Daytime Prawning

[wazatherfisherman]

Years ago while fishing for Whiting at Narrabeen Lake I was shown the following technique to catch prawns in bright sunlight. 

We had been using shop bought live blood worms and ran out pretty quickly, catching heaps of  fish, but most were undersize. Fishing pretty close to us on the sandbank was an older couple who were also fishing for Whiting, they weren't catching them as quickly but the ones they had were all big- no little ones like 90% of ours. They were using live prawns which they had been catching on the same sandbank as we were all standing on.

After chatting for a while, the older chap used his last prawn and then turned to his wife and said "we better show these young blokes how to get a few"- cool, we thought. Then he reached for an old garden rake they had with them and handed it to the wife, who walked just out from dry sand to less than about a foot deep and started to slowly rake the sand towards herself. Just slow, gentle movements. Sure enough, a prawn was unearthed from it's hiding place beneath the sand and flicked a few feet away before settling again on the bottom and re- buried itself, which took about 10 seconds.

While the prawn re-buried itself, the old timer didn't move, but instead took a bearing by pointing straight to where the prawn now was- buried under the surface.. Next he walked over and placed one hand either side of the "burial" spot and gently brought both hands together. He kept the resulting "sandball" clasped tightly between his hands until back on dry sand and presto- a nice prawn in the sandball!

I was amazed at watching him repeat the process a few more times, before passing us the rake to try for ourselves. Success immediately! Managed to get about 10 or so prawns before they needed the rake back.

After refining the "technique" a bit over the years, it has proved to be a great way to get prawns in daylight hours here in Sydney and up the coast.

The tips for success are obviously first find an area where prawns are active - most spots where folk prawn at night, such as sand-flat's close to lake/lagoon entrances are suitable, in fact many coastal river flats that have nice clean sand- you don't want it to be too muddy or silty on the bottom or the prawns can't bury themselves quickly (for protection in daylight hours), also a little current flow- not too much or your uncovered prawn can quickly remove itself from the area. Also, even though they are often found adjacent to weed patches, it's better to steer clear of raking close to weed as sea-grass beds are a fragile part of the ecosystem and we don't want to harm the root structures- they'd impede the "grabbing" stage anyway- you want to only be grabbing the sand with prawn inside.

Try to tread fairly lightly after watching the prawn hide and cover itself, which they do amazingly quickly. Also wait until they bury their eyes- the last bit of them visible, if the eyes are still visible just wait till they're under so they don't see you (regardless of "feeling" you via your weight on the sand) Then approach quickly while focusing on your hidden target spot. You have to trust your eyes, as the prawn once re-buried is no longer visible, if you miss the exact spot but touch them, they generally do a few quick "flips" and are quickly out of good-judgement range. They are usually only about an inch under the sand once re-buried.

Approaching directly from behind so you are looking (if prawn was still visible!) from tail to head, then move hands together and grab your sand with (hopefully!) a prawn inside. No need to go deeper than about an inch or two maximum, as the prawns although buried are only just covered by he sand. First time rakers will be getting prawns from the first day you try it. The odd one will jump out to freedom, but a little refining of your sand grabbing/pushing together will fix this.

Not a real fast way to get your live prawns, but nevertheless a way of getting them while it's daylight- especially if you've run out of bait.

Remember just to gently rake areas of clean sand, as you only want to reveal the prawn hidden below, be careful not to damage sea grass or other marine environments and always check fisheries and local council regulations re methods and area restrictions. One person raking is enough for a group effort, if you are using them on-site just get them as you need them, live prawns will catch virtually everything from Luderick to Kingfish

[Green Hornet]

Great write up Waza.

We used to use the exact same method of getting them in Lake Wollumboola as kids. 

[kingie chaser]

Great info for the novice & experienced alike.

 

Thanks for sharing Wazza 

[wazatherfisherman]

Thanks guys- the inspiration for the post came from reading the 'prawn trap' post, raking isn't seen much these days.

As using live prawns is such a deadly and favourite method, plus the fact now is the time to have a go at doing it, thought it was worthy of putting up.

Don't forget to use an aerator to keep prawns alive and a lid/cover over them or they'll jump out of your bucket- as happened to us a couple of times in the car. Discovered the "escapee's" under the seats the next day- no mistaking the smell of a dead prawn in a hot car!

[wazatherfisherman]

2 minutes ago, motiondave said:

Nice idea. Must have a go myself.

Was any particular tide time involved?

Hi Dave- found they are easier to find towards low tide, got a feeling that they might be buried deeper on the incoming due to being prey for just about everything, so same as night prawning, try the run out

[Rebel]

Great story, well done.

[frankS]

Brings back yet another great memory of things we used to do back in the day. I must admit I had all but forgotten about this method but these days rarely get enough time near the water to use this method.

Waza going down memory lane with you is a great pastime for me, love your input.

Frank 

[Berleyguts]

Great post, Waza! I’ve never heard of that method before... I’ll have to give it a go one day. I do remember puddling for green nippers though.

[Welster]

Thanks Wazza that's awesome.   I don't know why but I never really twigged they bury in the sand like that despite prawning a few times. 

[wazatherfisherman]

3 hours ago, frankS said:

Brings back yet another great memory of things we used to do back in the day. I must admit I had all but forgotten about this method but these days rarely get enough time near the water to use this method.

Waza going down memory lane with you is a great pastime for me, love your input.

Frank 

Thanks Frank, it's funny how our brain works- every now and then (usually after reading someone else's post) something comes to mind that I think can be useful to others and pop it on Raider. Glad to be putting up nice memories for us both that can help in the fishy quest

[wazatherfisherman]

2 hours ago, Welster said:

Thanks Wazza that's awesome.   I don't know why but I never really twigged they bury in the sand like that despite prawning a few times. 

G'day mate sometimes they bury like it at night, but always in the daylight and really quickly- it's fascinating watching them do it and how quickly

[wazatherfisherman]

3 hours ago, Berleyguts said:

Great post, Waza! I’ve never heard of that method before... I’ll have to give it a go one day. I do remember puddling for green nippers though.

Hi Baz that was great info on the puddling- sure beat my old method of turning rocks over and then replacing them again. Plenty of great spots to give the rake a go up your way and amazes any onlookers as well!

[Green Hornet]

4 hours ago, Berleyguts said:

Great post, Waza! I’ve never heard of that method before... I’ll have to give it a go one day. I do remember puddling for green nippers though.

Boggin' for nippers we used to know it as. Always a great way to get covered in mud and piss Mum off haha.

Those little green nippers were hard to come by but the number one flathead bait. Outfished yabbies five to one.

Edited December 30, 2019 by Green Hornet

[Green Hornet]

Waza, we found the larger Wollumboola bream to be extremely fussy eaters, hence catching prawns in daylight and using them straight away when they were at their liveliest. That extra bit of "flick" over prawns that were caught the night before often meant the difference between catching a feed or going hungry.

Ironically, years on we found an equally effective bait was bread. Go figure?

[SaltyGreek]

Would this work on the nsw south coast? I have a river that’s full of prawns 

[wazatherfisherman]

24 minutes ago, SaltyGreek said:

Would this work on the nsw south coast? I have a river that’s full of prawns 

Worth doing on any coastal sandflat just look for clean sand

[Berleyguts]

Grass rake (plastic) or soil rake (metal)?

[wazatherfisherman]

Just now, Berleyguts said:

Grass rake (plastic) or soil rake (metal)?

Metal rake because the weight of the claws seems to take the points down far enough for finding them. The lady who was raking was of a genuine elderly vintage and not exerting too much energy. First thing the old chap said to us was "whoa! you only want to discover them, not bash 'em!" and you don't put much pressure on as you just want to get them to move and show themselves. The rake's for discovery only

[wazatherfisherman]

4 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

Waza, we found the larger Wollumboola bream to be extremely fussy eaters, hence catching prawns in daylight and using them straight away when they were at their liveliest. That extra bit of "flick" over prawns that were caught the night before often meant the difference between catching a feed or going hungry.

Ironically, years on we found an equally effective bait was bread. Go figure?

Hi Pete interesting you say that, as I often had prawns at home for up to a week and they certainly didn't kick as well after decent time in captivity, regardless of dual electric (fish tank) aerators and several water changes. 

You discover how carnivorous they are when you have them for a few days- every day there are a few less- never fed them, they just ate the weakest I guess.

Bread is great bait just not the stuff from small bakery's- good old Tip Top in the old foil packaging was my favourite. Maybe it's rice flour or similar from the smaller shops, but they don't seem to go it like the big brand whites

[Yowie]

When I have disturbed prawns during the day time, I observe where they bury, place my open hand over them and then push my hand into the sand and grab hold. The idea is not to touch the 2 feelers on the head, as this will alert the prawn and it will jump away.

As a kid, I fished Lake Illawarra a lot, and during the day time I would push a prawn net through the ribbon weed and scoop out shrimp. I used them as live bait, putting 2 or 3 onto the hook to give the fish something to grab hold of. It was surprising the number of blackfish that hooked up on live shrimp.

[wazatherfisherman]

43 minutes ago, Yowie said:

When I have disturbed prawns during the day time, I observe where they bury, place my open hand over them and then push my hand into the sand and grab hold. The idea is not to touch the 2 feelers on the head, as this will alert the prawn and it will jump away.

As a kid, I fished Lake Illawarra a lot, and during the day time I would push a prawn net through the ribbon weed and scoop out shrimp. I used them as live bait, putting 2 or 3 onto the hook to give the fish something to grab hold of. It was surprising the number of blackfish that hooked up on live shrimp.

Those shrimp are deadly for Blackfish fished under a regular float rig also. When I was a kid they used to sell "Prawn Net" and "Shrimp Net" - both green cotton with super small mesh for shrimps- bought them both at Windang

[noelm]

Back when Lake Illawarra had Prawns, we used to regularly go "kicking" for Prawns during the day sometimes you would get a good feed other times just enough for bait sadly very few Prawns in the lake now.

[Green Hornet]

11 hours ago, SaltyGreek said:

Would this work on the nsw south coast? I have a river that’s full of prawns 

The lake we used to use this method was at Culburra. So yes, it works on the south coast.

 

10 hours ago, Berleyguts said:

Grass rake (plastic) or soil rake (metal)?

We used a homemade rake out of timber with a few 3 inch nails for the tines before getting a hi-tech soil rake.

[noelm]

12 hours ago, SaltyGreek said:

Would this work on the nsw south coast? I have a river that’s full of prawns 

I think I would be keeping the location quiet for a while because if it is indeed "full of Prawns" there will be hoards of people having a go for them.

[kingie chaser]

3 hours ago, noelm said:

Back when Lake Illawarra had Prawns, we used to regularly go "kicking" for Prawns during the day sometimes you would get a good feed other times just enough for bait sadly very few Prawns in the lake now.

Is that due to lack of tidal flow or another reason you think?