Prawn Season in River?

[bagotalex]

G,day y,all!

heres a question from a brisbane river rookie, i,ve just started cast netting for livebait mainly at goodna boat ramp or jindalee prior to launching the tinnie, my question is .\" is there an optimum time for prawns and do they move up or downstream dependant on season\" cheers alex

[Angus]

I think its moon dependant. I could be wrong.

Always seems to some around though.

Not much help i know.

Im sure one of the veteran prawners can help.

Angus

[Brian D]

I say moon, tide, water and season.

A couple of days each side of the full moon is best.

Best Tide is high running out.

Even better if it rains a week before full moon.

Even better again if it is somewhere between Oct and May

Here's a mug shot from full moon May 07 [img size=461]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/prawns-e549a958581759a8e81abc13e602ba28.JPG

[kiara_poltegerist]

from my experience in the river, prawns prefer to come out in the dark. sounds simple, but there's alot more to it. e.g a spot that produces 1kg for me per hour or so at night, will produce zilch during the day. my spot where i get all the huge buggers that produces 15cm average prawns will only fire on a rising tide in the evening but by 6am, will be devoid of prawns, regardless of the tide.also, this spot is totally dry, as in 6 metres of gently sloping bank high and dry at low tide, but the same spot is 6'5\" at high tide. the spots i castnet are not wide, only 5metres across, and another only 2 metres across. straying beyond the limits will get ya snagged tight and you'll have to strip and get it. Do$tylz, remember that place i brought ya to? . wahahah. worth it tho eh .

i dont like anything higher than 3/4 full tide coz by full tide, the water has covered alot of the bank, and instead of the prawns being concentrated at the bank below most of the mudline, they'll be all over the place, and you'll prolly get 1 or 2 prawns only per cast as opposed to half tide or so where you'll pick up prolly 10 prawns per cast.

anyway, i'll put it all in a nutshell for you as i'll be away for a week.

Evenings - 6pm onwards (1hr minimum after dark). best on a nearly half or already half rising tide. if the tide is falling by evening, dont bother, the prawns will all be in deeper waters.

Night - anytime basically, rising is good, but my best results have been on a falling (3/4 down and falling) tide after a rise.

Dawn - 4am till 6am. after first light, falling is best

btw, this is just a summary of my observations of prawning in the river mate, i'm no authority on prawning, no guru either. just my 2 cents on how to get more prawns. hope it helps. good luck with ya prawns mate!. i've got some pix in my reports throught the forum. go check under the \"all brisbane rivers and creeks\" thread

[bagotalex]

thanks a lot to you all, most helpful

i,ll follow your tips and keep you posted cheers alex

[Do$tylz]

jeez kiara,thats a text book explanation. Heaps of help and info.

But yep i can vouch for such a small place that produces good prawns. I went with Kiara and my 12ft would get caught almost every cast. But there were some big prawns around.

[AlsHilux]

do you guys use specific prawn nets with a top pocket?

All I have is a standard bait net and it seems a lot of the prawn catch just swims out of the gaps or falls out the bottom. The prawns I mainly get are stuck in the top 1/4 of the net. It's weird, bottom pocket is great for fish but not prawns...

So anyway, I've been thinking of investing in a prawn net because I think I have a fairly good spot and potential access to some new ones. Just wondering what people were netting with on these forums.

[Do$tylz]

I don't and neither does Kiara. Mine however is a drawstring, Kiaras is just a normal one.

Im guessing he loses heaps of prawns in his net though, but still does very well.

[rayke1938]

I have all three types of net and my favorite is the drawstring as nothing escapes from it. The main disadvantage is the lack of spread as it is only a 10 ft drop and doesnt have the spread of my top pocket net that was made by bob at Redland bay. I only use my top pocket for prawns in the bay as it is too expensive to replace and there are too many snags in the rivers.

The drawstring net is much faster to empty as all you do is lift it up and release the drawstrings and all the fish/prawns drop out against having to pull each fish.prawn individually out of a bottom pocket net.

Ray