shrimping

we went out to area 6 today. tried a new spot that we had never tried before. we went to Eastern Bank. it is about 17 miles west of Deception Pass. a long run but we wanted to try it.
we set four pots and waited the hour soaking time and then pulled them up. after four pots emptied into the tub we had a good amount of spotted Shrimp on board. after deheading them we put them into quart freezer bags. we could get about 40 shrimp per bag. the count when all was done was 244 shrimp in one pull. the second pull we rolled the lines onto the hose reel as we brought them up. after all was done we had our 480 shrimp limit and dumped about 50 . a good day with two pulls and 3 limits.
 
Good Job! I have wanted to try Eastern, but haven't. Probably have to wait till next year since time and tide won't be right for my timing.
Any particular spot and depth on the bank you went to?
 
area 6 has been open 7 days a week all season. we were in about 260 ft. of water on the southern part of the bank. there was a commercial shrimper out there and he had about 4 different lines of 50 pots per line . we had to watch where we laid the pots so as to keep away from him.
we are going back out there today and tomorrow to end our season. the WDFW has posted that area 6 will close to spot shrimp on Sunday the 14th at 9:00 pm
all the rest of this weekend thru Sunday is very good tides with less than 1.5 ft. of tide change from high to low.
 
I've been puzzled and frustrated that they would increase the limit to 160 then turn around and shut the season down early this year. I left messages for both the WDFW guys listed on the memo closing the spot shrimp season in MA6 this Sunday. (Mark O'Toole, La Conner, (360) 466-4345 ext. 241, or Don Velasquez, Mill Creek, (425) 775-1311 ext. 112.)

Mark responded with a voicemail saying they increased the limit because they hadn't (ever?) reached the recreational quota of 15,000 pounds. He also admitted they didn't take into account that since salmon fishing was so poor, more boats would be out shrimping. Long and short of it is they reached the quota early. He indicated that if they increased the limits next year, it wouldn't be as much.

I haven't heard from Don

I still have questions about the process and formula they use to determine when the quota has been reached.
 
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