New to prawn fishing

[Martybg]

I'm heading over to the Gulf Islands this summer for our family vacation. 1 week on North Pender late June and 2 weeks on Saltspring in August. I was hoping to try my hand at prawn fishing but have never done it before. I have many years under my belt crabbing so I'm not a total rookie. Was wondering if anyone had some advice of where to try, how deep, type of bait, soak time, slack flood or ebb tide and so on.

Since Swanson Chennel is close by to where I'll be and pretty deep I thought that might be a good place to start.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Martin.

 

[adrianna3]

Gently sloping mud or sand bottom, 240 to 300 feet (depending how much rope you have), 2 to 3 hour soak (shorter if you're searching areas), cat food and/or trout pellets, and double check the regs for closed areas. Tide doesn't seem to matter for me. Just watch the weather, get out and enjoy yourself. It doesn't hurt to bring a kid or two to pull rope. Child labour is a good thing.
Oh yeah, watch your traps like a hawk. They seem to disappear in a hurry.[}]

 

[Tanglefoot]

It is my understanding that prawn do not swim well so they inhabit areas with good hiding, found in the crevasses and fissures on the side of a rocky slope. Because they don't swim well they tend to be inactive during periods of currents and running tides. They also like deep water, 300 feet plus. So, find a steepish underwater hill and place your trap just against the slope at the bottom. Two to three hour soaks during slack tide/current are best. Works for me

I don't see much similarity between prawn fishing and crab fishing except a net is involved

Tom

 

[Martybg]

Thanks for the info, it's very helpful. My son (12 years old) will be my trap pulling deck hand. Think I will invest in one of those pully arms.

I read on one of the other topics that Brentwood Bay and Mill Bay are good prawing spots. Looking on the charts it's deep with some drop offs so it matches the conditions described. In the regs this area is subject to "pulse" fishing so may not be open when we are there. Looking closer to where we will be staying I was thinking of trying Swanson Channel not sure of the sandy/muddy bottom though.

My wife lived on the Island as a kid and used to shrimp fish off a dock near Sydney Spit with a dip net. She said they used tinned cat food or sardines for bait. We tried this as bait in the crab traps but it wasn't very sucessful.

Any preferences on trap type? I haven't bought the gear yet. I wanted something collapsable due to limited space. My local tackle store has a long rectangular trap that is nylon mesh, stainless frame, center post with weight with a funnel type entry at either end. Cost $80 each though. They also have a non stainless version that is cheaper. I've also seen round traps but they typically don't collapse easily. Do you usually need to add additional weight to the trap?

I checked the regs and seems you can have multiple traps per line, can't imagine pulling up a line with more than one trap on it though.

I've never had a problem with my crab traps going missing but have often wondered if someone was checking them for me.

Thanks again,
Martin.