[Bass-ic Instinct]

Have many of you used the uncooked tiger prawns that are readily available in the supermarkets as bait? At around £1.99 for 20 i make sure i keep a few packs in my bait freezer. They make a good tipping off bait, but are just as good used whole. Big whitting seem to be attracted to them and i have taken small codling, dab, flounder, pollock and coalfish on just prawn! Another positive is that they seem to not recieve so much attention from crabs, which i have noticed on days when all worm baits have been stripped out in 5 minutes! I will try float fishing with them this summer for pollock and wrasse. Perhaps legered they may also make a superb big wrasse bait? If you have any ideas on using them as bait, or have caught good fish on them then please post here on my thread dedicated to the 'Pulling Power of prawns!'.
Many Thanks!

 

[Bass-ic Instinct]

Reading an Article in an old copy of Sea Angler it seems that large prawn baits are the only baits worth using in Gambia. Judging by the size of the Cassava and Kob it looks like man-sized fun!

 

[dabcatcher]

Reading an Article in an old copy of Sea Angler it seems that large prawn baits are the only baits worth using in Gambia. Judging by the size of the Cassava and Kob it looks like man-sized fun!

yes my mate has fished there a few times and prawns is the bait they use.

sea angler made a big thing about them a year or two ago saying they wwere as good as crab [not]

lots since have tried them and loads have actually caught fish on them of all species.

i think its another supermarket bait for when local supplies of worms, crabs etc are hard to come by or at the last minute. [24hr opening]

 

[ms1000]

Cooked prawn is used by 99% of the fisherman over here and works very well for big bream,jacks,wrasse etc.

 

[sallysludgebucket]

I used them when I took an improptue trip to the sea in the early hours a couple of years ago, could only get raw tigre prawns and some 'pink' squid from 24hr supermarket. Prawns accounted for some really decent whiting and the odd codling. I have used them whenever they have been reduced, stuffing squid tubes and or mounting sections in cocktails or whole tipped with a tag of squid.

I do prefer fresh local caught by choice, in fact live takes some beating, they are not hard to find with a bit of practice, but no good trying to collect if the tides in and its dark !

PS. not had much joy on cooked prawn in sea fishing unless dyed bright colours and worked fast for the bars of silver, but they are superb for course fishing and can be flavoured, coloured, refroze.

 

[MikeR]

Prawns can be really effective. I've had cod, whiting and flatties on the from the shore. Confident that I'll be adding to that list sustantially this summer.

 

[blankerman]

got a load in the freezer ready for testing.only tried them a couple of times,but the fish were'nt coming out to play so could'nt really say if they worked or not.as a note i have tried crayfish tails,which do catch doggies and whiting.don't know about other species as that was all that was being caught

 

[GrumpyBloke]

Fished a few times in Gambia and yes they do mainly use prawns , but they are nothing like the Tiger prawns in the supermarkets.On one boat trip the guide put 12 , thats 12 ! prawn threaded up the line and a live-bait on the hook and a snapper hit the live-bait.Seems the prawn were for the smell , and they really do smell , unlike the supermarket ones.
Single ones on a 4/0 will catch anything that swims out there.
Used the big Tiger prawns as a replacement for peelers for the last two years as it was killing my back collecting crabs.Had bugger all except whiting and dogfish, which will eat anything anyway , on the Tigers , but had a steady run of schoolies to old , frozen crab fished on the other rod.
Had no interest from Thornbacks either.
Not scientific I know, but enough to convince me to bribe my nephew to collect the peelers for me!!
If anyone is interested in Gambia , go to the African bit in the overseas section and type Gambia in the search , makes good reading.

 

[lewis888]

Last summer I was fishing next to a few guys and they were using big prawns to catch smoothies, didn't ask if they were cooked though. The prawns were about 4-5inches long and they were fished at range and in the time I was there between 4 guys they had two common hounds both about 5lb - I blanked using peeler crab but I was on a bad rock, atleast thats my excuse lol

 

[m.b3]

lots of the smoothound we took last summer on crab and squid baits where gorging on Dublin bay prawns. definately will be trying them next year!

 

[DoubleShotDamo]

Tried some on a Sussex beach. Did not get a bite! Tipped lug with them, same again not a bite. Used straight lug and caught plenty of fish.

 

[Bass-ic Instinct]

I had never heard of using prawn as a bait for smoothies. I will give this a do when they come in at Auchenlarie later on this year. I think it would pick up the bass there and some of th larger flounders too.

 

[Bass-ic Instinct]

In reply i honestly dont think prawn deters fish, infact quite the oposite. I have found it to pick out larger whitting and dabs on occasions, plus throwing up odd suprises aswell as i caught a small turbot on a whole prawn from Steetly last year. I think perhaps though prawn is limited and better off used as a cocktail bait, such as to tip off lug or as a squid and prawn wrap due to it not having a really strong scent trail.