Shrimp Season is upon us!

[Rob Holman]

Hey all: Shrimp season is upon us once more.

Here is the announcement. Note that they do not call it out in the announcement, but if you check the regs, you will see you can dive for them in area 8-2 from 7 pm to midnight.


Here is the release:
WDFW NEWS RELEASE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/
April 24, 2007
Contacts: Mark O’Toole, (360) 466-4345 ext. 241
Therese Cain, (360) 796-4601 ext. 210
2007 Puget Sound shrimp season to open May 5
OLYMPIA - With the exception of one area, this year’s recreational shrimp fishery in Puget Sound will open May 5 under seasons announced today by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The exception is the Discovery Bay Shrimp District in Marine Area 6, near Port Townsend, where shrimping will remain closed due to extremely low catches in pre-season testing, said Mark O’Toole, WDFW fish biologist.
"Each year before the season opens we monitor the catch rates and do an assessment of several popular shrimp-fishing areas," O’Toole said. "The number of spot shrimp in Discovery Bay was too low to open the fishery this year."
Another change this year occurs in Marine Area 7 (San Juan Islands), where shrimping will be open four days a week.
"In the past, Area 7 was open daily, but the quota was reached so quickly we changed it to Wednesdays through Saturdays, to try for a longer season," O’Toole said.
Similar to last year, Marine Area 11--extending from the northern tip of Vashon Island to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge--will be open for just one day, Saturday May 5, to keep the recreational catch within the area’s spot shrimp harvest quota.
As usual, shrimpers should expect plenty of company on the water, O’Toole said.
"Recreational shrimp fishing has increased dramatically in almost all areas of Puget Sound in recent years," he said. "For example in marine areas 8 and 9 near Whidbey Island, we’ve gone from about 300 buoys on the opener five years ago to nearly 1,200 now."
Various fishing schedules will be in effect in the following areas:
• Marine Areas 4 (east of the Bonilla Line), 5, 6, and 13 (excluding the Discovery Bay Shrimp District) will be open daily beginning May 5 at 7 a.m. until the quota is reached, or through Oct. 15, whichever comes first.
• Marine Area 7 will open May 5 at 7 a.m. and will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays only until the quota is reached.
• Marine Areas 8, 9, and 10, will be open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Wednesdays only, until quotas for those areas are reached, or until May 31, whichever comes first.
• Marine Area 11 will be open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 5 only.
• Hood Canal (Marine Area 12) will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays and Wednesdays through May 16, or until the quota is reached, whichever comes first. Additional dates and times may be announced if sufficient quota is remaining.
A strong tidal exchange expected on opening day will mean more challenging fishing conditions, O’Toole said.
"It’s the luck of the draw on the tides, and this year we’re not so lucky on the Saturday opener, although the tides will be more favorable by the next week," he said.
More information on shrimp seasons and rules is available on the WDFW shellfish hotline at 1-866-880-5431, or online at http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/fishcorn
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[Nwbrewer]

Ok I give up, how do you catch shrimp while diving? Snag them by the tenticles?


This sounds like fun, any tips?

Jake

[Joshua Smith]

Ok I give up, how do you catch shrimp while diving? Snag them by the tenticles?


This sounds like fun, any tips?

Jake

I'm pretty sure dynamite is involved, somehow........

[Burntchef]

some black market c-4 should do the trick, i think i still have some from my days as a arms smuggler. aaahhh those were the days!

[Rob Holman]

I don't think I would ever want to see a shrimp with tentacles.... That would be creepy! Maybe with all the pollution in Commencment bay we will see some soon..


I use a light, a bag and a stick. light makes them look at you (and back away, they don't like them), you put the bag behind them, careful not to touch the antenna (or the tentacles), and then tap their rostrum with the stick. They scoot into the bag and there you go. Piece of cake.

There are dozens of other techniques, but that one works best for me.

[Sounder]

[Tom Nic]

Gotta try this...

I have visions of breathlessly tearing after dungies who are running away at breakneck speeds...

But this sounds different than that?

Hmmm... Mmmmm... Shrimp....

[John Rawlings]

Hey, Rob!

Question: Are divers restricted to ONLY dive for shrimp between 7:00 PM and midnight, or can we also dive for them during the "normal" shrimping hours that the pot fishermen have?

- John

[Rob Holman]

You can dive anytime it is open, as well as between 7 and midnight as I read it. Might want to call to validate.

We did a scouting dive on Monday night around 9 pm. We found pockets of shrimp between 100 and 120 feet, decent numbers at 130, and vast herd between 140 and 160 and hordes of Little red eyes looking back at us below 160. If we went in an hour or two later I would expect to see everything shift up 20 feet or so.

We did some scouting dives a year or so back at 1pm on a sunny day. we went to 190 feet and I think we saw 3 shrimp total. So if you go during the day, be ready to drop to between 200 and 250 to get decent quantities-at least at the muk boat launch. Maybe at 7 AM you might get some in the mid 100's.

The reason they made an exception for divers in area 8-2 is that a case was made to game and fish that most divers would be excluded from shrimping once they moved the legal hours to the 7 to 3pm restriction.