Shrimping Bubba Gump Style

BW

New member
Joined
Jan 1, 2001
Messages
218
Location
Sitka, AK
Gents, here's some fun from Alaska.


We set some shrimp pots yesterday (on our way to soak in a local warm springs) and pulled them today.

Here I am 'manning the puller'...

f99c42f1.jpg


...which basically means I'm ready to hit reverse, or cut the line, if the shrimp pots are stuck on the bottom and the boat starts going over.


The first two pots in the boat, two more to go...

f99c42e8.jpg


...not looking great.

The 'biggest shrimp'!...

f99c42dd.jpg


I should point out my wife was wearing about 5 layers of cold weather gear, and the boat ride had messed up her hair.


The 'haul'...

f99c4100.jpg


... well it almost filled up a large zip lock bag.

This spot is close to town, so it's easy to check the pots everday. I'm still trying to find the shrimp gold mine.
 
Looks like it is going to be some fine dining. Putting that boat to good used, eh?
 
Gents,

They were very good! Todays pull was about two thirds of the pictures above. :( I gave them to a buddy.

We did reset the pots in another area, a bit deeper and a bit more out in the open water.

Well see what happens tomorrow.
 
Sure Moosie! We just need to figure out the details.

This boat is set up to be a bear-killing machine!


I'm in the process of having the 'cabin' portion enclosed in sunbrella canvas with plastic windows. That's for the family, as they need some protection from the wind. There is no wind at the drivers position.

fa99948d.jpg


It can be beached in about 1 foot of water and be left 'high and dry' during low tide...

f9be522b.jpg


You can see the honda 11hp pot puller set up in that picture (the engine turns a hydraulic pump, which in turn powers the sheave.) It's all commercial quality and way overkill for my needs, and I'm going to sell it and buy an electric puller. That will free up alot of deck space.

The cool part is the boat has plenty of 'vee' in the hull design, and she takes rough water with no problems.

The orange line in the picture is what I use to tie the boat up to shore. When I 'parked' the boat, it was floating. It's important to use floating line (rope to you land lubbers
) as normal line will sink and get snagged on the rocks under water. Anyhow, as the tide went out the boat went high and dry. What's critical is knowing the tides! The next morning the tide was higher than the tide when the boat went dry. So when I woke up, the boat was floating again.

In the land of 20ft tidal ranges, you live and die by the tide book.


Anyhow, when you guys decide to hunt S.E. Alaska, let me know!
 
Ovis,

I went to my slip the next morning, cranked up the honda main engine, then started the 11hp pot puller motor (also honda.) After everything was warmed up I killed the puller engine and headed out solo. There was a good bit of wind chop (1-2 feet) going against the main swell direction. I found my bouy, stopped and restarted the puller engine, and after a couple approaches managed to get close enough to reach the bouy with a boat hook. No sooner than I managed to get the line over the davit pulley (without falling overboard
) the puller engine died. :( Not a sputtering type dying, but a sudden type dying. I tied the line off to the forward port cleat which kept the bow headed into the wind and chop, and tried to restart the engine. After about 10 minutes of pulling on the starter rope, with not even a sign of life, I untied the line from the cleat and threw the bouy back into the water, and came home.

I worked on the engine Thursday, but it still wouldn't start. I was busy with home stuff today and didn't get to work on the engine. I'll head down tomorrow with some fresh gas and a new spark plug. Maybe I'll get lucky.


I've got a friend who's test running a troller tomorrow, and he's going to look for my pots (I showed him where they are on the chart) and pull them if he finds them. If not, I'll head out and pull the whole string with a anchor ball retrieving system. It's not ideal, but I'll get my gear out of the water until I get the puller engine fixed.

It's all 'par for the course' when dealing with boats.
 
BW, BOY even for a Few Shrimp that sure looks like fun !!!! Some day I'll go on a Boat ride with ya... Looking for Shrimp and Chasin' bear
 
BW

That is great news on the pot puller. Hopefully you'll get your fill of shrimp. I like mine drenched in melted butter with a few bud-lights to wash it down ;)

Keep an eye out for a PM, I'll be shooting you one in a short bit.

:)vis
 
Got the pots back today. You'd think, that after soaking for a week we'd have done better than the usual 'half-a-baggy' haul. Oh well. Got a buddy who has his pots out there too, and his boat broke. So we're going out in my boat to get them tomorrow. Weather is suppose to suck.
After that I think I'll pull the boat for some TLC.
 
oldoregon,

You fishing the river, or the pennisula?


Honestly, are you just doing the river for Kings, or going on a halibut charter?

Good luck...
 
we are doing the river for kings for 1 day, then doing a canoe campingtrip on a smaller river for 5 days, then chartered halibut fishing for 1 day, then grayling and other salmon species on the kasilof.
 
PEAX Trekking Poles

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