Prawn/Shrimp bait.

Ive bought a few traps for these and was wondering what the best bait for them would be? The traps are out at the moment with chunks of mackeral in them. Was thinking of trying some sort of shellfish mix as well any suggestions?

what ever you can get your hands on mac is good and so is squid ,with mac being in season i,d stick with it

the problem with mack in traps is it attracts CONGER'S, thats why commercial lads dont use it in pots

Cheers for the advice. Pulled the pots an hour ago. Had loads of wrasse and blenny's and rockling in them and one lobster and a few crabs. The bait pocket on one of them was all wrapped up seriously tight and torn. I think it was a conger sticking its head in and grabbing the mack and spinning like mad. No shrimp I think it might be too rough do they like sandy pathces as well? I put the lobster back as he looked too small whats the size limit for them.

This should still stand ust it as a guide

S.I. No. 162/1995:

SEA FISHERIES (MINIMUM SIZE OF LOBSTER) ORDER, 1995.

SEA FISHERIES (MINIMUM SIZE OF LOBSTER) ORDER, 1995.

I, SEAN BARRETT, Minister for the Marine, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 233A (inserted by section 9 of the Fisheries (Amendment) Act, 1978 (No. 18 of 1978) and amended by section 4 of the Fisheries (Amendment) Act, 1983 (No. 27 of 1983)) of the Fisheries Consolidation Act, 1959 (No. 14 of 1959) and the Fisheries (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order, 1977 (No. 30 of 1977) (as adapted by the Tourism, Fisheries and Forestry (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order, 1987 (No. 82 of 1987)), hereby order as follows:

1. (1) This Order may be cited as the Sea Fisheries (Minimum Size of Lobster) Order, 1995.

(2) This Order shall come into operation on the 27th day of June, 1995.

2. In this Order "the Council Regulation" means Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3094/86 of the 7th October 1986(1) as amended by Council Regulation (EEC) No. 345/92 of 27th January 1992(2) and any future regulation of the Council made after the commencement of this Order which amends, extends, replaces or consolidates (with or without modification) the Council Regulation.

3. The provisions of Article 5 and Annex IV of the Council Regulation are hereby prescribed and adopted except insofar as they relate to the minimum size of lobsters by means of overall length. Accordingly, any infringement of Article 5 within the exclusive fishery limits of the State in relation to an Irish fishing vessel or by a person on board an Irish sea-fishing vessel, after the commencement of this Order, shall be an infringement of this Order.

(1) O.J. No. L288/1, 11.10.86.

(2) O.J. No. L42/15, 18.02.92.

4. For the purpose of this Order "Lobster" means Homarus Gammarus:

5. For the purposes of enforcement of this Order, the provisions of Section 233 (amended by section 11 of the fisheries (Amendment) Act, 1978 (No. 18 of 1978) and amended by section 4 of the Fisheries (Amendment) Act, 1983 ( S.I. No. 27 of 1983 )) of the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act, 1959 ( S.I. No. 14 of 1959 ) are deemed to apply.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 27th day of June, 1995.

SEAN BARRETT,

Minister for the Marine.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The effect of this Order is to prescribe and adopt Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 345/92 of 27th January 1992 and in particular Article 5, Annex IV except insofar as it relates to the minimum size of lobsters by overall length.

The Regulation also allows for the minimum size of lobster to be measured by carapace length. Under the terms of the Regulation a lobster is defined as being undersized if it's carapace length is less than 85 millimetres.

Thanks for that john.

i find that if u mash a few prawns themselves into a ball it works

http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http ... CBcQ9QEwAQ

remember is the carapace at 8.5 cm - dont include the tail/abdomen

remember is the carapace at 8.5 cm - dont include the tail/abdomen

i think at that size it would be classed a prawn

believe me ive seen lads entertaining that size until i told em about the sizes

Pulled the pots again this morning and there was a good size lobster in them which i've got at home for dinner!! There was some shrimp in there as well but not enough for a meal anyway. There was a few velvet crabs as well so smashed them up to see if they would keep the other crabs away and put them back. The shrimp were also in the pot with the crab broken up so that might work better for them. There was also a fairly sizable conger in there as well Id say it was close to 10lb it nearly broke the pot on me.

i told you so

..Shrimp traps are best fished at arount 6 feet deep, the shrimp are close to the surface during the summer, so fishing sub-surface will catch you more shrimp and you should keep clear of nusance speices. It is best to mark your string with a bright bouy to avoid tangling props etc. I use a plastic bottle with pureed mackerel inside and pierce some holes in the bottle. You can freeze up a few bottles and use them whenever. Hope it helps.

while on holidays the skipper shelled the prawns and salted them this took out alot of moisture and toughend them up ,although i think they came of the hook far to easily even for boat fishing ,i think using bait elastic could be a must?how you using them jack?or are they just getting eaten

Was planning on eating them Roger! Are they any good for bait here?

I use a plastic bottle with pureed mackerel inside and pierce some holes in the bottle. You can freeze up a few bottles and use them whenever. Hope it helps.

sounds like the setup you'd see on "the deadliest catch" for luring in the crab, only they seem to use herring instead of mackerel.

A few things that turned up in the pots.
Big Blenny?


Blennys and micro wrasse as well as a rockling

Hi Jack... I am not sure if this will work here. I used to do this back in the pacific and it generates loads of shrimp and crabs for me. I normally use fresh bloody chicken heads which I order from the market. It provides good scent and is tough and doesn't easily get smothered by any species that feed on them.

Hehehe...