Strait of Juan de Fuca Shrimping June 2020

A recent trip report from our shrimping trip in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on June 1st, 2020. Read about where to catch spot shrimp a short run from John Wayne Marina.

You should always check out our complete guide to catching spot shrimp for all the important details you need to consider when shrimping and trust me there are many. I keep a detailed log of all my fishing trips, shrimping trips, and what I learn along the way.

When shrimping in Marine Area 6 or Marine Area 7 or any area with lots of current, you really need to have your shrimp bait dialed in. Too runny and it will wash out of the pot too quickly, allowing much of the shrimp to leave your pot before you check it. Too thick or dry and you won’t get the scent trail you need to really bring them in.

This is all about Goldilock’s Principle of just enough and the right balance. One of the things that has helped me, is I bring along all the bait ingredients (mackerel, cat food, pellets, etc), that way I can add this or that based on how it is performing.

One of the major things to consider when shrimping the Strait is to ensure your pots weigh at least 30 pounds. The SMI fast fishing pots are about 10 pounds, so I add two 10-pound barbells to them (after Plasti-dipping them) and zip-tie them in place. Also, you want to use lots of floatation and a pot anchor.

Always, always, always pick the right tide, with tidal current on average < .25 knots.

We had 6 people on our boat and we left John Wayne Marina at around 8 am. We headed east out of Sequim Bay towards Protection Island, not wanting to venture out very far in the Strait as were in between Small Craft Advisories and it was blowing 15-25 further north.

We motored around looking for the shrimp for a few minutes before dropping our first pot in about 200 ft of water. Our best depth ended up being about 180 ft, which is far shallower than we normally fish. To say that there was competition for these shrimp is a bit of an understatement, but everyone was really cool.

Most boats only had 2-3 people in them and were all shrimping for 4-5 hours. We finally headed in at about 1:30 pm.

Definitely grinding it out, but we still got 5 of our 6 limits. I’m really looking forward to the June 11th opener. Take a look at our post about the 2020 spot shrimp season for planning your next shrimping adventure.