What kind of water do I look for when Prawning?

Topcheese

New Member
Hey everyone,

I'm new to prawning, and I was just looking for a few tips on where to set my traps? What kind of water do I look for? In an Inlet? close to shore? depth? Place with lots of current? Place with freshwater influence (like Dungeness)? Thanks for all your help everybody!
 
Inlets are good. Ledges are good. Strong currents are bad. Spotted prawns in 250-375 feet. Try around 200 feet for striped. Anchovies or anchovey scent is good.
 
I go for rocky uneven bottoms, personally. Seems to work fine. It it can be hard on the traps though. I use the commercial bait and I save all my fish carcasses and use those too. 200'+ depth. Use sinking line or be sure to tie a piece of metal to the line so boats don't run over the line at low tide. I'm talking about the line right below the float of course.
 
Seadrift at Terminal Park. Top of the hill in Nanaimo.
 
the kind of water that commies have not cleaned out...
 
the kind of water that commies have not cleaned out...

Exactly, some of these guys when they hit good spots they fish them real hard and clean everything out completely, it is absolutely insane.

At Christmas time my Mother went down to the local fish market to pick up some frozen BC Spot Prawns to take out to my sister in the Kootenays. Well when they thawed them out to cook, EVERY, absolutely EVERY ONE of them was a female, and LOADED with EGGS, they were completely pissed, because if they were fished by responsible fishermen, the egg carriers would have been returned to the ocean to spawn and make more bugs. Since that incident, she will not go back to that fish market and support their business, as she feels that they are somewhat responsible for this fishing practice, because they are condoning it by buying them off of the commercial guys that "should" have put them back into the ocean instead of the hold. If they refuse them at market, and they didn't get paid for them, then the commercial guys would not keep them.
 
I think the commercial prawn season is in May-June for a reason, because very few, almost no prawns will have eggs. The prawns you're talking about were probably harvested out of the season so maybe you should ask the fish market what they're up to. I'm not supporting the commercial fleet but at the moment it is probably the best managed fishery out there. Not all but any smart commie fisher would have a vested interest in not harvesting prawns with eggs or undersize.
 
fish-hunter,,you should tell all of us what store that was,,we will all not shop there,,,that is discusting to me,,,i have no use whatsoever for any commercial fishing fleets,,they are all (most of them) are scum bags,,especially the netters,,,
 
I've only caught them with eggs like that in the fall (Sept/Oct.)and that was years ago. Now I fish them in the spring/summer and never run into that, least where I fish.
 
probably caught in the winter months some jerk maybe making a few bucks for zmas hard to believe a professional fisherman would do this anybody cen buy prawn traps perhapsa sporty down on his luck or perhaps a native report it to DFO let them handle it give them something to do
 
There's all sorts of people illegally fishing prawns.... Catching them with enough proof and evidence is the problem.
 
The FN are allowed to fish prawns 12 months a year,so I would suspect that whatever fish market your Mom bought them
at they would have came from an FN boat. There is one FN fishing Saanich Inlet that I see whenever I'm out on the
water there,at any time of the year!
 
Prawns sold by the FN have to be caught during the commercial season..... but they can legally fish for them year round on their commercial boats for food, social and ceremonial purposes...........
 
do you think they might sell one or two during the off season? Just asking....
Prawns sold by the FN have to be caught during the commercial season..... but they can legally fish for them year round on their commercial boats for food, social and ceremonial purposes...........
 
Yeah, all I would like to say is that this market is down by the local docks, very near where we live... they buy right from the commercial boats, the commercials pull up to the markets private dock to offload their catch. Really not trying to turn this into a slander thread (as we are now off the thread topic - sorry for that), but I wanted to express the point that it seems that "some" of the commercial guys are so blinded by $$$$ signs that they are willing to completely decimate the entire fishery for the dough, and harvesting egg carrying prawns and delivering to the market is only pure proof of this. Now the average joe (who does not fish), that always gets their fish at the market would never realize the ramifications of an entire batch of prawns bought from the fish market containing eggs. If they did, they would also likely not support that fish market anymore, but as said most average joes/janes would not understand what it means to harvest prawns with eggs.

BTW - Mom did go in and voice her concerns (she is absolutely not afraid to do so when she knows she is in the right), and she was brushed off, which for her,,, well you might as well throw gasoline on the fire, so for the rest of her days, and our whole family as well she and we will not darken their door. This is a personal choice to spend our dollars at a business that has and lives by morals that are similar to ours (not that ours are necssarialy "right", but they are our morals), just saying.

FH
 
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