Small Prawns

[RossW]

I have a bit of a gripe.

i go fishing with my son in the Hawkesbury drifting for flathead

Now the gripe. I am sick of paying good money for packets of Hawkesbury prawns and find that 90% are too small to even thread on a hook. Spending half my fishing time sorting through them looking for a reasonable size one. Note these are not purchased from servos or the like.

Now a question. Are prawns that you can buy from fish shops in shopping malls as good as local prawns as they are probably imported.

thanks got that off my chest.

[kingfishbig]

They won't be imported unless they are cooked. All raw prawn imports have been banned earlier this year due to the outbreak of white spot disease in our local prawns.

It is therefore a good principle to never use fresh imported seafood for bait because of the risk of introducing a disease.

[Welster]

1 hour ago, kingfishbig said:

They won't be imported unless they are cooked. All raw prawn imports have been banned earlier this year due to the outbreak of white spot disease in our local prawns.

It is therefore a good principle to never use fresh imported seafood for bait because of the risk of introducing a disease.

Totally agree.   I really think this was under publicised for years. Plenty of people I spoke to that suggested using the imported prawns.  When I let them know of the potential disease most weren't interested.  Usually replying if it's good enough to eat, or citing the difference price.  

[Jewhunter]

It always surprises me that people still by packet prawns. The sums don't add up. You can get local green kings for $25-$30 per kilo. A 200 gm packet of prawns costs $7-$8, putting those crap prawns at $35-$40 per kg.

It's cheaper, & far a better bait to get fresh local green king prawns & be able to use whatever size bait you want.

[RossW]

51 minutes ago, Jewhunter said:

It always surprises me that people still by packet prawns. The sums don't add up. You can get local green kings for $25-$30 per kilo. A 200 gm packet of prawns costs $7-$8, putting those crap prawns at $35-$40 per kg.

It's cheaper, & far a better bait to get fresh local green king prawns & be able to use whatever size bait you want.

I agree wholeheartedly but fresh local green prawns are hard to come by at times where I am.

hence my question. Will fresh green prawns from the local seafood shop or Coles, Woolies etc. do the job or are they a waste of money.

[Fab1]

6 hours ago, Jewhunter said:

It always surprises me that people still by packet prawns. The sums don't add up. You can get local green kings for $25-$30 per kilo. A 200 gm packet of prawns costs $7-$8, putting those crap prawns at $35-$40 per kg.

It's cheaper, & far a better bait to get fresh local green king prawns & be able to use whatever size bait you want.

I think people buy those packet prawns for the sake of convenience I guess even though they cost more.

Where I live there's 2 servos on the way to the south coast that I always see people buying them on the way down to the coast among other baits.

  There's still plenty of people doing spare of the moment fishing trips and stop in the servo etc to buy bait on the way to their chosen fishing spot including myself and they do still catch fish.

I've caught my best bream down the shoalhaven river on a prawn that was almost black that was given to me by an angler that left to go home.

My best flathead drifting down Windang came from a servo prawn that I bought on the way down.

Its like paying $4:50 for a 600ml coke from the servo or buying a 2l bottle for less from Coles.

Humans are lazy and will pay for convenience even though sometimes it ain't the best option.

I've used freshly pumped nippers and haven't caught anything before where the servo prawns caught some nice flathead to take home.

I'm far from a fishing expert but believe all baits will catch fish given the right circumstances.

I understand where your coming from though.

[rickmarlin62]

green banana prawns at coles are $23kilo and bream an reds luv em..you get a lot of baits for a kilo..we shell them and use half a prawn..better than any packet prawn..rick

[Wellzy94]

I do the same as Rick. Banana prawns are a much better quality bait than any frozen prawns I've used.

Cheers,

Wellzy

[Jewhunter]

When I said local prawns I meant from Australia, not imported, & yes, that includes green kings from Coles or Woolies.

[RossW]

Thanks guys got the answers I was after......Ross

[seasponge]

If you're buying Hawkesbury Prawns, and they're not from the servo, I find that the start and end of the prawn season can be full of smaller prawns. Frustrating, but at least I know they're what's coming out of the river at that point of time. Might be sign that a different bait is what the fish are feeding on until the prawns get bigger later in the season.

[Berleyguts]

Or, in the upper Hawkesbury, if you see a small trawler and they're heading back to their mourning and sorting their catch and not cooking them on the boat,  mosey on up to them and ask if they'll sell you $20 worth. Nothing fresher and often still alive. ?

Edited April 18, 2017 by Berleyguts