Early season shrimping near Whittier-how far?

[akpfeiff]

So I'm thinking about heading out for the opening of shrimping season this weekend--even though the taxes aren't done yet:mad:!

With the price of fuel at the moment, I'm looking to burn as little as possible. Can a guy do alright shrimping in Passage Canal, like near Shotgun Cove where there is good anchorage, or do I need to run out to past Pigot somewhere to get into good shrimping?

Not looking for exact locations--unless, of course, you want to tell me your hot spot!--but any general advice/knowledge would be greatly appreciated!

[skydiver]

I've often seen pots in Passage Canal right across from the harbor, by the big waterfalls. And in Passage Canal on the right as you're heading out. And in and in front of Pigot Bay.

[T.R. Bauer]

I've often seen pots in Passage Canal right across from the harbor, by the big waterfalls. And in Passage Canal on the right as you're heading out. And in and in front of Pigot Bay.

You sure do. Passage Canal is not a bad place to place pot at all. I have and done just fine. As Steve says, steep and deep is good and Passage Canal has plenty of that.

[jrogers]

Agreed, you can do just fine in Passage Canal. One caution is to try and not put them in line with where everyone their boats when coming in and going out. With the morning and evening sun it can be hard to see the buoys, and I am sure more then have been 'stolen' by someone running them over and chopping the line. Setting by the waterfalls is fine. If it is stacked with pots there, I recommend just following the shoreline east until there is room at 300-600 feet.

[skydiver]

Agreed, you can do just fine in Passage Canal. One caution is to try and not put them in line with where everyone their boats when coming in and going out. With the morning and evening sun it can be hard to see the buoys, and I am sure more then have been 'stolen' by someone running them over and chopping the line. Setting by the waterfalls is fine. If it is stacked with pots there, I recommend just following the shoreline east until there is room at 300-600 feet.

I agree and please do not use white or black or blue buoys!

[Kardinal_84]

So I'm thinking about heading out for the opening of shrimping season this weekend--even though the taxes aren't done yet:mad:!

With the price of fuel at the moment, I'm looking to burn as little as possible. Can a guy do alright shrimping in Passage Canal, like near Shotgun Cove where there is good anchorage, or do I need to run out to past Pigot somewhere to get into good shrimping?

Not looking for exact locations--unless, of course, you want to tell me your hot spot!--but any general advice/knowledge would be greatly appreciated!

I hear you on the fuel prices. I have been reduced to this for my shrimping this year. The beauty is it fits on the top of my civic and the tunnel only costs $10 bucks!

Anybody with an outboard should go at least a few miles out of port (or at least farther than you think an out shape guy would care to paddle)..I hear the shrimping is better out there! Lol.



The most fuel efficient shrimp catchin' machine in PWS or a one way ticket to Davey Jone's locker? We will find out this weekend!!!!!

[akpfeiff]

I agree and please do not use white or black or blue buoys!

No worries--my bouys are bright orange, and I also have one of those little foam floats with PVC stick attached to each line. And I wont stick them right out in the middle of the shipping/boating lanes either!

Looks like the weather might just cooperate this weekend.

[Bullelkklr]

Hey there Kard -

You really might be better off just taking that Civic down to new sagaya and buying a couple pounds of shrimp (wouldn't we all)...

that just plain looks silly..and I thought/think that my baby buggy dinghy was pushing the limits.......

[Kardinal_84]

Hey there Kard -

You really might be better off just taking that Civic down to new sagaya and buying a couple pounds of shrimp (wouldn't we all)...

that just plain looks silly..and I thought/think that my baby buggy dinghy was pushing the limits.......

The sad thing is I agree with every statement you made except about your dinghy since I haven't seen it. To make matters worse I have a 22ft boat with 150Hp engine and a 16 ft skiff with a 30 hp engine. For various reasons I haven't fired up either in the past two years. Probably won't again this year. Maybe the 16 footer I will. Most of it fortunately due to the fact my fishing buddies are upgrading vessels faster than I ever could and the price of gas sure seems to get me invites a lot more often to split the fuel tab!

Consider this just "proof of concept" if I can pull it off safely. I still figure I can load another 75 pound onto that 9'3" in kayak before hitting the posted weight limit. Will not be testing that number anytime soon though. And I have already heard the comment from some of my friends. No, I am NOT doing this to try and increase the number of pots I can fish by adding a second vessel. I got two kayak sized pots for Steve the Potbuilder and that's what I am dropping. Just as a note, the mounts are all made to be temporary to figure out the positioning before I get real metal or HDPE to replace the wood mounts and etc.

Just as a note, during the testing phase, I was able to wind 200 yards/600 ft of line off a halibut reel with the drag set mediocre tight in less than 4 minutes on to the downrigger at a easily sustainable pace. Ok, so I will be pulling up on pot at a time and small ones at that but looks promising so far. I did install a 12volt plug into my kayak...wonder how I can fit one of those electradyne pullers onto this thing....lol.

[Bullelkklr]

I can't really tell how big your pot is but consider that you are pulling the water through the pot which is substantially heavier than just the pot itself. If you get lucky and have a basket full of shrimp then more weight. If you get unlucky and have a large octopuss in a pot and a large tanner on top of the pot it will be even heavier....

my dinghy is a 15ft zodiac....the harbormaster doesn't like seeing me with my camping gear loaded heading out - but I do go low and slow and have no fear of sinking it.

[akpfeiff]

Interesting rig Kardinal. I hope you're planning on wearing a drysuit, or at least a thick wet suit! Those sit-on-tops are best suited for Florida and Hawaii IMHO. Doesn't that front outrigger interfere with your foot placement?

[Kardinal_84]

I can't really tell how big your pot is but consider that you are pulling the water through the pot which is substantially heavier than just the pot itself. If you get lucky and have a basket full of shrimp then more weight. If you get unlucky and have a large octopuss in a pot and a large tanner on top of the pot it will be even heavier....

my dinghy is a 15ft zodiac....the harbormaster doesn't like seeing me with my camping gear loaded heading out - but I do go low and slow and have no fear of sinking it.

Once again I agree with what you are saying. There are videos on youtube of people doing it with a halibut rod and reel. that sounds dangerous to me. My halibut reels are too high speed and they are too hard to crank. The longer lever arm of a rod would certainly make it tippy.

But you are absolutely right. I plan on fairly intensely trying things at say 10 ft of water, then a little deeper. Let the pots free fall down and suddenly stop to see how it impacts the kayak...things like that. I'm obviously not trying to do this to save money on shrimp, lol. Other than a few pictures and videos, I am hoping it works out since I do plan on using powerboats to get to more remote areas and getting dropped off for a few days. Some shrimp, caught safely would be a nice plan on a camping trip. Many of the concepts are based on anchoring systems used by kayakers chasing sturgeon in OR and WA so I am sure that conceptually it can be done. they are pulling up drift boat anchors that often weigh much more than the pots.

The outriggers looks stable, my kayak though short is a tank at 33.5 inches wide. I've tried to gauge pulling force and such and so far everything has passed the test. I'm only at 75% of rated weight capacity for the yak so its not overloaded by any means though I doubt I would carry any more. the pots are 12X12X24 inches. 4 lbs I think and I will be adding 2 pounds of weight to each trap. On my powerboats the downriggers have no problems pulling up 8 and 10 lbs weights.

So you think getting an octopus would be a problem, eh? hmmm...that was one of my goals this year was to battle a decent sized octopus on my yak. not a good idea? lol. I am in the process of building octopus lair traps. the first ones are just buckets weighted down with a little cement and rebar legs to keep them from rolling. I want to use to explore the shallower water (less than 50ft). But depending on how well they crank up, I may try them deeper. We'll see. I can't find too many people that have done it so its hard to determine if there is a very good reason why or if its just because nobody has done it. I will try to do it as safely as possible.

Succeed or fail, I'd like to know the feasibility of this. Sorry to hijack this thread!

[Kardinal_84]

Interesting rig Kardinal. I hope you're planning on wearing a drysuit, or at least a thick wet suit! Those sit-on-tops are best suited for Florida and Hawaii IMHO. Doesn't that front outrigger interfere with your foot placement?

I wear a kokata supernova semi drysuit. I can fit into an M but I bought an XL so I could layer. The plan is to only deploy the outriggers when I am ready to drop pots. Deploy outriggers, turn around, flatten the seat, then all minor paddling and adjustments will be done facing backwards. At least that's the plan!!!

I paddled around in whittier March 27 this year already for 4 or 5 hours and caught a rockfish and a flounder. I stayed warm. Too warm when paddling. Here's the post I made of that trip in the kayaking section. http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/...-good-kayak...

I just have to know if something like this works or not. As I said previously, I own powerboats. this is something I am just curious about...something different.

[FamilyMan]

More power to ya Kard! Document it and post it back here. I'm rootin' for ya.

[Bullelkklr]

I do not doubt that you can do it and that you can catch shrimp or octo's...just be careful - which it sounds like you are. Good luck and do post up some pix.