We’ve been out shrimping twice on Hood Canal so far in May of 2019 and would like to share some insight about those experiences that can help you plan your shrimping trip as well.
A successful shrimping trip starts long before you are out on the water or even at the boat launch. There’s a critical planning step that can make your trip on the water enjoyable and your harvest successful. There are a few questions you should attempt to answer in the lead-up to your shrimping trip that you can deal with at home:
- Where will you launch your boat from (assuming it’s trailered) and what time will you need to be at the launch?
- Where will you be planning to shrimp?
- What is the expected wind speed and direction?
- What are the currents expected to be?
- What about bait preparation? Does your bait need to soak overnight or defrost from being previously frozen?
Launching your boat
Hood Canal has several boat launches, but we will cover two of the main ones you should consider, Skokomish Park and Seabeck.
There’s a 3 lane boat ramp near Potlatch at Skokomish Park. The launch is operated by the Skokomish tribe. The fees they charge vary, but on a shrimp opener, you can expect to pay 10$ to launch and 10$ to park. The ramp itself is well-maintained and quite nice.
There’s no dock though, so you should be ready to enter your boat through a bow entrance and be able to safely beach it to load/unload passengers.
If you arrive after 7:30 am for a 9 am opener, all bets are off that you will find parking.
Seabeck has a one-lane launch. The launch is not super well maintained, but it’s acceptable.
Parking is free if you have a Discover Pass. There’s also overflow parking if the smallish lot fills up (which you can expect by about 6:30 am on a 9 am opener).
You will likely have to launch with your tires partially in salt water due to the angle of the ramp being too gradual.
Shrimping locations in Hood Canal
We shrimped the first Wednesday opener in May on the 15th and the opener on the 29th. We launched in the southern part of Hood Canal at Skokomish Park on the 15th and fished the southern end.
We launched at Seabeck on the 29th and fished the northern end. Our results were significantly better on the northern side. We heard similar comments from the shrimp checker. Going further north from Skokomish Park yielded better results than staying near the far southern end and a lot of the areas around Seabeck produced limits for folks.
We limited out in 1.5 hours near Dabob Bay on the 29th and generally found more shrimp and more room to shrimp even though there were still significant numbers of people in the area.
You can also get more information on Shrimping locations on our Spot Shrimp page.
Below are some suggested areas you could hit on the next opener:
The contour lines on the above bathymetric chart show a drop off to 300+ feet in the center of the channel in front of big beef harbor. We counted 40 boats shrimping that 250-300 ft contour line.
Look at the contour lines in that 250-300 ft area along the Dosewallips shoreline, there were quite a few boats clustered in that area.
You do not have to travel far at all. There were a significant number of boats shrimping no more than 200 yards away from the boat launch. If you are looking to save some fuel, this might be for you.
In general, unless one of these spots holds significant numbers of shrimp, you won’t get fast and easy limits shrimping near everyone else, as you will be competing with their bait in the water for attracting shrimp to your pots.
There were others who limited out early, but the vast majority were still out shrimping when we pulled up to the launch around 11:30.
So while I’m sure everyone got lots of shrimp, I’m willing to bet that those who limited early, did so in an area with a lot of shrimp and not a lot of competition.
Know how to look for shrimp habitat by looking at your sonar and studying bathymetric charts on an app like Navionics. I often have the Navionics app open at home when I get a free moment, to look at prospective locations. I may also be a tad obsessed with shrimping though 🙂
There are lots of weather apps out there that will give you predicted wind speed and direction by hour. You can also use the Windy app to give you a good visual of expected conditions. The current is also available on Navionics.
Something I also make sure I do when I get to my shrimping location is to put the boat in neutral or turn the engines off and just drift with the wind/current.
I want to know before I drop a pot, what I’m dealing with. I will pay attention to the Sonar / GPS telling me how fast I’m drifting. If I’m moving anywhere near or above 2 mph, it’s going to be a tough day. I wouldn’t even shrimp a current higher than .5 knots, so if it’s all wind moving me that fast, it’s good to know.
Why is it important to know what direction your drifting? Consider this question: What depth do you drop your pots in? 250-300, maybe 330 max, right?
That means there’s between 70 and 150 ft of additional rope (assuming you are using the standard 400 ft ropes) between your buoy and your pot. You can then assume that wherever you see another buoy, the actual pot is a good 70-150 ft up current/wind of that buoy. I see this all the time when shrimping in crowded areas.
Someone goes 100 ft upwind of a buoy they see, thinking they’ve given them adequate spacing and then they drop their pot on that spot. When their buoy goes in the water and stops drifting it comes to rest within a few feet of the buoy that was 100 ft downwind of where they dropped their pot. This can create quite the challenge, and lead to pots not fishing, or worse, lost pots and angry shrimpers. Don’t be that shrimper 😉
In terms of shrimp bait, I use a combination of pellets, canned mackerel, and cat food. I will make a big batch in a cooler for a trip and then freeze the leftovers by placing the entire cooler in the freezer. It’s critical to remember to take it out 24 hours before the trip so it has a chance to defrost. I will also freshen it up a bit with more mackerel and cat food and give it a good stir.
June 1st, which is this coming Saturday, is the last chance to get shrimp out of Hood Canal this year (unless they extend the season). Hopefully, some of this information gives you some ideas about how to prepare, and where to go to have a good trip. You should definitely check out my YouTube video on shrimp pot rigging and enjoying your catch. You can also review my report from the MA11 opener.
