Prawns

Like most things in life, learning to prawn has been a learning experience. Our first endeavour was a dismal failure – no prawns. The same with the second – no prawns. Hauling prawn traps up from 300 feet of water is no fun – especially when there is no joy.

We hit it big on the third try – 1 prawn. At that point, we figured we needed a bit of guidance. THe first guidance was that the prawn fishing in the area of Desolation Sound was non-existent. Pretty much had been wiped out by the commercial guys. NOW they tell us.

As we went further north, things started to improve. Out of Lagoon Cove, our first haul was 12 prawns. Things were looking up, but we noted that as we brought the trap aboard, the prawns were falling out of the trap – not a good thing.

After some more advice on the dock, we learned that the trap I had bought (in addition to being a fold up trap that acted more like a bear trap when you tried to fold or unfold it) was legal in Washington, Alaska and BC.

When I looked at the traps in the store at Lagoon Cove, it was painfully obvious that they were not only easier to use, but the mesh size was far smaller. AKA – less prawns get away – much easier to haul up – much easier to store. No more bear traps – not sure what I am going to do with the bear trap. It will probably reside in the forepeak buried along with another 1000 pounds of useless gear I have bought at exorbitant prices.

TIme to shell out another $110 for a new trap.

Eureka! We hit it big! The next AM we had at least 24 good sized prawns. The following day, we filled half of a 2 gallon bucket with nice sized ones. Tip number 2 was to not stop hauling up the trap as the prawns tend to swim out when you do. Good thing I have a strong, young guy aboard – hauling up a trap from 300 feet is not fun. Most old timers have a winch for same but that is another $500. Probably end up getting one of those too.

Here is the proof –

I’ll include a few pictures of the new gear in a later post. Have to get out and launch another pot in Kwatsi Bay now – guy told me he got 5 dozen yesterday.

Best