There certainly were enough people out there - some of you must have participated We had an awesome trip, 5 folks, 4 pots, loaded the boat up in less than 3 pulls and had to help out the in-laws, who were getting pretty much skunked in the other boat :p The little buggers tastes changed from the last several years, fortunately the smorgasboard we usually provide in each pot has the proper can of bait in it. Wierd how they didn't at all go for what worked so well the last couple of years, which is all the in-laws brought along . Got loaded up on clams and oysters while waiting for the tide to come in enough to use the boat launch, got back to the launch about the time everybody else did, and got to witness the usual show of boat retreival ineptitude and some downright launch rage

Spawnouuut,
Where did you launch at?? I wasn't out myself, but my buddy launched at Misery Pt, pulled two pots and had 2 limits! He was done at 10 am! Gotta love that, pots were shallow also, only 175-180 feet. He says the trick is putting a Horse clam in in the bottom of the pot.

I'll be out there Wedneday, launching at o-dark-thirty from MiseryPt., will look for some Lings or Rock fish 'til Nine.

My first trip shrimping was quite a learning experience. I bought my trap at Sportco on Friday, mixed up some bait Friday night(mackeral & catfood), and headed to Hood Canal Saturday morning.

My neighbor bailed on me, so I went by myself. I got to the ramp near the power station at about 9am and launched immediately. Everyone was already out there, so coming late wasn't all bad!

I proceeded straight across and dropped my pot in 200' of water near some other pots. I left it down for about an hour and pullled up 10. A little disappointed so I went for deeper and then pulled up 3 lousy shrimp! My last pull was down a little more south in about 230' and I got a dozen. Pulled by hand so I worked hard for those 25 shrimp!!

After the last pull, I hit the beach and shucked my limit of oysters and got a couple horse clams.

Then came the worst part of the trip. At about 3pm I headed back to the launch. Boats everywhere. Since launching and retrieving goes by trailer position, my choice was to either leave my boat on the rocks to get beat up while I waited in the line with my trailer and then holding everyone up as I struggled with my boat alone, or... do what I did and wait it out. The ramp finally cleared about 6pm.

I won't be doing the Hood Canal shrimping alone again! The shrimp are good but not that good.

Also, I heard that the boats north of Hoodsport did much better. Around Lilliwaup???

I launch at Potlatch, UM, closest launch to where I live. I run north a few miles to fish though. Sounds like it was pretty good for most folks, and with all the effort I wonder if we are even going to get 4 days before the quota is gone

UM,
I will be out Wednesday too and launching at Misery Pt, but fishing a ways south. Do you do good on lings in the HC, don't tell here, but would love an e-mail. The few places that I know to get them are a long run from Misery. I'll be in a smaller 14 ft hi-laker with three guys in it, hopefully back to the ramp by 1100.
see you there.

NEN

We ran over from Everett Saturday morning - along with many, many other boats.

Our shrimping was fairly successful in the end, but we had our share of headaches along the way.

We dropped our 3 pots right at 9:00am and the current had pushed 2 of our floats under by 9:02am. They didn't pop back up until almost noon. So, we spent the first three hours looking for our 2 lost pots and trying to get the 3rd to stick to the bottom...it kept drifting away.

I the last hour, however, we got 95 shrimpees.

We dropped a guy off at the launch on the NE side of Hwy 104 at about 2:00pm. There wasn't a lot of water on the ramp, but boats were doing OK getting out, considering the current running through there. Our big mistake was setting his shrimp pot up on the cooler so we could hand it to him once he was on the dock. I bumped the throttle to get us up to the dock and the shrimp pot tumbled off the back of the boat. Coincidentally, this was the pot that we didn't loose at 9:00am...

Darn - gotta keep that stuff in the boat!

we had to work hard to get limits by 1PM as just one of our pots was getting most of the shrimp. I think I need a little more practice...

We threw one back, three limits. 89 shrimp in one pot!

Do you need to run down to Hood Canal Bridge to get them?

Averaged about 40 -50 shrimp per pot.Pulled every hour.Easy limits for 5 of us.Cant wait for sat. Had the pot puller set up,what a difference from pu;;ing 300'by hand. Weather was great.We the first ones back to the launch,waiting for the tide to come in.As we sat on the beach.The hoards showed up,crowded areound the ramp,so we kicked back and watched for a couple hours.Guess what we ended up being the last boat to pull out,and still had a terrific time.And seafood and springer feast to boot.

Well its one thirty, the boats washed down, the gear is put away, half the limit is freezing in water as we speak and the other half, oh wait, ok gone. Think I will go take a nap. By the way the shrimping was slower today than Wednesday. Other reports?

NEN

I know what you mean about the wind there AM, I'm glad my boat was not the one being tossed around on the beach, that misery launch is much less protected than Potlatch, we were at the ramp at 1109 today, Wednesday was 1030, thats what I ment about slower, although we had three people wed, and just two today. Can't complain.

NEN

Spawnout I thought all the shrimp were dead....hmmmm at least you said so?

We had two limits in 3 pulls shrimping up off of Little Beef Creek. Also brought home a couple nice sized Rockfish. We were trying to pick up a ling but couldn't keep the Rockfish off.

Man, what a memorable Memorial shrimping day, had our 5 limits in less than 4 pulls - the first pot had 143 and the second 147 . Had to invite the inlaws on board again to take care of the rest of them. Going one more time Wednesday - think I'll bring fewer pots :p

Gooose, if you will check the archives on the WDFW web page you will find that there were a couple of public announcements last fall about the severe paraitic infestation discovered on shrimp sampled during the low DO event, and the acting Program Manager himself was expressing concern that it may affect harvest possibilities this year. It is certainly in hindsight not a problem, but WDFW was concerned about it to make a public announcement. Just so you know I was not making it up

Maybe it was all them stripped salmon left by the tribes