Kama Hele Cruising : First prawn catch, July 8th.

The morning of our trip from Prideaux Haven Anchorage in Desolation Sound, I ran back out to Mary Island to pull up our prawn trap which had been soaking overnight.

We've had our best luck catching prawns with the trap sitting in 250 -300 ft of water near a ledge, drop off. We bait our trap with shrimp bait pellets, which are nice and oily to create a scent trail that attracts the little buggers to the trap. I have the trap weighted with a few pounds of zinc to help it stay anchored securely on the bottom when the current is running. The line is also weighted so that it doesn't float on the surface where it could get run over by another boat. The surface end of the line has two buoys, one yellow that identifies it as a prawn trap, and an additional orange float to help with visibility and also to float the trap so the whole rig doesn't end up underwater if the trap comes loose from the bottom and drifts into deeper water (this has happened to us more than once).

Needless to say, the rig is a whole lot easier going down than it is hauling up by hand. I have an overhead block on the Kamahele, but when retrieving from the dinghy it's a straight pull up from the bottom and a serious workout.

So, it's always very satisfying to get a good batch. This mornings haul netted just under 4 dozen very nice spotted prawns 😋