Prawning help for a beginner

All great points from the members here. One thing not mentioned that I feel is the most important is where your ledge/shelf is in relation to the tides at that particular time. Get to know the direction of the tidal flows in the areas you plan to fish. Prawns, like fish, are opportunist and will take the path of least resistant where they can bag the easiest lunch. Prawns will move freely on the slack tide to the leeward side of the next tide. They use the topography of the ocean floor to lay low and let the feed come down shelf/ledge with the current and await an easy meal in the back-eddy. You can also use that knowledge to make a significantly more accurate drop when you know what direction the trap will drift on it’s descent. All spots that we prawn will only produce on certain tides. It’s a great way to take the guess work out and increase your catch. Best of luck. View attachment 37178

There is an example of where you would want your trap to land (green) with the current carrying the scent from the trap so more prawns downstream. Many times you will see biomasses of feed/prawns right where you want to drop.


Great info! Very informative. What why is the current moving in your example?
 
If you wanna catch tons of prawns fish near the skid ball salmon farms. Prawns cover the sea floor near them in some areas and come up to even shallow depths to feed on the food they feed them falling to the bottom. Personally I would never eat creatures living and feeding near the fish farms but saying that I have heard from people surveying the areas around them that Prawns love to hang around those areas and in huge numbers.

Some Pinkies and Coonstripe Shrimp caught the other day in a sandy/muddy bottom area....however, 200 yards over on a rock shelf contouring to a more even bottom of all rock were nothing but big prawns and zero shrimp. Personally every time I have ever fished sand and mud bottoms the prawn numbers go way down and shrimp numbers go up. Same with our cousin who is a commercial prawner/shrimper. He fishes the rock ledges for the prawns and sand and mud for the shrimp.

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As for the Squat lobsters I dunno about theories of depths for them either.. I personally just think they have their areas they live and don't live in cause I've caught them at all different depths up the inside, in the sound, and on the West Coast; from 200 to 350 depths. Here's some that were caught in only 220' of water. There were lot's of them around the whole 1/2 mile contour from 200 to 300' but most were caught in the 220 depth in that certain area.
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Some more Octopus ****

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For bait I use a combo of some (very little) whole pellets and mostly ground pellets mixed with fish oils and Tuna. I have done side by side comparisson's with traps fishing whole pellets vs ground pellets. The ground pellets out fishes the whole pellet only traps every time. Even when fished together on the same line. So I no longer fish just whole pellets. Some of the ground pellets actually make their way out of the jars and the prawns can actively feed on it as well as some of it drifting off and creating a scent trail. I also drill some extra bigger holes in bait jars.

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this info is great & much appreciated. This summer will be my first time prawning & every little bit helps.
 
If you wanna catch tons of prawns fish near the skid ball salmon farms. Prawns cover the sea floor near them in some areas and come up to even shallow depths to feed on the food they feed them falling to the bottom. Personally I would never eat creatures living and feeding near the fish farms but saying that I have heard from people surveying the areas around them that Prawns love to hang around those areas and in huge numbers.

Some Pinkies and Side Stripe Shrimp caught the other day in a sandy/muddy bottom area....however, 200 yards over on a rock shelf contouring to a more even bottom of all rock were nothing but big prawns and zero shrimp. Personally every time I have ever fished sand and mud bottoms the prawn numbers go way down and shrimp numbers go up. Same with our cousin who is a commercial prawner/shrimper. He fishes the rock ledges for the prawns and sand and mud for the shrimp.

View attachment 37183

View attachment 37184

As for the Squat lobsters I dunno about theories of depths for them either.. I personally just think they have their areas they live and don't live in cause I've caught them at all different depths up the inside, in the sound, and on the West Coast; from 200 to 350 depths. Here's some that were caught in only 220' of water. There were lot's of them around the whole 1/2 mile contour from 200 to 300' but most were caught in the 220 depth in that certain area.
View attachment 37185

Some more Octopus ****

View attachment 37186
View attachment 37187

For bait I use a combo of some (very little) whole pellets and mostly ground pellets mixed with fish oils and Tuna. I have done side by side comparisson's with traps fishing whole pellets vs ground pellets. The ground pellets out fishes the whole pellet only traps every time. Even when fished together on the same line. So I no longer fish just whole pellets. Some of the ground pellets actually make their way out of the jars and the prawns can actively feed on it as well as some of it drifting off and creating a scent trail. I also drill some extra bigger holes in bait jars.

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View attachment 37189

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How do you grind up the pellets?
 
How do you grind up the pellets?
We have pretty heavy duty blender. I put it on the "crush ice" setting and it chops them up really good. I do it when they are frozen too. I think it may keep them from getting too gooey as it chops them up.
 
We have pretty heavy duty blender. I put it on the "crush ice" setting and it chops them up really good. I do it when they are frozen too. I think it may keep them from getting too gooey as it chops them up.



Ok never thought of the blender. Might get divorced if I use the wife's.....what speed do you blend at. Lol
 
Magic bullet might work alright as well. Buy your wife the magic bullet as an Easter present (good books heading your way) and then keep one of the small containers (bullets) for your pellets. Just don’t mix your up with the margarita ones. Might leave a weird coating in your mouth.

Oly
 
If you wanna catch tons of prawns fish near the skid ball salmon farms. Prawns cover the sea floor near them in some areas and come up to even shallow depths to feed on the food they feed them falling to the bottom. Personally I would never eat creatures living and feeding near the fish farms but saying that I have heard from people surveying the areas around them that Prawns love to hang around those areas and in huge numbers.

Some Pinkies and Side Stripe Shrimp caught the other day in a sandy/muddy bottom area....however, 200 yards over on a rock shelf contouring to a more even bottom of all rock were nothing but big prawns and zero shrimp. Personally every time I have ever fished sand and mud bottoms the prawn numbers go way down and shrimp numbers go up. Same with our cousin who is a commercial prawner/shrimper. He fishes the rock ledges for the prawns and sand and mud for the shrimp.

View attachment 37183

View attachment 37184

As for the Squat lobsters I dunno about theories of depths for them either.. I personally just think they have their areas they live and don't live in cause I've caught them at all different depths up the inside, in the sound, and on the West Coast; from 200 to 350 depths. Here's some that were caught in only 220' of water. There were lot's of them around the whole 1/2 mile contour from 200 to 300' but most were caught in the 220 depth in that certain area.
View attachment 37185

Some more Octopus

View attachment 37186
View attachment 37187

For bait I use a combo of some (very little) whole pellets and mostly ground pellets mixed with fish oils and Tuna. I have done side by side comparisson's with traps fishing whole pellets vs ground pellets. The ground pellets out fishes the whole pellet only traps every time. Even when fished together on the same line. So I no longer fish just whole pellets. Some of the ground pellets actually make their way out of the jars and the prawns can actively feed on it as well as some of it drifting off and creating a scent trail. I also drill some extra bigger holes in bait jars.

View attachment 37188

View attachment 37189

View attachment 37190





Them Squat lobsters are crazy looking. You ever tried eating?
 
Ok never thought of the blender. Might get divorced if I use the wife's.....what speed do you blend at. Lol
Lol ya first time she busted me using it I got in some ****. Now I do it when she's out lol. On our blender it's not a speed but it says "crush ice" setting. It's second from the highest speed on our blender I think.
 
Magic bullet might work alright as well. Buy your wife the magic bullet as an Easter present (good books heading your way) and then keep one of the small containers (bullets) for your pellets. Just don’t mix your up with the margarita ones. Might leave a weird coating in your mouth.

Oly
Ya it does work but not as good as a powerful blender. I did use the Magic Bullet the first time but it also does much less at a time than a bigger blender. But ya be careful of your wife while using the kitchen tools for fishing needs lol.
 
Them Squat lobsters are crazy looking. You ever tried eating?
I haven't but I have thought about it. If you had enough of them the tails look like they have a chunk of meat in them. Similar to crayfish tails I would think but at least with crayfish you get the claw meat too if they are decent size. The Squats have tiny thin arms/claws. One day I will give them a try if I get a whack of them again. Toss them straight into some boiling water on the boat stove I bet they'd be a nice little snack while fishing. Dipped in some garlic butter.
 
I crush my pellets inside a couple grocery bags on my driveway with a hammer. Easy and no clean up. Then toss it in a pale mix with prawn oil or fire brine and carlyle cat food or yum yum for the night.

Id say yum yum out fishes carlyle by a handful of prawns per trap.
 
I soak the pellets over night in a small bucket, in the morning I shake it up and they are pretty smushed up.
 
I soak the pellets over night in a small bucket, in the morning I shake it up and they are pretty smushed up.
I always soaked my pellets in fish oils for a full 24 hrs to up to 48 hrs prior to fishing. Have never seen the pellets "smush" up from that. They are very pressed and firm. Even after soaking in the ocean they just start breaking down. So something is "fishy" with that statement. Fish oils will not break down the pellets to any kind of a "smushy" state. My cousin soaks their commercial pellets in oils prior to fishing and they are never broken down or smushy either.
Soaking them in water would get then to that state but that would be counter productive.
 
You can use a paint mixer that is chucked up in a variable speed drill. Mix it in a 5 gallon bucket. Make sure it is a variable speed drill or you could have it all over the place!!
 
My experience with pre mixing the cat food and pellets is that one should only do what one thinks they need for the trip. If you have leftovers I would freeze it.
I made up a small pail and never ended up using it all. Couple months later I was going again and wen I opened pail to add more, it was a big ball of fuzzy mould. Then the lightbulb came on and I remembered Cat food does not last forever out of the can.
Thinking it would have been fine had I froze it?
 
You can use a paint mixer that is chucked up in a variable speed drill. Mix it in a 5 gallon bucket. Make sure it is a variable speed drill or you could have it all over the place!!
No you can't. The pellets are compressed very hard. I gather you haven't actually tried it. They need a sharp edged, very fast moving device to cut/chop them up. The pellets would laugh at a cement mixture bit.

My experience with pre mixing the cat food and pellets is that one should only do what one thinks they need for the trip. If you have leftovers I would freeze it.
I made up a small pail and never ended up using it all. Couple months later I was going again and wen I opened pail to add more, it was a big ball of fuzzy mould. Then the lightbulb came on and I remembered Cat food does not last forever out of the can.
Thinking it would have been fine had I froze it?

Yes I freeze whatever I don't use.
 
Depends on your location, if you prawn in Saanich Inlet over 300' all you get is "squat lobsters" .... but then I've prawned in Port Alberni and 300'-400' is the norm if you want to catch anything.

Where in Port Alberni were you prawning? We usually prawn in 300ft of water or less in Barklay Sound... It has declined in recent years and lots of slime eels
 
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