The Lowcountry Catch

The F/V Miss Henrietta called in this morning and reported a catch of 70 lbs. of brown shrimp tails on their first drag.  The tails are counting 31-35, which is a nice sized shrimp for this time of year.  Although he didn’t say, I’m sure Jeff and Richie are very happy about heading the shrimp this week.  Everyone is looking forward to the fall and the white shrimp run, but for now, the trawlers out of McClellanville are doing okay.

The brown shrimp catch was up for the McClellanville fleet last week.  Some boats were reporting three and four basket drags.  The price at the dock isn’t great, but its also not as bad as its been.  There have also been a few white shrimp starting to show up, which, given that it’s still July, is a bit early.  The captains are non-committal on what this might mean, but let’s hope it means a great fall white shrimp run!

Jeff called earlier today and said that the captains met at the dock this morning and decided not to go out.  The winds were from the Southwest at about 20 and the seas are running 4-5 feet.  The catch has still been way down for everyone, and all of the boats have been grinding out 15 hour days.  With low numbers coming back to the dock, its just not worth the risk of everything that can go wrong out there.

The end of white shrimp season (and really the whole thing) was pretty slow for everyone.  No boats were reporting anything better than average catches.  Most of the boats have changed over to their brown shrimp nets now and are waiting for the shrimp to show up.

Jeff called in today from the back deck of the Miss Henrietta while they were on the way out to the shrimping grounds.  He and Richie changed the nets on Monday, and have been out every day since.  They have been grinding on small numbers and even smaller shrimp.  It’s pretty rough out today with winds from the NE at 15-20 and seas are running 4-5 feet.  Not normally the type of weather you want for shrimping, but they’re hoping that the catch will improve with tonight’s full moon.

I’ll get a report from them this evening and post it in the morning.  In the meantime, Carrie has a great recipe for Shrimp Spring Rolls on her Charleston real estate site.  Brown shrimp works great for them, so check out the recipe and get your order in for some fresh shrimp!

All of the boats were able to go out for the second day of the season, and most of the boats took a right out of the channel and headed south to the waters off of Edisto.  Supposedly the shrimp are thicker down there, but I haven’t heard a report of their catch yet.  Jeff and Richie (F/V Miss Henrietta) and Capt. Jimmy “Big Red” Scott (F/V Mary Margaret) decided to stick it out off of McClellanville and had the water to themselves.  Jimmy wasn’t doing so well and decided to head to Edisto as well by mid-morning.  Jeff and Richie had the water to themselves and caught about 100 lbs. of nice white shrimp.  It was still pretty rough with seas 5-7 feet out of the east and the wind picked up to 20mph out of the northeast and east.  They also had a C130 buzz them about 200 feet over the water before it banked hard and headed north.  Depending on what the boats in Edisto are catching, they may decide to head down as well.  More on that when the report comes in…

As it turns out, two boats did make it out yesterday.  Richie and Jeff got to the entrance of the creek first and decided to have a go of it.  The rest of the boats turned around because of the 6-8 foot seas and strong winds out of the east.  Captain Charles of the F/V Sandia made an appearance later in the day.  Jeff claims it was the roughest seas he has ever shrimped in, and it definitely affected the catch.  The had about 30 lbs. of white shrimp and a bunch of bruises by the end of the day.  Jeff shot some video footage and will be posting it soon.  Hopefully it will calm down a bit, but it doesn’t look like it for the next week or so.

I ran into a buddy of ours from the Lowcountry, Brian Macomson, last night, and he was showing me some pics of the cobia he’s been catching off of Ocracoke Island up in NC.  He’s been fishing with Captain Russell Williams on his 30′ Island Boatworks express.  They’ve been sight casting for the cobia and caught ten total this day.  The biggest was 90 lbs. which is a record for the island and only 6 pounds shy of the North Carolina record.  I know, not necessarily the Lowcountry, but definitely a nice fish.  Click here and scroll down for the story.

Opening day of shrimp season tomorrow, and although I doubt anyone will be out, I will still post a report.

In anticipation of opening day, here’s a short video I found that was shot aboard David Donnely’s trawler, The Village Lady:

SCDNR announced yesterday that the 2009 South Carolina shrimping season will open this coming Thursday.  You can read the press release here.  Thus far, provisional (offshore) waters have been open, but nobody has been reporting much of a catch.  There should be plenty of shrimp inshore and still about a month’s worth of good white shrimp, so the season is on.  With the marine forecast, though, I’m not sure how many boats will be going out Thursday.  With this weather it will also be anybody’s guess where the shrimp will be.  I’ll have an opening day report up by Friday morning.

Although we haven’t been oystering in about a month, DNR did announce that the oyster harvesting season ended on May 15.  Clam harvesting will remain open until May 31.  I hope everyone had their fill of fresh Bull’s Bay Oysters this season and attended their fair share of oyster roasts.  Until next season…