Need help with spot prawns.

[bigshooter]

What works?
Tips ,tricks, bait, depth, bottom structure...
I have 2 traps seperated by 50 feet of poly connected to 300 feet of lead core rope. I have used ace of baits prawn pellets and sauce. I fish area 17 and 18 and so far have 2 prawns for 2 4 hour soaks. Any help?

[jeff]

try cat food seafood flavour in the can the mushy stuff be in atlest 300 ft of water and make sure the bottom is rocky steep cliffy areas seems best

[Fishgutz]

300 is the min depth! If you have a sounder or fishfinder that shows you the bottom putt around and look for structure and edges of drop offs. As for bait try putting some nice rotten chicken in your traps, backs work best because of the fat! Leaves a nice oil slick sent trail.

[jeff]

acually i got a spot in barclay sound that is 245 to 260 ft and average 60 to 100 prawns per trap so 300ft minimum isnt totally true

[Fishgutz]

Oh water depth varies on time of year, I've got them very shallow less then 200 in the spring. 300 is the min amount of rope I'd use.

[jeff]

good point prawns can be tricky critters a sweet spot can be sweet one day and crappy the next i find strong tide changes really helps

[westwayshooter]

I usually fish Howe Sound. Look for 300 to 400 ft. Rocky bottom at drop off seems to work. I usually count on at least an 8hr. soak and like to leave them overnight. Anywhere from 50 to 100 per trap depending on time of year.

[Johnnybear]

Carlise tuna cat food, pellets, and sauce. I sometimes prefreeze it in the jars the night before so it's less messy and lasts longer. Look for structure and drop off's try different depths till you find them and then concentrate on that depth. Record your depths and the time of year in a log book so you have something to start with next year. Most of all have fun!!!!

[tomahawk]

Carlise tuna cat food, pellets, and sauce. I sometimes prefreeze it in the jars the night before so it's less messy and lasts longer. Look for structure and drop off's try different depths till you find them and then concentrate on that depth. Record your depths and the time of year in a log book so you have something to start with next year. Most of all have fun!!!!

Great advice, Carlise works like a hot dam, I also use a commercial pellet at the same time. Caught them from 180 to 350 with the most common being 280 to 350 ft.

[pork n beans]

yup rocky bottom best, even some flat rocky stuff with the right structure is good, land slide tracks, side hills underwater, gotta be on the right side of the hill in the tide, gotta not have your traps flapping in the breeze down there so anchors are good. the buggers will move up at night and go down during the day so depth can depend on your spot but anywhere from 150 down to deeper than you want to fish is key, but usually 200-400 type of thing. traps matter, some traps fish better than others, i think it's a magnetic field thing some traps just are ****ed but look the same as the next.

bait cups gotta have holes sufficient for the prawns to get in and feed, prawns will leave the trap if can't feed or no bait left. the pellets take a while to soften and work better when soft. pellets work so does cat food, fish bits, i found eulachons to work well so anything fishy and oily.

i usually leave the gear overnight but lots of folks do will in a few hours,

keep at it you'll get the hang of it. it's important to get your gear on the right spot. there's prawns down there be assured. just keep flipping the gear until you get consistency. look at the chart for rocky drop off type of habitat and you'll find them

[Bucks&Ducks]

when you dehead the prawns you get grind up the heads and freeze them in salt water and use that for bait. It well works for me and doesnt cost anything. I prawn off of a flat gravel bottom that ranges from 180-210 feet deep and is 100 m off shore after a very steep drop off. If you get a chance if there are any in your area take a peek at where other guys are dropping the pots or even watch the commercial guys. dont put traps too close to commercial guys traps cause they will pull yours part way up and tie it to the float so it is off the bottom and can float away.

[Johnnybear]

That's why it's called fishing not just prawning. Them bug's are crafty. You have to learn their habit's etc. like in some of the other post's. Time of year, time of day, tides, etc. It is what keep's prawner's out there trying. It is all part of the fun. To get out on the chuck and harvest mother natures bounty if lucky and semi-smart about it. It is what keeps us spending hundred's if not thousand's of dollars a year on fishing:twisted::-D.

[Ioneth]

try cat food seafood flavour in the can the mushy stuff be in atlest 300 ft of water and make sure the bottom is rocky steep cliffy areas seems best

I have heard using cat food works well. I also hear to use it as bait for crayfish.

[Johnnybear]

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii297/Coal_miner/Crabbing%20and%20Prawning/NativeSonsHall010-1.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii297/Coal_miner/Crabbing%20and%20Prawning/NativeSonsHall004.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii297/Coal_miner/Crabbing%20and%20Prawning/CrabbingandPrawing2009008.jpg

[fearless]

Johnnybear how does one go about getting one of them hats.

[Ioneth]

Johnnybear how does one go about getting one of them hats.

If he has any left you get them from Marc
http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?63070-Max-4-HD-amp-Advantage-timber-hats

[bigshooter]

Thanks everyone for the help. Any help on what not to do? I stay away from the commercial guys and boat lanes but some of the narrow channels look like it is worth a try but i don't want my gear to get pulled away by strong tide. What kind of weight do people use to keep the traps in place? Should I get another 100 feet of rope? Is the outside water any good outside Galiano? What about between Galiano and Saltspring?

[fearnodeer]

Try to find a spot were fresh water comes into the ocean, its works for me.

[mjmbc]

cut up dogfish works awsome for prawn traps thats what the commercial guys used when i was a kid

[Mr. Dean]

I've done well on the strait side of Galiano but be sure you got good weight in the traps and that your bags are off decent size so the currents don't submerge them.


Dialing in a spot takes time and effort.

When fishing a spot, run the line so each trap is set at a different depth - 10 or 20 foot difference can be a huge deal. When pulling, try to start with the shallow one 1st and move off the hump, as it's less likely to fowl a trap on a rock. Also, fish the tide swings and check the traps @ slack. This will give you an idea of when the spot produces.

I would also get longer rope; mine are 400' long and I typically fish 275'-375'.


Good luck and invite me over for dinner when you hit the Mother Load!

[AlanF]

I am kinda embarrassed to ask this, but are the traps suspended in the water column? I would have thought you plop the trap down on the ocean bottom, but apparently the prawns move up and down in the water column. Do you drop a heavy trap as an anchor and then run several traps under your float up toward the surface?
Alan

[quadrakid]

Traps are not suspended in water column. Traps can be layed down at a range of depths because the seafloor is not flat .

[Mr. Dean]

I am kinda embarrassed to ask this, but are the traps suspended in the water column? I would have thought you plop the trap down on the ocean bottom, but apparently the prawns move up and down in the water column. Do you drop a heavy trap as an anchor and then run several traps under your float up toward the surface?
Alan

Traps are on the bottom. I run strings of 2 traps/mainline.

[bigshooter]

6 traps 3 3 hour dips for a total of 9hours in the water 200 prawns had to let 60 smalls and females go for a total of 140 plus or minus keepers. Thanks for the help. I think that I may have found a good spot. Some of our traps had problems next time might even be beter. Thanks again for the help.

[dabber]

I use Scotty bait containers and drill some extra holes in to help get the sent out better. You should also put them in your trap so that they can't get at them from the out side. If you over fill the containers with pellets it swells up and doesn't fish well. My traps are heavy and I use small buoys so that they don't drag. Good Luck

[pork n beans]

i use chunks like 6-7 links of boom chain on a snap to the line as an anchor, half a cinder block or gallon size concrete blocks those will keep your traps anchored in current if you're fishing in current you gotta have weights. helps the traps land on the money when you're setting gear too, if not they'll drift on the way down you see?

hey big shooter how do you know they were females? did they still have eggs? it's pretty late if there's still eggs on them. it was a late year though egged females were still around last month i heard. water was real cold this year delayed things a bit. the big ones with flappy looking belly flaps are females.

all prawns go from male to female in year 3. you gotta look at the second leg down from the front and on it there's a couple of little spiky doo dads that you use to tell male from female. after a while you can tell most apart but during transition size/phase it can be tough. size differs from area to area too.

best of luck. don't eat too many you'll get sick o the *******s after a while.

[bigshooter]

Yes some had eggs still. We had a load of logs drift in with the tide it took one string 2 km from where we put it down, I thought that someone had taken them. Structure was more important then depth 180 and on the reef was better then 260 off the reef. Lots of mud on the trap if we got it wrong and it did look like they were drifting. The chain is a good idea, no prawn puller so more weight more strain on the back. 2 times we had starfish, 2 traps have too small of holes so we only got smalls in 2, 1 time the traps floated. I think that next time we will do alot better.

[Mr. Dean]

Glad it worked out for ya.

[.270]

If you leave the traps for longer periods, say 24 hours, can the prawns find their way out of the traps?

[Islandeer]

They will start buggering off,some new ones will come in and octupus may get in and start dining.
over night from the afternoon on a flood tide is a killer.

[toddrat]

I have had great success using feed pellets that they use on fish farms for salmon. You can get them in Surrey just north of 72nd on 132nd.