Sunday will be out there in Hood Canal? I imagine it might be more busy than the opener.

Curious (anxious) about how overflow parking works at these boat launches...do people just find spots along the road/highway once the lots are full? Any predatory towing/ticketing that goes on?

I could launch at the Mason County launch south of Belfair and overnight on the boat on a friend's mooring ball. Not sure if I could park the truck and trailer overnight at the launch though. No info on the internet...

Also thinking I could launch in Mats Mats bay and make the run over. Anyone know if that launch gets hit hard?

Misery will be a complete mess unless you get there at 4-5am.
Parking sucks. The dirt overflow is terrible for getting into and out of..and  there is no real shoulder of the road to park on.. people just wing it ..

Mats mats sucks ..and it's a long boat ride.
Salisbury is your other option but it gets crowded...as does Twanoh...

[HntnFsh]

Really wanted to hit these next 2 days, but had trigger finger surgury last Thursday so will probably sit it out until the next dates. :'(

[pickardjw]

Just loaded up my borrowed pots with about 20lbs of cement brick for weights.

Anyone used the Scotty puller with that heavy of a pot? Has a 100lb limit supposedly. Not exactly sure how to calculate total weight of what I'm pulling. Hope it'll be alright. Only dropping in 225' or less.

[Mfowl]

Just loaded up my borrowed pots with about 20lbs of cement brick for weights.

Anyone used the Scotty puller with that heavy of a pot? Has a 100lb limit supposedly. Not exactly sure how to calculate total weight of what I'm pulling. Hope it'll be alright. Only dropping in 225' or less.

You should be good on pulling the weight unless you get swamped with kelp/seaweed or snag a derelict pot line. In that case use a boat hook or knife to free your line. I have snagged derelict lines on 2 occasions  but only once was I foolish enough to pull in the line. It was a commercial/tribal crab pot and was bogged down with tremendous seaweed. Had it not been glass calm conditions we might have sunk the boat as the transom was severely weighted down on the side with the puller. It also made a nasty mess of the boat with all the slimy gunk that came up.
Also unless you have a line on a shallower water spot to fish I would target the 250-280' depths. I personally have not done that well in less than 250' of water.
Good luck out there! Have fun!

[fishngamereaper]

Just loaded up my borrowed pots with about 20lbs of cement brick for weights.

Anyone used the Scotty puller with that heavy of a pot? Has a 100lb limit supposedly. Not exactly sure how to calculate total weight of what I'm pulling. Hope it'll be alright. Only dropping in 225' or less.

Concrete is buoyant under water so 20lbs will feel like 10-12.
Do u have any downrigger balls you can zip tie in. That's all we use. Less drag underwater.
With the brick's you might not achieve the holding power you hope for.
And hopefully you have enough rope to go deeper than 225....260-280 is kind of the sweet spot in the canal.
That puller should work but it's guna be an arm workout.

[HntnFsh]

20 pounds is a lot of weight depending on where your shrimping. I use 10 at the most plus pot weight around Brinnon. Not much current.

The bricks are going to cause more resistance as you pull because of the surface area.  It won't be fun dumping the shrimp out of the pots either. I just zip tie 2 or diving weights to the bottom of my pot. Or the small triangle ones like they sell at McKays

[cavemann]

Heading out for the first time this weekend..  dang, these are going to be the most expensive shrimp per pound..  lol..  but will be worth having the gear and looking forward to it.  I've been several times on other boats .  Good luck everyone. If you some guy arguing with his wife about coiling rope or spinning in circles, give me a wave!!  Just dropping one pot so I don't totally cause a mess.

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[RC]

We've always just used the flat dumbbell weights.  There's already a hole in the middle so they're easy to zip tie in, and they're flat enough you can put the bait box right on top of said weight.

[highside74]

The wife and I went out today with our 2 sons for our 1st ever attemp at shrimping. After talki.g to people after we were done I think we did pretty good for being rookies. We ended up doing 2 soaks and brought in 261 shrimp. Sitting in the Fred Meyer parking lot while the wife gets some ingredients for Beer Batter for dinner tonight.

[hookr88]

The wife and I went out today with our 2 sons for our 1st ever attemp at shrimping. After talki.g to people after we were done I think we did pretty good for being rookies. We ended up doing 2 soaks and brought in 261 shrimp. Sitting in the Fred Meyer parking lot while the wife gets some ingredients for Beer Batter for dinner tonight.

Not bad for newb.  To put it in perspective. My truck simply wouldn’t start at the boat launch. I was taking a young 14 year old fishing,who I met on the flight from Denver Friday who was carrying on some rods. He was visiting his Grandmother and was very passionate about fishing. Anyways, after I got my truck towed, supposed to leave for Cheyenne on Wednesday for a job, my son’s friend came down and launched my boat for me. We only caught and lost two fish. 
The young man still had a great day. I’m jealous of your success.

[pickardjw]

I was second in the water at the ramp this morning and (I think) the last out. Good to get an idea of what a reasonable time is now! Linked up with a coworker's boat and we floatilla'd to the dock on kickers instead of hauling butt over then waiting around. Long day, but really fun.

Three limits for us in 4.5 pots (two pots, three soaks). Dropped between 180' and 260' (pushed the limit on the borrowed line!). Took one of the bricks out last night to make pot weight about 15 lbs. Seemed to be plenty, but we also had mild current today. Coworker's pots are 20 lbs. He dropped a little deeper a few miles south of us but struggled with mud popping the breaker on his Ace puller. My scotty puller did great, just a small amount of mud on the second pot. WDFW creel report checker said there were quite a few boats that only caught partial limits...Also said we were in an area that he hasn't taken many full limit reports from. We opted to stay away from the masses a bit...

Saw some orcas, ate some fresh-as-it-gets spot prawn sashimi, learned something (a lot?) new. Fantastic day. 

 

[cavemann]

Had a blast and complete comedy show on my boat.  But like above, great time and dialed in the puller, rope coil routine and the wife is comfortable doing it now..  Good luck to everyone out there today!

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[hookr88]

We got our 4 limits by 12:25. 4 pots, 3.5 soaks. Good day on the water.