Prawn questions - Bowen vs Saturna?

[AndrewH]

Things I know:
- drop in 280ish ft on top of a ledge on dropping tide.
- good bait with lots of oily scent
- weight to keep traps on ground - bouncing is bad...

So I followed these guidelines this past winter and was able to get into them on the south side of Bowen. Thing is, I didn't drop close to a ledge, I just found 280ft and dropped there. Bait wise, using a 'ground up' mess of salmon carcass, carlyles, sardines, pellets and Pro-cure crab/prawn oil. I fill the bait jars only half full too.

Weight wise
Bouy ---------- 18lbs cannon ball-------------- trap #1 with 2lb --------------- trap#2 with 6lb

Now this set was good for loads of around 50 prawns off bowen but I can't seem to get into anything over on the North side of Tumbo/Saturna. People are saying the commercial guys vacuum it up but I am not even seeing the commercial floats when I have been over the last little while.

When you guys drop traps, do you ONLY look for ledges or will 280ft on bottom suffice? If you have a sec, take a look at the charts and give me a little advice!!!!

If you have a look at the attachment, you can see that no drops are around that go deeper than 300. 300 seems to be the bottom.

 

[Sangstercraft]

I was out a week ago and saw commercial prawn bouys set as deep as 430', so they probably know something I don't! Worth trying a bit deeper perhaps.

Also, I put my traps at the base of a cliff, not the top of a ledge. The detritus falls down the cliff and the prawns hang in the cracks of the cliff. Not sure if that's just something I'm making up, but it seems to work ok for me.

 

[trophywife]

prawns will travel up and down to 100' for feeding. base of ledges have always worked better than top of hills IMHO

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

The closer to the edge of the bottom of a sloping cliff the better I usually find. By the pic on your chart there I like the looks more a bit to the south East where there is the pinnacle and more contours around the pinnacle. And check to see what the bottom material is ie rock, gravel, or sand. I get my best numbers in gravel/rocks for prawns and more pinkies and side strips shrimp etc in sandy bottoms. If you can leave them overnight you can get a lot more in your traps.

 

[Dogbreath]

....I put my traps at the base of a cliff, not the top of a ledge. The detritus falls down the cliff and the prawns hang in the cracks of the cliff. Not sure if that's just something I'm making up, but it seems to work ok for me.

Read on an Alaskan board that a lot of guys do similar sets up that way.

 

[Aces]

You guys are trying to figure out prawns, lol.

 

[Brett83]

Things I know:
- drop in 280ish ft on top of a ledge on dropping tide.
- good bait with lots of oily scent
- weight to keep traps on ground - bouncing is bad...

So I followed these guidelines this past winter and was able to get into them on the south side of Bowen. Thing is, I didn't drop close to a ledge, I just found 280ft and dropped there. Bait wise, using a 'ground up' mess of salmon carcass, carlyles, sardines, pellets and Pro-cure crab/prawn oil. I fill the bait jars only half full too.

Weight wise
Bouy ---------- 18lbs cannon ball-------------- trap #1 with 2lb --------------- trap#2 with 6lb

Now this set was good for loads of around 50 prawns off bowen but I can't seem to get into anything over on the North side of Tumbo/Saturna. People are saying the commercial guys vacuum it up but I am not even seeing the commercial floats when I have been over the last little while.

When you guys drop traps, do you ONLY look for ledges or will 280ft on bottom suffice? If you have a sec, take a look at the charts and give me a little advice!!!!

If you have a look at the attachment, you can see that no drops are around that go deeper than 300. 300 seems to be the bottom.

Did you ever figure the prawning out. I just moved my boat out of the vancouver area. So I'll be prawning around tumbo/Saturna area. I noticed other guys at the marina have a lot of weight in their trap. I normally prawn at 235. The guys are telling me they get them deeper.

 

[sly_karma]

You need a setup that ensures that the traps sit still on bottom, no movement or the prawns won't go in. Most of us put a weight 20-30 ft from the first trap to absorb the movement caused by the float being pressured by wind, waves and current. I suppose if you had a lot of weight in that first trap below the float, you'd achieve that zero movement. My preference is a 10 lb pyramid anchor ahead of the traps, then 4-5 lb in each trap. I find them easier to handle this way vs having more weight right in the traps.