Early1 Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Hi Everyone I am a crow eater who moved to Canberra area 3 years ago. I am keen to have a crack at catching some prawns. I have never done this before so can some one give some directions on filling my bucket. I have figured out that I need a long handled net and light. I have a very good led bike lamp that fits on my helmet so i figured that might be a good start. Can I have input as to where to go and when is the best time. Where doesnt matter really Nowra to Merimbula are all similar driving times, but there are obviously good and bad locations. I guess I will do this about twice a year so taking all your prawns is not an issue. Early Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bharris Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Been thinking of having a go at my mums at santury point seen heeps of jelly prawns before winter Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheap charlie Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Whilst you will get some prawns with your headlamp, you will struggle to make the drive worth your while. Most of the light tends to reflect of the surface of the water and if there is the slightest ripple on the water you will not see a thing. You need an underwater light and a bright one at that. You can buy a 12V 50W hallogen light prefabed up in a stick of conduit for $20 from Kay - Mart or Big Dubb. Problem is these consume a fair bit of power ( At 4.2 Amps ). As such you need a decent battery to have enough power on hand to allow you at least 4 hours to make that drive worth your while. There is 3 common ways to chase prawns: - From a boat on a run out tide - In a estuary channel on a run out tide - Circulating around the knee to waist high water From a Boat: A good method if you don't want to get your feet wet and allows you to chase prawns in deeper water. Saves you dragging around a battery and a bucket to keep your catch in Estuary Channel Probably the easiest and best method. Head down to the entrance of an estuary wade out into kneeish depth water and simply wait for the prawns to come to you. Chase the prawns around the flats Some lakes for some reason tend to be more successful using this method EG Burrill Lake. Show up at some flats usually towards the mouth of an estuary and circulate around scooping up prawns The problem with having such a big battery is that it's very heavy to carry and as such you don't want to carry it hundreds of meters from the road to the water. Ideally you would park close by the water. Once you have your battery at the water, you need it to float behind you. There is a few common methods to do this. A body board, Foam green grocers box with no holes in in, an inner tube with a wood or similar to hold the battery & some build a rectangular pontoon from 90 or 100mm PVC pipe. If this is starting to sound to hard or a pain in the arse, your right it is. Over the years I have tried the foam box (Worked well but far from ideal) Small car battery in a back pack (Herts the hell out of your back). I have been researching ways to make this years prawning easier. I started looking into LED prawning lights. Most seem to be powered by 3 AA batteries and cost around $60ish. Reading a few reviews, the common verdict seems to be that the the light given of is not that great. The Yanks are right into under water LED lighting for what they term Flounder Gigging. They have some great stuff but your talking hundreds of dollars. Looking at some of the yank stuff I figured I could make my own far cheaper. Surfing the net for underwater LED lighting bought about a few options but again the pricing out of this world. I wasnt prepared to end the search there and took to flebay looking at what China had to offer. The site was loaded with suppliers advertising LED lighting as waterproof. I contacted a few sellers to find out the IP rating of their products. It seems they all get their stuff from one supplier and most of the sellers where selling the same thing but described the same lighting as having differing IP ratings. Thinking about it for a while I decided on an alloy bodied LED flood light. The unit was 10W (less then 1A) and 12v. The unit looked to be constructed from 3 pieces of Alloy and was screwed together. For $10 i figured it was worth the risk and bought it. Took 3 weeks to arrive. When it arrived I was amazed to find it had O rings fitted to each joint. Given I will not need to pull the light apart in the future I opted to run a bead of Hi temp waterproof silicon between each join and assembled it back together. Mounted the light on the end of some Conduit, Bent up a handle and ran the wires through the conduit and sealed the ends. Purchased a 7.5 AH deep cycle battery from the same sight for a little over $20. Battery weighs 2.5 kgs and can easily be carried in a small back pack. The light is bright as hell and has cost me about $40 all up include the purchase of a battery. Look out prawns.. Whilst all lakes contain your small estuary prawns, only a few house another variety ( No idea what they are called but they have a colored tail and grown a lot bigger caught them upto 15cm long). When I go prawning these are the guys i tend to look out for, Hope this gives you a bit of an idea...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dfishin Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Cheap Charlie is onto it. Follow his technique. locations down south. Try Coila lake near Tuross This is not too for for you canberraings. Havnt tried Durras but i reckon they should be in there which is close to Batemans. Coila is definitely the place to go for prawns down that way. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Early1 Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 (edited) Whilst you will get some prawns with your headlamp, you will struggle to make the drive worth your while. Most of the light tends to reflect of the surface of the water and if there is the slightest ripple on the water you will not see a thing. You need an underwater light and a bright one at that. You can buy a 12V 50W hallogen light prefabed up in a stick of conduit for $20 from Kay - Mart or Big Dubb. Problem is these consume a fair bit of power ( At 4.2 Amps ). As such you need a decent battery to have enough power on hand to allow you at least 4 hours to make that drive worth your while. There is 3 common ways to chase prawns: - From a boat on a run out tide - In a estuary channel on a run out tide - Circulating around the knee to waist high water From a Boat: A good method if you don't want to get your feet wet and allows you to chase prawns in deeper water. Saves you dragging around a battery and a bucket to keep your catch in Estuary Channel Probably the easiest and best method. Head down to the entrance of an estuary wade out into kneeish depth water and simply wait for the prawns to come to you. Chase the prawns around the flats Some lakes for some reason tend to be more successful using this method EG Burrill Lake. Show up at some flats usually towards the mouth of an estuary and circulate around scooping up prawns The problem with having such a big battery is that it's very heavy to carry and as such you don't want to carry it hundreds of meters from the road to the water. Ideally you would park close by the water. Once you have your battery at the water, you need it to float behind you. There is a few common methods to do this. A body board, Foam green grocers box with no holes in in, an inner tube with a wood or similar to hold the battery & some build a rectangular pontoon from 90 or 100mm PVC pipe. If this is starting to sound to hard or a pain in the arse, your right it is. Over the years I have tried the foam box (Worked well but far from ideal) Small car battery in a back pack (Herts the hell out of your back). I have been researching ways to make this years prawning easier. I started looking into LED prawning lights. Most seem to be powered by 3 AA batteries and cost around $60ish. Reading a few reviews, the common verdict seems to be that the the light given of is not that great. The Yanks are right into under water LED lighting for what they term Flounder Gigging. They have some great stuff but your talking hundreds of dollars. Looking at some of the yank stuff I figured I could make my own far cheaper. Surfing the net for underwater LED lighting bought about a few options but again the pricing out of this world. I wasnt prepared to end the search there and took to flebay looking at what China had to offer. The site was loaded with suppliers advertising LED lighting as waterproof. I contacted a few sellers to find out the IP rating of their products. It seems they all get their stuff from one supplier and most of the sellers where selling the same thing but described the same lighting as having differing IP ratings. Thinking about it for a while I decided on an alloy bodied LED flood light. The unit was 10W (less then 1A) and 12v. The unit looked to be constructed from 3 pieces of Alloy and was screwed together. For $10 i figured it was worth the risk and bought it. Took 3 weeks to arrive. When it arrived I was amazed to find it had O rings fitted to each joint. Given I will not need to pull the light apart in the future I opted to run a bead of Hi temp waterproof silicon between each join and assembled it back together. Mounted the light on the end of some Conduit, Bent up a handle and ran the wires through the conduit and sealed the ends. Purchased a 7.5 AH deep cycle battery from the same sight for a little over $20. Battery weighs 2.5 kgs and can easily be carried in a small back pack. The light is bright as hell and has cost me about $40 all up include the purchase of a battery. Look out prawns.. Whilst all lakes contain your small estuary prawns, only a few house another variety ( No idea what they are called but they have a colored tail and grown a lot bigger caught them upto 15cm long). When I go prawning these are the guys i tend to look out for, Hope this gives you a bit of an idea...? Thanks Cheap Charlie You are a man after my own heart, I love to make/adapt things so I will be on the look out for a led light. Thank you for all the advice. Just did a search on online shop and found aquarium underwater light 10w 900 - 1000 lumen 12v and floodlight 10w might go for the aquarium light as it looks smaller and lighter but gives out a lot of light. My bike lights are that sort of lumen rating and they are like car head lights. Edited November 8, 2012 by Earl1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Early1 Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 Cheap Charlie is onto it. Follow his technique. locations down south. Try Coila lake near Tuross This is not too for for you canberraings. Havnt tried Durras but i reckon they should be in there which is close to Batemans. Coila is definitely the place to go for prawns down that way. Dave Thanks Dave Have seen Coila from a distance wil have to give it a try. I might go mid week and avoid the Canberra rush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheap charlie Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Thanks Dave Have seen Coila from a distance wil have to give it a try. I might go mid week and avoid the Canberra rush. Earl, if your keen to go on a school night and you are happy to drive 15 - 20 mins North of Bbay I would be happy to go prawning with you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yarraone Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 we used to always get a good bag of prawns around xmas time down at sussex inlet.. just need a prawn light and a net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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