hi all,

i have seen a few requests from those starting out prawning and thought the following may help:

firstly, there are 3 common types of cast nets used for prawning: top pocket, bottom pocket and complete pocket (drawstring net). I have one of each but seldon use the bottom pocket net.
if you are looking for prawns other than banana prawns a bottom pocket or complete pocket net is the net to use. if you are chasing banana prawns the only net to use to catch efficiently is a top pocket net. this is because banana prawns flick up to the top of the net and a top pocket net allows quick and easy emptying of the catch into your bucket. bottom pocket and complete pocket nets are very good for catching bait and tiger prawns. i would not normally use either of these nets for catching bananas as they also catch whatever crap is on the bottom and it takes a while to empty the catch (not too long with a complete pocket net but it takes longer to prepare the net to cast with all the strings).
there has been a lot of interest in nets with chain bottoms instead of leads these days but personally i prefer to use a net with leads as they are quicker to make. i would also point out that if you use a net with a chain lead line you should consider breaking a link every metre or so and tie the links back together with a light line. if you get a bad snag the light line will break and you will have a better chance of getting your net back. the chain will not break otherwise and you may well lose the entire net instead of just requiring repairs.
if you have an expensive hand made net i would also suggest that you acquire a cheap machine made net. this is so that if you are in a new area you can test the waters with the cheaper net and therefore save yourself destroying or losing an expensive net.

20 years ago i worked on prawn trawlers for a crust and that was where i first learned to sew net. i have made cast nets ever since although i no longer sell them as they are not very profitable. the materials to make a full size net cost about $140 and the time taken to make a net is at least fifteen hours - so selling them at $300 pays a little over $10 per hour. my day job pays an awful lot more so i can no longer be bothered except for making my own!

as far as catching the prawns is concerned i will concentrate on the banana prawns as they are the easiest to catch in good numbers. a few years back i contacted CSIRO and spoke to a fellow there about catching bananas. unfortunately they didn't know much about them other than they are usually more prolific on balmy days on a run out tide in the summer months. they don't know whether its a spawning or migration thing that congregates the big numbers together but i think it is a fair conclusion that spawing is the reason and in fact the spawning probably covers migration also as what better reason would you have to migrate than mating?

usually you will catch bananas anytime from the top of the tide down to the bottom of the tide although on rare occasions i have caught bananas on the run in tide whilst looking for bait fish. if you are in the brisbane area, the place to look for them is out the front of nudgee beach or down amongst the bay islands - particularly along the western side of russell island. in both cases it is usually as easy as looking for what appears to be a used boat lot on the water - catching prawns seems to be a very social event these days!
for those that dont like the crowds it requires a lot of sounder work if you are on your own. even in the crowds you must use your sounder if you want to get good numbers as the schools can be very scattered. when you see big red blobs on your screen you are in the right spot (or you have just landed a "christmas tree" of herring or anchovies).

i have had a few trips where the prawning near "the fleet" was pretty ordinary yet a hundred yards away i have filled my bucket in 15 minutes. i think that this is just the schools scattering in response to having 50 (or more) nets chucked at them all at once.

on an occasion last year when i had resigned myself to only half a bucket for the day i came across a patch on my way home whilst in the main channel back to redland bay and went home with a full bucket instead.

sometimes i have caught them at the ramp before going anywhere. this has happened a couple of times at redland bay ramp and in fact this is where i have had my best prawning session ever. about 12 years back (before the bucket limit) i caught 27 kilos in one and a half hours on the high tide at night standing on the boat ramp. this was with a shop bought bottom pocket net and i left while the prawns were still thick. i had nowhere other than the boot of the wifes car to put them and she wouldn't be in that! i remember i was catching over 70 prawns per cast and they were all over 23cm long - there was no small prawns amongst them at all. i believe that there are some locals down there who berley the prawns at this time of year with pollard.

they can show up almost anywhere. sometimes you will see them skipping across the surface and at times you can see acres of them.

usually i head out to the w's at macleay island and work on doing a loop down to the power lines, up to the logan, redland bay channel and then back to the ramp.

one other thing to remember is that prawns bury down into the mud. whilst you may go to the spot you were yesterday and find nothing, half hour later or so they may be there in big numbers. like fishing, you may leave a good spot due to lack of patience so remember that you must be in the right spot at the right time. a few times i have lost patience to look elsewhere only to return to where i started to find that i have just missed them!

i hope that this may be helpful to a few fishos

good luck
davo