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[hookR]

My friend and I have decided to rent a boat and take it for prawning, crabbing and fishing. Prawning is new to me and from what I here I should make sure the traps are set in depths of 300ft. Is there maps out there that have information about  depth. I searched online but couldnt find anything. What are those charts called and where can I get them? Thanks for your help.

[blaydRnr]

they're called nautical charts or maps. you can buy them in most marine or tackle stores or online. don't just rely on these maps, make sure to get local expertise help/advice.

[Verdi]

The nautical maps are nice, but they don't cover large areas and they a made of paper and hard to keep in the boat.
fish n Map company makes some nice waterproof plastic maps that are a lot better, they miss some of the finer detail but for prawning
 they are great and around $11  rather than $20 for nautical maps.

Most tackle store carry them but they only come in popular areas.


check out the fish n map web site.

[eddy]

Also, marine stores such as Steveston and West Marine, have them.
US charts are all free, on line, at SeaClear.
Have fun.

[hookR]

Thanks guys for your help.

[Dogbreath]

My advice is to start with Crabbing and once you get the drill down re:current/tides plus weighting/setting traps see if you want to graduate to Prawns.

Prawning is a lot of hard work if you're hand pulling and you need a lot more than 300' of line to set in 300' of water.

Also commercial prawning season starts the first week of May and they clean up everything so the best prawning is in winter.

I used to sell a lot of prawning gear and could go on and on-better you should do a search on sportfishingbc.com there's tonnes of info in the forum archives.

[hookR]

My advice is to start with Crabbing and once you get the drill down re:current/tides plus weighting/setting traps see if you want to graduate to Prawns.

Prawning is a lot of hard work if you're hand pulling and you need a lot more than 300' of line to set in 300' of water.

Also commercial prawning season starts the first week of May and they clean up everything so the best prawning is in winter.

I used to sell a lot of prawning gear and could go on and on-better you should do a search on sportfishingbc.com there's tonnes of info in the forum archives.

We went out this week. Did both crabbing and prawning. We got keepers in crab but prawns, the big goose egg 

I weighted all my traps with 5 lbs of lead and anchored just above the last trap. Do I still need more weight? I had two traps per line. Set in 300ft depth with 500ft of rope. The current was so strong I think the buoy was dragging the traps along the bottom because when we pulled the traps up they were covered in mud. How much weight should i set above the second trap? I cant imagine anymore weight. I am hand pulling.

[gilbey]

   Try tying your traps to a small anchor then attach your line that go's to the surface buoy to the center of the anchor (at the bottom between the flukes) so it will pull out of the mud with out getting stuck. Rigged that way the current will have a hard time dragging your traps around.

[Dogbreath]

I suggest 10# per trap-you're right that the current was making the traps drag along the bottom-there are sites with tide & current predictions that can be helpful.

You can use something like this to raise your traps I used to sell all kinds of them-not that much work just more details to figure out-like the proper diameter of rope.

http://www.ironwoodpacific.com/store/p/414-AnchorLift-Standard-Anchor-Puller-by-Ironwood-Pacific.aspx