Spot Shrimp opens in area 8-2 on Saturday 5/6/06

[Rob Holman]

Reminder, Spot Shrimp opens up on Saturday 5/6!

It is open for divers at night in area 8-2 (Mukilteo/Everett area)

I spoke with Game and Fish on Wednesday, and the thinking is that if it runs like last year, it will probably be open on 5/6, 5/10, 5/13, 5/17, 5/20, and possibly even 5/24 (they got 6 days last year). Keep your eyes on the game and fish web site for emergency rule changes that will shut the season down, and could also open it up for an additional day in Late May/Early June.

Here is the web site: https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/index.jsp

My buddies and I will be at the Mukilteo Boat launch at around 8:00 PM. I will be taking surveys for game and fish so if you are there, I may bump into you.

Good luck!

[Rob Holman]

Good Times were had by all. 6 divers in my gorup, 4.5 limits taken.

[Spinal Tap]

Wow, didn't think those shrimp got shallow enough for divers. So tell us about this type of harvest.

Is it by hand?

what's the limit?

How deep?

What's the limit?

Thanks

[Rob Holman]

I just love the shrimp diving. It is my favorite thing to do while diving!

There are lots of ways to catch them, but it is all by hand. I find that using a mesh bag in one hand, with a small stick in the other to push them into the bag with works best.

Place the open bag behind the shrimp, then tap the shrimp on the rostrum with the stick, and they scoot backwards into the bag. Watch the antenna, if they touch the bag while you are setting up on the shrimp, they will scoot to the side of the bag rather than in it. I use a canister light that is mounted to the back of the hand that holds the stick. There is a point of diminishing returns as the bag fills up. Often you will get one in the bag while two escape.

Depth can be tricky. In daylight hours, they are found in 200+ feet of water. During the evening hours, they move shallow to feed (I guess that is what they are doing). Around dusk, they are in 160 or so. By 10 PM they are in about 100 feet of water in decent quantities. We go in a little early, and usually clean up around 140 to 150.

In 2005, game and fish changed the rules such that you could only catch shrimp between 7 am and 3 PM. This pretty much closed shrimping to divers (of which there is a small but loyal following). My buddy and I worked with game and fish to get an emergency rule change put in for 2005 to allow us to shrimp at night, and in 2006, it was added to the regulations that divers can shrimp from 7 pm to midnight.

The limit is 80 shrimp. I did the creeling for Game and Fish in 2005.
• I creeled 39 divers over the 4 day season.
• They harvested 1613 shrimp.
• The average take per diver was 41.
• 40% were taken at recreational depths (80 to 130 feet) by 67% of the divers surveyed
• 60% were taken at technical depths (140 to 160 feet) by 33% of the divers surveyed

So deeper is better, but you can still do OK at recreational depths.

I will get a table of the stats I ran off this later today.

[snowstopsspears]

So, how do they taste? How many people can you feed with 80 of those things?

[Rob Holman]

Here is the table

[Rob Holman]

They taste wonderful! sweet and mild. They are not as big as the gulf coast shrimp, but still pretty good sized. They can be 7-9 inches long, but average aout 6.5 inches or so.

very good stuff!

[southbound]

Cool thread guy's :beer: :beer: :beer:

[Rob Holman]

Season for divers is closing today (5/17) Last chance! We only got 4 days this year...

May 16, 2006




Recreational shrimp fishing closes on Wednesday afternoon in Marine Area 8


Action: Recreational shrimp fishing will close Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 3:00 p.m. in all waters of Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2, which include the Everett, Mukilteo and Saratoga Pass shrimp fishing grounds.

Effective dates: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 3:00 p.m.

Species affected: All shrimp.

Location: Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2.

Reason for action: The recreational spot shrimp share in these areas has been reached.

Other information: Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 will reopen for non-spot shrimp fishing opportunity on June 1st with a 150-foot maximum fishing depth restriction.

Contact: Mark OToole, LaConner (360) 466-4345 ext. 241 or Dave Sterritt, Point Whitney (360) 796-4601 ext. 228.

[Rob Holman]

some quick stats now that the season is over:

The harvest by divers went down in 2006. Ironically, the number sampled was identical. 39 people over 4 days. The harvest per person dropped from 41 to 34. This yielded a drop of 17% over 2005 in numbers.

In 2005, the recreational crowd (those diving at or above 130 feet) comprised 67% of the population, and harvested 40% of the shrimp. This dropped in 2006 where recreational divers comprised only 56% of the population and took 28% of the harvest.

This supports my gut feel which was that the shrimp were deeper this year. Day one was pretty good with good numbers in the 100 to 120 range. The big fields were found in 140 on the opener. It was overcast that day. I think that makes a difference as they begin their march to the shallows earlier.

The last three days were all bright and sunny. The Shrimp were also deeper. In fact for two of the 4 days, we had to goto the mid 160's to the low 170's to get the big fields. Last night they were the deepest yet with decent numbers at 150, but no significantly big fields until 175 or so.

So not a stellar year for divers in my mind, but still a heck of a lot of fun.

It should be noted that the pot fishers did better than last year. Hauls per pot were up double digit percentages over 2005 which is why they only got 4 days this year rather than 6.

Hopefully next year we will see more days and shallower Shrimp!

[Christof]

Season for divers is closing today (5/17) Last chance! We only got 4 days this year...

Thats so the Tribes and commercials can continue to rape.... I grew up near Mukilteo and have watched that area go from fantastic fishing/crabbing to what it is today, 4 days of shrimping for the sporties and crab regulations that are a joke... Sporty season closed yet you can find areas with 600-700 tribal pots in a square mile.... but "there arent enough crab for a continued sport season"... First they let the trawlers come in and clean out the sea bass and red snapper... Now they are letting the tribes clean out the crab, shrimp, and geoducks..... It's gotta stop....
Nice report though, makes me homesick for Gedney Island....

Christof