prawns

[Olly]

I found the cockles in the jar put fish off - the vinegar perhaps? I found fresh/frozen best.

Trotted salted shell-on prawns for salmon - a colleague had an 18lber a couple of days ago!

[Mole-Patrol]

I buy whelks from the fish counter at the supermarket, usually asking for the smaller ones. They are already cooked and can be frozen loose in a tub so I can take half a dozen or so when I go carp fishing. Last summer I had some nice carp from the River Vienne freelining a whelk in marginal weed where carp could be seen pushing through.

I hook them through the foot and use the hook to carefully ease them out of their shell. The shell is a lot tougher than that of a garden snail so needs to be removed in my view. Snails can be fished whole, or better still, with a slightly crushed shell.

[Liphook]

I rake cockles off the beach, boil them briefly in sea water, pick, dry on paper towels and then vac pack and freeze. A friend prefers his out of a jar and thinks the vinegar actually helps in colder water! I'm not sure about that but he certainly catches plenty of carp, tench and chub on them.

[Nobby]

Prawns are a traditional bait in the South. So much so that they were banned on the Hampshire Avon and other nearby waters as they accounted for so many salmon. Rather looked down upon by the fly fishing brotherhood as cheating, I can't recall where I read it a few years ago, but it did give the impression they were still banned today. Something about the EA adopting the old rules of the previous River Authorities, I think.

I have an idea that prawns come into their own as the weather warms up just like sweetcorn and F1 bait if you are familiar with it...a sort of sweet concoction designed to catch 'pasty' carp from commercial fisheries. Once it's above 16 Degrees they come into their own, though for perch, like maggots, they seem to work all year.

[Barbelseeker]

I don't mind trying any bait - soya beans, baked beans, chick peas etc., always having some success with them. But regards Vinegar I would agree - once bought a tinned of diced (Commercial) beetroot packed in vinegar - gave it several good washes at home, took it to where I normally catch fish, including the above used baits and didn't get a touch. Really ought to have fished on something else first to prove the fish were there - but didn't. Anyway don't think that you can wash out all the vinegar and some may leach out, in the river, despite the washing.

[Liphook]

Bait fishing for salmon indeed! What next? Spinning with ironmongery?!!! The move to encourage almost total C&R along with a ban on using treble hooks on many waters has put paid to prawn/shrimp fishing for many. It's also lead to a few 'improvements' in fly fishing techniques and tackle to make the 'fly only' approach more effective - some liken it to spinning with a fly rod. The way salmon stocks are going it will be rubber hooks, then no salmon angling, then no salmon left - that would probably suit a few myopic coarse anglers as well as many in the EA, NRW and SEPA. Over my dead body...

[Olly]

Not so here in the south Nobby - prawns still being used and accounting for 3-4 Hants Avon salmon in the last few days!

Strangely it is the fly anglers that turn to this method after the 16th June but all salmon fishing stops on the river when the water temperature reaches 19c at Knapp Mill.

Hampshire Avon Byelaws: - Fly only Feb to 14th May: Fly and spinning from 15th May to 15th June: Fly, spinning and prawn from 16th June to last day of August. No retention of fish all to be returned.

[Nobby]

Not so here in the south Nobby - prawns still being used and accounting for 3-4 Hants Avon salmon in the last few days!

Strangely it is the fly anglers that turn to this method after the 16th June but all salmon fishing stops on the river when the water temperature reaches 19c at Knapp Mill.

Hampshire Avon Byelaws: - Fly only Feb to 14th May: Fly and spinning from 15th May to 15th June: Fly, spinning and prawn from 16th June to last day of August. No retention of fish all to be returned.

I wish I could remember where I read it now Olly, certainly in the last 15 years...but where?! I've passed it on now, but I once owned a metal prawn mount....bit like a cross between a dead-bait mount and a hat pin, so definitely a traditional bait.

[Olly]

Yep - prawn spinners - also used for golden sprats for salmon. Some Hardy ones being very sought after - - and expensive!

I use prawn mounts that come in various lengths - a single spike to make the prawn straight - from 1.5in to 3in - in .5in graduations. A single or treble sitting in the prawn's whiskers which is then 'sucked' by the salmon as it is trotted down under a small pike float.

Prawns were stopped from being used on the Coquet in Northumberland as they proved to be far too succesful. I have had landed 5 or 6 in one day and lost about the same number on trotted prawns here in the south.

[Homer Simpson]

Does anyone fish them with the shell on?
My thinking is they would be more robust.
Also what about raw ones, they look more natural maybe resembling a crayfish.
I have only used the cheapest pink ones myself .