Spent Saturday out in front of Edmonds droppin' and pullin'. For our first attempt at shrimping, I'd say we did OK, but not great. We ended the day with about 40 spotted prawns.

The weather was great and the beers were ice cold, so we considered it a success. Heckava lot better than cutting the grass!

There were a gazillion boats out there, so there must have been some other Piscatorial guys. How did you do?

Thanks for your post. I'm going out this weekend so I hope we hear from a couple other people who have already been out.

How often did you pull your pots? I've heard people say as frequently as 45 minutes, others keep them out overnight? Do you need to rebait after every pull? Any info would be appreciated!

We were pulling about every hour or so, but could have left them down longer. If we make it back out next weekend, we're going to relax a little more and pull a little less...

Fresh, stinky bait is really important. There's another discussion called "Puss N Boots" that has a lot of good info about bait.

I skipped last weekends because of the large tidal swing. We stick to the san juans and those tides would have equaled four lost pots (eventually they come up again ~ it just takes awhile).

I like to pull my pots every 1 1/2 hours or so. We do it by hand so with the 4 pots that's a lot of pulling and not much resting. I think 45 minutes isn't enough time so leave them down a little longer. At the same time over 2 hours doesn't seem to be very good (I think the bait gets old?). A lot of it has to do with luck though. Last year the floats went under and we didn't get them back for 8 or 9 hours. The first one we pulled was loaded with shrimp. More then we've ever got before but the next couple of pots only had 8 or 9 in them.

I like to use puss n' boots mixed with the commercial pellets. Leave one can in with wholes in it and put the rest in a mesh bag. I haven't tried freezing it yet or the fritos thing but those are both on the list for this weekend as is replacing fritos w/dry cat food.

Thanks for the info on how often to pull. I've read the Puss 'n Boots thread and plan to try a couple different frozen and thawed mixes.

Can anyone recommend shrimping locations closer to Shilshole than Edmonds. I know Area 10 is only Thursday and Saturday but I might want to try a couple spots.

Tdickenson,
I haven't been there, but have heard Blakely Rock just off Bainbridge is a popular spot. I'm assuming you will get an idea of where to go when you get there and spot the other buoys.

Thanks for the suggestion about Blakely Rock. I found some info on it (the scuba diving web sites often give come clues about shrimp and lingcod populations). I might check it out.

Going shrimpin friday!! oh yeah!!

I went out for a couple hours today as a "shake down" cruise for my new gear. Or maybe I'm just calling it a shake down cruise because I only ended up with THREE shrimp!

I went to Blakely Rock. There were probably 20-30 pots out and 7-15 boats. I didn't get a good look but it looked like other boats were doing better than I did. One of my pots was almost 200' and the other about 135'.

I was using puss 'n boots mixed with dry little friskies plus a small bag of "ace of baits" in each pot. My pots were only down for two hours. The first pot had three legal shrimp. The second one felt much heavier... and had no shrimp but a large sun star. I guess that answers my question about how often to pull. I'm assuming that the starfish might keep shrimp out of the pot so it would be worth checking pots periodically.

The fish checker at Shilshole said that two guys had limited in the am after about four hours at Pier 91 in Elliott Bay. Two other boats with two people each also limited in the morning at Skiff Point off Bainbridge (one boat in four hours, the other in two).

I didn't get out until about noon, and most pots were gone by around three, so I'm thinking that earlier might be better.

I tried jigging for rock fish at Blalely Rock and the fish haven south of Alki. I marked plenty of fish but didn't have a bite.

I'm going out tomorrow and will try Edmonds. Look for 19' open bow "Striper" with a green awning.

Great observation and suggestion!

I set my pots more "in the middle" of the pack, rather than on the outside. And I had taken along some leftover herring and shrimp oil that I was going to add to the mix but I forgot to.

Tomorrow will be another experiment. I'm going to set my pots early, and then not go back until after noon, and check them hourly until I have to head to home.

Thanks for the advice!

The one thing I was happy with, I had bought a 16 gallon plastic tub with handles to wind my lines into. I cut holes in the side so I could keep track of the beginning and end of each line, and even stuck an old orange pylon to center the lines as I wound them. It went smoothly and I felt even better when I was a boatload of three people take 25 minutes to untangle one line from the bottom of their boat. Much better than a couple years ago when I decided to buy a garden hose reel in a plastic housing... it was a disaster!

I will be out near everrett on friday about noon till 5pm trying the shrimp thing for the first time . the boat is a salmon (pink) starcraft with a white top. stop me if you see me.I will try the depths and baits you have mentioned here. anyone have any ideas about locations in that area? Tom

I haven't shrimped out of Everett, but John Martinis (of John's Sporting Goods in Everett) has advice in his book "Saltwater Fishing Journal" (the best fishing purchase I ever made!)

- north west side of Hat (Gedney) Island
- between Mukilteo and Everett south of Howarth Park (he says it's a good area for beginners)
- Possession Point and south til you're even with the Possession Point buoy

Good Luck!

Gotta pull those pots up FAST!!!! The little buggers like to swim out unless they are pinned to the bottom of the pot!

We'll be back out tomorrow - probably in front of Edmonds again. Gonna mix up some nasty bait tonight: Puss N Boots, salmon guts, herring, fritos and some herring oil. Put it in an old blender and let 'er rip.

We'll be in an old 30fter that kinda looks like a small tug (gray on top) - using the windless to pull the pots. Give us a wave if you're in the area.

I'm not familiar with the area that your setting in but it sounds a bit shallow. All my pots have between 400 and 500 feet or rope and I never set in less than 270 feet of water. I've seen shrimp a lot shallower when diving but I don't think they are as concentrated. If your getting into sun stars then move. I've never had one but it brings up a question ~ how did it get in your pot??? The holes seem to small for a big star to get in. Once one is in though you need to clean your pot off very well and get rid of all traces of the star. Most shellfish are very sensitive to the smell of sun stars and won't go anywhere near them. I cannot urge the cleaning enough. I've played around with various reactions to star fish quite a bit throughout my scholastic years and it's very powerful...

I agree with RCL on your depths. Although I've done okay in Hood Canal at shallower depths, in the Puget Sound I've found 240-250 feet to be the magic number. I will usually set at 230, 250 and 270 on my first set, then adjust depending upon which depth produces the best.

Your advice paid off. I got more than three shrimp today... about a limit and 1/2 between two of us with two pots.

I went north of Edmonds (yes, a couple miles past the cluster of pots right north of the Area 10 line). I set one pot at 230' and one at 250' at about 7:30 am and didn't make it back out until about 1:30 pm. Our first pull had a limit between the two pots.

There were white caps by then, so we reset for just over an hour and picked up another 40. Even going south with the wind, it was a long beat back to Shilshole.

The fish checker at Edmonds said that out of 17 boats only two hadn't limited.

I think my two keys were adding (herring) oil to the mix and staying away from other pots. The one boat I talked with said you could stay "shallow" (140-180') and do fine.

Tomorrow I may try Skiff Point.

Hmmn, so starfish stank is the super banana for sea bugs. How evil would it be to market a super skunk scent for various target species. You could pawn it off as your "Top Secret Killa" to snaggers and poachers, heh. Or have some hunny hand out free samples at the ramp for this "special" new product!

Didn't make it out Saturday (when I woke up, it looked too cold and windy!) but I went out around Edmonds again today.

Set my two pots in 230-250' of water around 7:30 am. My buddy and I got about 100 on the first pull, and ended up with 150 between us after one more hour long set.

The fish checker said that there were a fair number of boats that didn't limit. I'm guessing that since it was a weekend, there were more people just out dunking for an hour or two.

Regards the starfish posts above, I've now pulled up a couple pots with BOTH a starfish and 20-30 shrimp.

I won't be trying for a couple weeks when the tides and currents calm down a bit. Hope things are still open.

Next time out I'll probably try to combine my sets with a little ling cod fishing. Any body have suggested locations?

O.K. having spent friday in the wind and waves between everret and mukitao with out even one shrimp in the pot I deciede to go out agian today(sunday) with my son to try agian. I pulled the equivelant of leaving the plug out. I found 270 feet of water and having 300 feet of rope . so Iam ok. right . hey I even have the clips with bannana weights to pull my extra line down. looking like a pro. so I go to set my pot, let out line attach bouy to end of line toss bouy over and watch the whole rigg go under. I dont know if my depth finder was off or if i driffted in to deeper water? note to self. more rope, gps, 2 or 3 floats. The good news is that me and the kid got to see two grey whales down near the ferry. we followed at a distance and watched for 20 mintues. I have been here for a little over a year and have seen grays and killer whales from the boat . I love living here. If anyone finds a bouy marked tom elliott U.S.M.C. the number is on it please give me a call. Thank you. If anyone has extra pots and no one to go with them this week in the afternoon Iam free after 1:00 most days . dont worry I will not touch anything. Tom

Sorry to hear about your loss, Tom. We had one float away on Saturday too, but found out that a buoy and a fender have enough bouyancy to float the pot and a 10lb weight. The whole rig was about 1 mile north of where we dropped it (300 ft of rope in 350 ft of water).


Congrats to those of you who are getting 100 shrimp per pot! The best we've done is about 12. On Saturday, we ended the day with 40. We were just south of Edmonds.

Those of you catching 100 shrimp per pot. How deep are you putting you pots and are you using the standard can of Puss and Boots? I've only been getting about 10-20 shrimp per pot after 3-4 hours at 250 feet.

Thanks for any help.

I mentioned 100 on the first pull, but that was between TWO pots (so up to 50 each) that had been in the water from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm. My successful sets have been from 230-250' north of Edmonds.

I literally used everything for bait. I found some rectangular disposable tuperware type containers at Safeway, drilled lots of 1/2" holes in them, and can fit two containers in the bait compartment of my pots. One container in each pot I filled and froze with Puss 'n Boots mixed with some dry Friskies. The other container in the pot I filled with unfrozen P'nB and Friskies with a dose of Herring or Anchovy oil poured over the Friskies. If I had a little P'nB left in a can, I'd just mush in down in the bait area between the two plastic containers. Finally, I had bought a few small bags of Ace of Baits commercial shrimp bait and though it wouldn't fit in my bait area, I just tossed one in the bottom of each pot. On my short sets, I tossed in some oil packed tunafish.

We probably "caught" a few more shrimp than I mentioned, but we're fairly diligent about keeping to the 1 3/16" carapace minimum. I'm kind of curious whether others are throwing some back like we are!

I throw the smaller ones back....I think the regs require it. Plus those little guys just don't have as much meat on them as the bigger ones.

Do most of you use leaded line? I bought a spool of 600' and am thinking of trying to spool it in a tote as opposed to an electrical cord winder... Will be trying shrimpign for the first time this weekend...

Well, I guess that wraps up the shrimping season!

http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/regs/regchng/apr2903e.htm (I'm not clear how to post this as a link)

As I read the press release, if I was hardcore, I could still get one more day on Thursday in Area 10 or Area 8-1/8-2. With the heavy tides, I doubt I'll be out.

Thanks to everyone for their advice! See you shrimpin' next year.