All About Prawning
At night along the Australian coastline line from late September to the following May the extent of ,many dozens of small lights is indicative of the large number of people of all ages engaged in the popular activity of prawning. Apart from adding a little luxury to the family menu, this recreation has the attraction of not requiring this skills or know-how of other forms of fishing although some catching methods do need a degree of dexterity and hand speed due to the quickness of prawns in their own environment. The means of capture is logically dependent on the geographic features of the area. The principle localities for the land based enthusiast to prawn are where lakes/rivers flow into the sea. As such entrances are in most cases associated with accessible channels and sand/weed flats.
Being part of the prawns life cycle they tend to congregate upstream in considerable numbers prior to undertaking the somewhat hazardous journey to the ocean on the ebb tide only, becoming part of what is known as a “run” and hoping to avoid predators such as fish, birds and man.
As with other facets of fishing the moon and tide play a major role, and in a lunar month it is possible to go prawning each night from the fourth night after one full moon until the fourth night before the next. Primetime is on a windless evening after a hot summer’s day.
Equipment
A night’s essential prawning equipment for use in a moderate depth of water should comprise of:
- A hand net
- A long lead submersible light powered by a 12 volt battery, floated in or on a medium sized plastic storage container, or, an oblong plastic bucket, glued into a half sized polyurethane surfboard or other suitable buoyancy. (NB. A strong chord of sufficient length needs to be attached between the flotation and prawner to prevent causing interference to the scope of netting activity.)
- Although not essential the wearing of waders is suggested and importantly be aware of the possibility of having to deal with pesky little poisonous little fish
If you don’t own this equipment, and don’t intend to make prawning a regular activity, it is possible to hire prawning equipment from some local bait and tackle shops.
Technique
While prawning be prepared to manoeuvre the net at varying depths and preferably allow the tidal flow to carry the prawn into the net rather than create movement likely to cause it to flick out of reach. As a possible bonus, keep a watch for other passing delicacies such as crabs or flounder cruising the bottom, and should your choice of spot be unsuccessful try a short move as contrary to some views prawns are not attracted to the light but quite the opposite. Remember also that school prawns that usually form a fair proportion of the catch are more likely to be netted in shallow fast-running water. Connoisseurs recommend that at the conclusion of you successful prawning night, the catch be cooked in sea water!
Other methods of prawning
Drag Netting
In a lake situation, prawning is more orientated towards the drag system, involving participants hauling a legal sized length of netting between two 2meter poles over known grounds. Extensive areas at greater depths can be covered by this means which also opens the opportunity to exploit any abundance found on a given night. The wearing of an old pair of shoes is recommended as a precautionary measure as dragging is undertaken in total darkness.
In similar circumstances a one-man prawning operation using a wheeled wooden framed scissor-shaped arrangement, can be quite effective along the shore line.
Boating
Using an underwater light, prawning from a boat moored for and after across the channel is also a practical method of catching prawns. However, with this method longer handled nets are required to offset the restriction imposed by the vessels length.
