What is "JELLY PRAWNS"?????????

[kingkev]

Read that the fish are scarce here in Townsville because they are all pigging-out on Jelly prawns. What are they???

[disorderly]

I thought they were just prawns but at their juvenile stage of development.

[kingkev]

That's what I was thinking. Been seeing them skitting around the breakwalls. Probably only 50-60mm in size.

Why would a fish want to eat my dead mullet strips or peeled dead prawn when they can eat fresh jelly prawns.

[disorderly]

I guess you could try to capture some somehow....they would be good bait,particularly if still alive.

[kingkev]

I watched a guy on the weekend with a prawn net. Every now and then he would take a swipe at the water and get one at a time for live bait. The little buggers never developed into a fish though.

[youngy]

Kingkev- Jelly prawns were thought to have been baby prawns, however it turns out tyey are miniture prawns that dont get much bigger than what you saw.
They are a great bait but hard to use because they are so small, about 6 on a hook at a time and they must be kept alive because they make a clicking noise in the water and this helps in attracting the fish.
Gun bait down the gold coast for big whiting, hope this helps. cheers wayne.

[Jono_SS]

Usual story - lots of different things can be called the same name or the same thing can be called lots of different names.

I have known some people to call baby banana prawns "jelly prawns".

On the other hand, you might be talking about the sergestid shrimp/white prawn/jelly prawn etc with scientific name Acetes.

Acetes I've seen don't grow very big (e.g. around 15mm max total lenth). You can tell them from baby bananas easily as they don't have a rostrum.

[Scott nthQld]

Well, I doubt the fish would be chhasing them, the barra have been feeding on 'jelly prawns' as well so I've been told, so I think they would be the baby banana prawns about, a ture jelly prawn wouldn't even be worth chasing for a barra, they are very lazy.

[ozbee]

jelly prawns are junevile banana prawns when they shed there skins in the creeks . the prawns are jelly like hence . not uncommon for the shoreline to be a smear of shed skins .

[Jono_SS]

this is an Acetes Jelly Prawn

[Jono_SS]

these are baby banana jelly prawns about the same size as the Acetes.

[richieboy]

Jonoss is spot on. 1st pic is a jelly. They only get around 10mm big and when they are thick the water looks pinky/orange.
They are in plague during the end of the build up up here in Darwin and the reason it's hard to tempt barra etc is beacuse it's very hard to match the hatch unless you've got a fly.
Threadies are notorius for shunning anything that doesn't resemble a jelly. The barra will tend to roll on jellies rather than boof (my experiences only) and are very hard to tempt as they are tunneled vision and feed below the surface alot.

richie

[kingkev]

Good info guys

cheers and happy fishing

[borisdog]

I've always known them as very small prawns. It can be a sad fact that when there's heaps of these things around it can be impossible to tempt a fish.

As an example; Years ago a mate and I drove into Port Warrender in the N Kimberley to fish Lawley River area. One day we found a beautiful little drain that was absolutely spewing out these tiny little bastards. There were big Threadfin, Barra, Queenies and more than a few little crocs hanging around all just gorgeing themselves. The fish were that thick they were thumping into the tinny, it was madness.

We threw everything in our tackle boxes at this for 3 hours and didn't raise a scale. Not one effing hit. Ya couldn't leave though if you know what I mean.

Cheers, Darryl

[Jimbo73]

Jelly prawns are a good whiting bait