Shrimping in Hood Canal
 

Have any of you ever tried shrimping in Hood Canal. I tried for the first time two years ago, it was a lot of fun. If I can find some of the pictures and figure out how to post them, I will. They are about the best shrimp I have ever eaten but maybe that is cause I had to work so hard at catching them. I am planning on going this spring if school doesn't interfere.

RE: Shrimping in Hood Canal
 

I havent for years, but it is fun. I never got very many shrimp although I know people who do.

RE: Shrimping in Hood Canal
 

If I am able to go, and the season is still open over memorial day weekend, that is when it will be. The area we go is pretty close to Bangor but a little to the south.

Nascar, if you ever get a chance to go with someone, you should give it a try. Do you do much crabbing over there?

RE: Shrimping in Hood Canal
 

Are you guys using Trawls or Pots? What kind of shrimp are you catching? How many per pull or pot?

RE: Shrimping in Hood Canal
 

We're using pots. And it can really depend on how many we pull. But the limit is 70 per day per person, with a max of four pots in on the boat. I have known it where one set with three pots have come up with limits for 4 in two pots (which of course was the day I couldn't go), and other times where it takes 3 or 4 sets to get a partial limit. The boat owner gets the biggest share though which he deserves with his ragtagged crew. The "season" is strange, typically it is a Wednesday and Saturday from 9:00 AM through 1:00 PM, and it will run every other week for 8 weeks. The Indians have the week the sports people don't have, and since they are semi-commercial, they hit it pretty hard. They are the Hood Canal Spotted Shrimp which is a sub species of the Spotted Shrimp, and I don't know if the spotted shrimp is a Pacific Northwest shrimp or a shrimp localized to Pugetsound, but I know you can catch spotted shrimp up in the San Juans.

RE: Shrimping in Hood Canal
 

P.S.
Two seasons ago I tried shrimping for the first time ever. I only had a small Crawdad trap wieghted with 10lbs. of lead and gave it my best shot! My friend which has cabins up on Orcas Island took a few of us out on his annual cruise of the whole chain of Islands which takes nearly 3+ hours. We stopped in a channel on the west side of Orcas between another finger island just to the south. The tide was just coming in and when I went to set the pot it literatly went down at a 45o angle and was carried away very quickly! Finally it settled in about 120' of water in the current(thanks to the 10lbs. of wieght we put in it)!The bootom was odviously sandy. We headed out to do some exploring in the area and arrived back to the area some 2 hours later and almost didn't find it. We searched with binoculars and one of us finally spotted the bright yellow bouy some 1/2 mile from were we had originally set it! I grabbed the weighted rope and began to pull it up carefully....when it reached the surface there were shrimp in it but not many, and had concluded the funnels in the ends was just too big.(Funny thing is all shrimp pots sold are just large crawdad traps and sold as Shrimp pots!)
We counted over 15 or so and then headed back to his cabins (The boats captin, Mike) on the water down the bay. I then got out the fishing regs after arriving and determined that there were 4 different species of shrimp in the San Juans; Humpy, Coonstripe, Spot, & Dock shrimp. The first three were what we had caught in the channel, and the 4th. species was known to inhabit tidal flats and pools clinging and feeding on the rocks in shallower bays. The next day i decided to set this same pot near my crab traps and I ended up catching a few of these smaller Dockshrimp Too. So to sum it up I had caught all four species in one trip! Man are they cool looking for the first time seeing them alive... I can't what to try it again...



Edited by - Lady Grouse Hunter on 03/11/2002 23:40:48

RE: Shrimping in Hood Canal
 

puget, we go crabbing on a regular basis, gotta have something to stuff the trout with ya know. ive been shrimping, just couldnt find the fun in it, except the drinking part.