Back for the 2012 Shrimp Season

The gang is back for for the 2012 shrimp season. The stone crab research is over but the taste for crab meat has not faded. So, we will be setting some traps out for our personal consumption.




Over the off season Josiah and I ( Capt Dad ) worked on the boat ( Dirt Claw'd ) rebuilding the cabin area so that Kimberly and Sarah have a nice, clean place to sleep off seasickness. And, we changed out the console with mahogany after adding a new GPS plotter and DSI ( down scan imaging ) Monitor.


While I worked on the electronics, Josiah concentrated on the wood work. He has grown into an excellent helmsman, deck hand, woodworker, and all around mature young man.





Along for our maiden voyage of the new season, was our friend David. Although the seas were rough ( 4 ft swells / 5 second period / 12 mph wind ) I thought we could do well. I was wrong. Very wrong. I made a critical, all-be-it rookie mistake. I didn't soak the doors. Soaking helps add weight to the doors so that will sink more quickly. The lighter, more bouyant doors kept getting flipped over by the waves.

" let the lines out, watch waves flip the doors, pull back in 70 ft of line, flip the doors back over, let the lines out, watch the waves flip over the doors, pull back 70 ft of line, flip the doors back over, let back out ....." We didn't catch any shrimp, but we all got a good upper body workout.

However, we did have fun! Fellowship! And David got some good video of dolphins jumping and wrestling around in the water. Looked like they were having fun as well.

Making Doors

When we hit the snag, one of our doors was torn apart. I decided it would be best to replace both doors. And, this was yet another first for me. The building and setting up of doors is a bit of trigonometry, a bit of physics, and a bit of good old fashion trial and error. Two lines are stretched out behind the boat and connected to each of the two doors by a series of four chains.

Each of the four chains are set in various, but precise lengths so that the doors and net may work as units. As the boat moves forward and the lines tighten, the doors are pulled through the water. The varying chain lengths pitch the door so that the port side door moves further out away from the port side and the starboard door slides further starboard, thus pulling the net's mouth open.

The door must lean back and ride slightly nosed down along the bottom while angling out away from the boat. Think about that three times fast! 



Josiah is sitting beside the door so you can see the differing lengths of chain, and how the door pulls at an angle from the boat. You may also see the dark and lighter areas of the wood. The darker areas are where the door has been soaking in a water barrel. The soaking of the doors helps them to sink and ride along the bottom.

Even though we are but a little shrimping vessel, we carry out on a smaller scale what the bigger boys deal with in deeper water further off shore.

Mending Nets - Status Report

I dropped the net off at Billy Jordan's net company and the diagnosis was not good. A new net was Billy advice. Then Billy's nephew and protege', Butch Woodruff, stepped up to the plate.

Our net was the smallest net on the whole lot. A typical net for these guys is a commercial 40' with lots of, what they call in the business, volume. Volume is the key to catching the white shrimp variety because white shrimp tend to hang closer to the surface while brown shrimp lay on the bottom. So combing through the largest volume of water catches the largest volume of shrimp. Hence the term volume.


As you may imagine, a net shop has lots of ready made toys for a young kitten.

So, Butch did the math to match the mesh size and pattern, then laid into the repair. Two or so hours later he had our little net back together.

Now that we know that the net could be salvaged, it is time to rebuild the damaged door and get back in the water. Taking advantage of this down time, I am dropping the boat off at Libery Marine to let Clyde and Dillard do a little maintenance on our fickle engine.

Andersen Boys Ride Along

Out on the water today, the temperatures dropped into the 80's with just a slight cloud cover. The swells were 1-2 foot, with an 11 second time period between. Perfect day for shrimp trawling. Kip Andersen and his two sons, Nate and Alex, met us around 8 am at the Folly Island boat landing and we crept out to the open water through Lighthouse Creek.

A couple of larger shrimp trawlers were pulling closer in toward shore, so we decided to make a 20-minute pull close to the beach, and caught very little. So, we took our second pull about 300 yards further out and that was a little better. So Kip steered us another 300 yards or so off the shore. And, we started hitting the shrimp. We were onto their little "flippy" tail trails. And, then, we hit a 'snag.'

A snag is an obstacle on the bottom that can catch and tear the net. This particular snag jerked the boat hard when we hit. As Nate and Josiah pulled the doors up, I realized we had done far more than tearing the net. The runner (or skid) which rides along the ocean floor is bolted to the door. And the runner was completely ripped from door. Shrimping was done for the day, and done until we find out the cost of the repairs.

Snags are just a part of fishing. When Jesus called James and John to discipleship, they were sitting with their father mending their nets. Yep, even the Holy Land has snags. And, they were just as much of a pain back then as they are today. Maybe that's why James and John were so quick to jump up and follow Jesus. No more spending hours upon hours mending nets!!!  Later on John was boiled in oil and exiled to the isle of Patmos. But, he didn't go back to fishing. That says something about the monotony of mending nets.

And, as for wrapping up the day, leave it to boys to make a game out of anything. Nate, Alex, and Josiah started throwing bait fish up to the seagulls to see if the gulls would catch the fish. And sure enough,... the gulls caught a few in mid air. You know the old saying, there's nothing like the relationship between a boy and his ....seagull?

Alligator Bait

We live across from a fresh water pond located adjacent to a several hundred acres of good old Carolina Low Country swamp; the very same swamp that gave Revolutionary hero Francis 'Swamp Fox' Marion (pictured below) his cover for 'revolutionary' guerrilla war tactics and many Colonial victories over a far superior British fighting force. The battle of Parkers Ferry, which lead to the hanging of colonial sympathizer Issac Hayne, was fought just down the road from our home. (Information on Hayne can be found at http://south-carolina-plantations.com/colleton/hayne-hall.html)

With any swamp comes an array of wildlife. We regularly see osprey, bald eagles, deer, wild hogs, foxes, alligators, etc. And alligators are welcome guests as long as they do not make neighborhood pets a part of their daily diet. However, every once and a while one of the alligators gets aggressive and has to go.

This 7 ft. gator did not hesitate to approach the wrangler when he offered food. The gator had lost all fear of humans. Not good. Not good at all.

The alligator wrangler captured the gator, taped the mouth shut, taped a clothe over the eyes, tied the legs, and lifted it into the back of his pick up truck. Easy as pie.

After the alligator was calm and secured, the wrangler allowed the kids and the gathering crowd to touch and pet the gator while he answered many questions and told alligator jokes. This was not the first group of onlookers he has entertained.

A true professional can make even the most dangerous tasks look easy.

Sea Creatures and Guests

 Our fishing vessel, Dirt Claw'd, is expanding its crew, or at least its guest log. We have been blessed with a number of guests out to fellowship with friends and work for food. Dirt Claw'd has a full docket of guests for the next few weeks with more folks interested in coming along for the adventure. Thus far, all have had fun with surprisingly little sea sickness.


Of course proper deck behavior is an issue, as Casey threatens to chomp down on shrimp while the kids work to sort shrimp.







Sea creatures are always welcome aboard.  A shovel nosed shark found his way on to the deck (pictured left), as well as a few stingray and a dog fish, which are all in the shark family. As an interesting note, dog fish are a popular food treat in Japan. Fisherman here on the East Coast would pack dog fish in wet straw and ship them all the way to Japan. And these hardy little survivors would still be alive after weeks of travel. Amazing!


Every once in a while we pull up a particularly fierce critter like this little puffer fish. He sucked in a pile of water and blew himself up like the 'incrediable hulk' of girth. All aboard were terrified of his imposing roundness. In real life they do this expansion trick to keep larger fish from being able to swallow them.

As I have grow older, I find myself performing this same girth enlarging trick as the puffer. It is going to take a pretty big fish to swallow this man's belly. In fact, I think I'll go into the kitchen and expand my anti-Jonah physique. You can never be too safe at sea !