Today we are moving campsites so first order of business was to get the shrimp pots that we left out overnight, and the crab pots that I put inside Claydon Bay near the boat. We got a few more shrimp, but overall it was a disappointing shrimping session the past couple days. Same with crabbing, my pots were full of females and one molting male so couldn’t keep him. And I fed them SOOOO well with fresh salmon heads and pieces. Our cruise down to Cullen Harbor couldn’t have been better with glassy smooth water and sunshine trying desperately to penetrate the cloud layer creating a greenhouse effect – meaning, it was toasty inside. We arrived to find that this is a very popular place, about 10 other boats already here, but we found a niche in the corner of the bay and got the anchor set. Unfortunately, this spot was a bit open to the outside but with settled waters we hoped for the best, not like we had a choice as it was the only spot left. We had read about really good shrimping inside Booker Lagoon which is accessed through a narrow channel off Cullen Harbor that has some respectable rapids when the tides are running, so we timed our access at slack and dropped the pots inside in 300’ – the only shrimp hole in the lagoon as far as we could tell. Many others were already there, so it looked popular. We had a low-key afternoon on the boat puttering about and reading as it has been an active few days of fishing so we were both kind of beat. At the next slack we went back in to collect our pots, they’d only been down for 3-1/2 hours so I wasn’t super optimistic, but hallelujah! We found the mother lode. Both pots were teeming with shrimp and our 5-gallon bucket was quickly 2/3 full. It was the best shrimp haul of this entire trip and renewed my faith in the process!! Makes all the effort worthwhile. Back at the boat we had an assembly line where I headed them and John rinsed and packaged them for freezing. Dinner was ling cod piccata again, along with pearl cous cous and roasted broccoli. A great day!
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