Winter Prawning

 Winter is prawning time in Georgia Straight. With less pressure and half a year since the commercial season now is the ideal time to get out there and load up on spot and side stripe prawns. While I don't have too many reports from prawn fishermen, but every report I have got has been great. North of Gabriola and Entrance Island and around Five Fingers have been producing excellent catches of spot prawns at 350ft. If you want to fish shallower South of Gabriola in Pylades Channel is producing nice hauls of side stripe prawns at 180ft.

Best baits have been the locally produced Yum Yum bait. It is extra oily and sends a large cloud of scent down current to draw the prawns in. I fill my bait cups half full with our prawn pellets and dump one can of Yum Yum over the pellets. This gives a good mix of looser bait to disperse and more solid bait for a longer soak.

Remember that prawn floats must be round 12" or bigger. You can add a second float of any size as long as it is also round. Colour does not matter so I use yellow as it it higher visibility and stands out from the crowd.

 The winter springs have now shown up in the mid Island area as well. So while you are prawning drag a line for these feisty small Chinook. Most are currently under retention size, but not by much. There are keeper sized fish out there and they are growing fast. There are some fish around Five Finger Island, but your best bet is to troll the bottom 200 feet down along the East side of Gabriola Island. Best lures have been Northern Tackle Cop Cruiser and White Knight Loony spoons

Tips up!

steve@harbourchandler.ca