02/11/14 – Oak Hill Shrimping Report

2/11/14 – Oak Hill Shrimping Report Florida –

Capt Lee enjoys shrimping in Oak Hill Florida, the shrimping Capital of Florida. Her reports are both informative and educational.

My shrimping lights I used were (2) GW 75/75 MacDaddy with the green and white strip. I fired off both strips. My light configuration was 9pm and 3 pm set. Imagine looking at a clock. I pulled the 6pm scout light which I deploy when I want to upwell the fat daddy’s lurking lower in the water column. If there are none, I pull the light and in this case I pulled the 3rd light.

Night Summary — > Capt Lee vs. Mother Nature About To Birth A Cold Front

Total Count NOT GALLONS:—-> 28 count, just shy of a skunk

Horizontal setup at midnight
Wind NE, do-able at midnight, winds predicted to be NE 5
No debris, NO crabs, No eels, occasional clear jelly, water gritty
Water temp – 67.2 with nice moon fullness
Deployed frame net
About 10 boats out

Problems

Winds kicked in blowing NE 12+ with gusts to 15mph
Conditions deteriorated quickly
Lighting over ocean, squalls off shore
River was white capping with 1 foot rollers
Unable to safely remain horizontal, had to hold on to bars on center console to maintain balance
We quit 2 hours into tide.
Tide was sheared off and stalled by strong winds
Frame net caught 2 shrimp
Pounded with spray over over bow while heading home

Here is my pipe setup, note the white tape on the 10 foot pipe, those white areas are where I have rings to clip my double rope Shumaker frame net which I cut down to about a foot per each line. I sunk U-bolts in my stern wing and pipe out my frame net away from my dip field. My boat is set up horizontal which makes my pipe pointing East.

Was going to shoot a pic of my frame on the pipe but conditions were to rough. The boat was rocking dangerously side to side due to 2 anchors out. Taking the pounding on the North side of boat. Hence, we called it quits, yanked lights in and decided to sort out at my dock. The canal was glass and no wind, amazing how we can get caught in a washing machine and then turn into a canal with no wind and glass ( was west), that just shows you how strong that North wind was.

Disappointed, Ayup. Anytime Haulover spits a 5 gallon bucket, we want to be in Oak hill 24-48 hours later, and this week we get all bad weather. Seems when we get early tides, great winds, great moon or bio mass from Haulover we have weather.

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Frustrating Shouting

Teachable Equipment Moment –

White Areas are SS 1″ rings, SS O-Ring clamped on, hose clamp adjustable rings. This is my frame net piped out away from light field so the light field does not steer the shrimp away from the frame net. This is a 10 foot piece of pipe 3/4″ galvanized.