Tough Shrimp Opener

I opted not to take my boat and the family shrimping because of the minus tide and the windy weather forecast. I'm glad I made that decision. I instead got a ride with Duane, Nancy, and Kieth. There was construction going on at Twanoh State Park and they said parking was going to be limited. I arrived around 5:45 and saw that the launch was already open. Duane was already there so we launched without much incident. We tied up at the mooring buoys and hung out with Tom and another boat.

As we left the moorage the winds were already picking up. By the time we got to the shrimp spot the tide was already moving fast and with the wind coming from the SSW, the drift was almost 4 knots! In a nutshell, the conditions made it difficult to set and retrieve the pots. Boats were running over the flags, tangling other lines, and just a down right mess. As a result we lost our first pot.

Add insult to injury we were 30 shrimp short and dinged the prop as we took out of the ramp.