jelly prawns

[tug_tellum]

Pardon my ignorance but every now & then I hear about jelly prawns.
What the hell are they? & where do you get 'em ? Mick

[hooknose]

Mate they are a small species of shrimp/ prawn that only grow about 15mm long at the max. They travel in large groups and are opaque/ clear and fairly fragile.

On the Goldy I get them in the canals at the bottom of the tide with a fine mesh scoop net made of mosquito net. If you walk the canal edges you can see them, they spook easily and jump( its easy to mistake them for very small baitfish), once located they are easily netted. One or two scoops and you have a few hundred which is plenty for bait.

They are one of the gun baits for big Whiting( I have also taken good Bream on them) in the Nerang River and other SE QLD Rivers and creeks but they are not that easy to use. You put 10 to 12 on a number 6 hook at a time but you must bend them in half and pass the hook through their body twice before sliding them up the hook and putting on more of them. There is no doubting that they are good bait but you spend a lot of time baiting up your hooks( especially if you are using 2 rods ) and they come of relatively easy if the fish picks your bait instead of swallowing it straight up( Nugget reckons they are the no 1 bait for XOS Whiting).

I find worms(Wrigglers or Blood) a better proposition since I mainly fish at night and my eyes are not the best( and the big Whiting love them just as much).

If someone has a better way of rigging them so that they stay on the hook a bit better, please dont be shy and share the info( pm if you like ).

[Wazzup01]

Big threadfin have a habit of gorging themselves on them and will not generally look at anything else while they are doing it.

Wazza

[tug_tellum]

Thanks for that info guys. I will have to try & catch some . Mick

[Freeeedom]

They are also a deadly bait for garfish. When I was a kid growing up in northern NSW we used to catch them in a scoop made from mosquito netting. A couple of scoops would give us enough bait for a few hours of catching gar using Dad's fly hooks under a piece of cork. The rod was a piece of thin bamboo (sneaked from behind the headmaster's house) and the line was tied directly to the end of the rod. Primitive, but it worked a treat and we used to take home gar by the bucketful. This was my first introduction to fishing. Aaahhh - the good old days!
Cheers Freeeedom

[tug_tellum]

Thanks Freeeedom. Where did you collect Jelly Prawns? If I try the canals to collect them do I Burley for them , or just wander around aimlessly with Beer in hand hopeing to come across them. How do you keep them alive or are they just as good dead? Mick

[Freeeedom]

I've always found them by sight. You can see schools of them in the water around rocks walls, jetty pylons etc. They don't survive long so I've always used them as dead baits, but keep them cool as they warm up and go off very quickly in the sun since they are so small.
Cheers Freeeedom