Man what a dump. I googled that Miami address where I grew up and, yea, we're talking D.U.M.P. course it was 50 years ago too.

Moving on to something more interesting, I posted a couple shots of my shrimp ground, to give you an idea of what Heaven must be like! That jelly was in a bay with what I guessed to be millions of others last year, glad they don't find their way into the pots!
I'll get off work and go home in a couple days during which I'll get the boat ready for our mid April trip. (first of the year)
There's also a shot of a new block I made this winter, as a machinist I've made all of the jewlery on the boat!
Mike

Man, it's hard to leave the traps home, and this winter's been sooooo dead.  When do you all start bringing the traps again?  I usually go along 528.

We share a lot of similarities! We have 4 species of shrimp up here and it was in the 40's last week as well. Uh, that would be -40! Here on the slope that is, at home were hovering around +35 at the present, which is encouraging.
Folks would save a bear skull much like you would whitetail antler, it's just a hunter kind of keepsake. If your into trophy this or that you need the skull from bears as the actual score of the bear is derived from the skull. And yes. Ive got one around the house, once I get home i'll forward a picture of that.
We have all five species of pacific salmon of which we target the red and silver variety. Many types of cod, ling are the only ones we eat and of course the halibut.
It is an interesting life but I should mention that I grew up on 188th street and 39th place in Miami as a kid! We left there in 1964 and I'm sure it has changed in that time.
Mike

Mike,

Looks like you have quite an interesting life.  I  would love to do some fishing there but not sure I could
handle the cold.  

We have been having what locals describe as a cold winter.  Several weeks of night time temperatures
in the low 40 degree F. range, with a few nights just below freezing. During the second week of January,
the Gulf waters nearby ( Sanibel Island ), dropped to 46 degrees, resulting in a massive fish kill.

Around Florida there are five species of shrimp.  Crabbing is mostly for Stone and Blue Crab. Some of my
favorite eating fish are Snook, Dolphin ( aka Mahi-Mahi, Dorado), Red Snapper, and Large Mouth Bass.  
What do you like to target?

That's something how you clean a bear skull with sea lice!  We have bears in Florida ( no Grizzly).  If I ever
wanted to clean a skull, I would probably place it on one of our notorious Red Ant hills. What do you do
with the skulls?  Have any pics?

SNATCHIT

                        

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For an idea of what's good verses the other google, alaskashrimppots.com. Steve is a retired after 35 year Lobster fisherman living in Palmer Alaska. Notice the similarities of his gear to the one shown from go-to marine. There are around 500 pot fishermen here in Alaska and I will say 3/4 of them fish Steves gear! On that mesh size, the bigger mesh will ensure bigger shrimp as the coctail size easily slip thru!. Yep $85 is a bit high and yep you can build your own. I'd be curious how they fish off a pier or abutment, we toss em into at least 500 ft of water and they out fish anything around! Oh yea, he also makes a real nice light weight folding jobber that might appeal to some of you, now those would lay down flat enough to make shipping resonable too!
Alasgun Mike

Old guys have to read things twice usually to get it right. Re-reading the earlier post I had mis-read the fish bait question. Yes I use these for fish bait. Early in the season our shrimp are pretty clean but once June hits you will get 5 to 20% eggers depending on where you shrimp. Coming from the extreme depths they do not survive and I have an aversion to eating the ones carrying eggs. Seems kind of nasty to me! So, while working the gear the eggers get tossed into a seperate tote and fished whole for rockfish and ling cod. The larger ones will cover a 10/0 hook perfectly and we get quite a few fish with them. For Halibut we use whole Salmon heads and for Salmon we use Herring.
A little side note; them sea lice mentioned earlier are great for "cleaning" up a bear skull. Simply tie the skull onto one of the pots and fish it like you normally would. It usually takes two pulls (24hr) but sooner or later it will come up absolutely clean!
Them shrimp make good bait for us too. See the photo of a few on the barby while at anchor one evening! I work for an Oil company on ALaska's north slope which is considered a "remote" location. With this job we have what is refered to as a schedule. That means I work at this "remote" location two weeks at a time then I'm off for two weeks. Kinda like having two weeks vacation every month, not too shabby huh? Well with this much time off a lot of boating takes place during our very brief summer. My trips typically take me 60 plus miles out into the sound and due to the great distance I like to stay at least 5 days at a time. The boat is self contained and just fine for me and the wife and maybe a grand kid.
Mike

Well, we do use some fish /parts but usually they come back full of sea lice which make a mess on board the boat. I much prefer the prepared commercial pellets which resemble cat food. They come in a five gallon bucket, have a real strong herring oil smell and last 24 hours! Oh yea, there cheep too at $35 per pail. One pail will last me all season.
As to size, looking at that chart I'd say my shrimp run xtra large to xtra jumbo. Now of course this is kinda vague cause they are not sorted, this is a pot run guess. Later in the season I always go deep (over 900ft) just to see what's down there. I have discovered that the count stays the same but ALL of the shrimp are those large ones when fishing deep. Personally, I prefer the smaller 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 inch shrimp as they are firmer then the big guys. Basing this opinion on how easily their head twist off.
I posted a picture of me running the gear for you. In this picture you get a glimpse of my davit , hauler set up along with some awfully nice flat water. I hate working pots in a 2 ft chop! Theres also a shot of the boat at anchor.
Mike

The boat is '82, motor '95, trailer '95, trolling motor '04, bimini top '04
  Call me at 321-427-2439

Looks very nice!
What year is the boat and motor and how much?

A crabbing group in Mayland I belong to (blue-crab.org) has a member who makes this crab measurer.
He actually helps out at a mentally challenged place and they make them for some modest income.
I think they charge $35.00 each. They look very high quality.
The Maryland boys are rather picky about measuring their crabs. This removes all doubt!