Does anyone use regular prawns as steelhead bait instead of sand shrimp? I have primarily used sand shrimp or eggs. prawns would certainly be more durable. Just wondering what experience people have using them vs sand shrimp.

gave up on sand shrimp after hooking multiple steelies using store bought prawns!!!
they are a lot more durable, cheaper, and are ideal to add scent too!...oh and they don't die in a day.

try it, you'll like it!

Prawns are definetly more economical versus spending 2$ everytime out for sandshrimp. However, ive found that steelhead find a sandshrimp tail harder to turn down than a tiny piece of prawn. Ive had days when prawns worked pretty good but the most consistent producer between prawns and sandies have been the sandshrimp. I think they can relate better to sandshrimp because it may be part of their ocean diet???

Prawns are the easiest to keep fresh, store, and the least messy. Eggs are great but this time of year every smolt in the river will be hammering...

Maybe if a guy was to add some sort of scent to the prawns, like shrimp scent/anise and let it soak for a few hours??

I don't use any of those crustaceans.
But you have to think a little bit for yourself before you take other people's suggestions.

1. Steelies are free swimming fish in open water. They don't hide in rocks like Lings or sift gravel to search for food like Gobies.

2. Sand Shrimp got their name because they live in sand and mud.

3. Prawns do not live in sand/mud tunnels. Some are free floating and some just crawl on the bottom.

Draw your own conclusion when you ask yourself, "How can a Steelhead or salmon dig out the sandshrimp from the sandy/muddy bottom?"

Good Luck.

I do believe it's called symbiosis or something similar.

They actually depend upon us to do the digging and in turn they provide us with fun and meat.

Prawns are dynomite for steelhead, both winter and summer! Try them with drift gear or tipped on a jig fished under a float. Also killer for coho and chums!

I concur with B Mac. Try dying them with a little pink cake decorating coloring made by Wilton. They look and work great!

Best luck I have had with Prawns was to take the smaller ones (prawns, not shrimp) and used Pro-cure for shrimp. Dyes them really nice, red color, and I added some anise scent. They get even firmer, store very well in the freezer, and below a bobber on a jig are killer for steelhead.

Give it a try! I gave up on SS a long time ago. They stink, are very fragile, and all it takes is a smolt or sculpin to grab em and they are off the hook. I did have better luck using them when I would take a small thin rubber band and wrap them on the hook with it several times. Good luck! Also, when I used SS for salmon, I would take elastic thread and wrap them with it till there was not much on the hook but the thread, but it held the body and scent on there for multiple hook-ups without coming off. That is the perfect way to setup for Sturgeon too.!

MC

I've been using raw prawns for 10 or 15 years. I bag them in small freezer bags, about six or eight per bag, and have them ready to go in the freezer. I pull them out in the morning. They thaw pretty fast. After fishing, if there's any left (4 prawns is enough for a typical day), it's back in the freezer. You only want a small piece hooked and egg looped as it's the scent that attracts them and small means your offering is drifting naturally. The best are the Tiger prawns. Wait for a sale and see if they have any that aren't de-veined.

Thanks everyone for your responses, I appreciate it. Great repsonses!

oh no my secret is out! not really a secret but I love using prawns, a change of pace from the gut slingers. I like to find them on sale, peel some and either proglo or procure and freeze, the other way i like to prepare them is to make a strong saltwater solution and put em in the freezer. they don't actually freeze because of the salt, it tends to firm them up quite a bit as well as giving them some more salt scent. I've caught every species of salmon except sockeye this way.

Sounds like some cured prawns below a spin and glow would be good for the humpers. Eh?

Picked up a pound yesterday and cured them in pro-cure pink. I will use some Monday on the Cow and the rest go in the freezer. I have primarily been thinking of these for Steelies, how many of you would use them for salmon?

I just bought 5LB frozen shrimp(26/30 ct)-- 3 lbs. for eatting and 2 lbs for steelheading.

Spoon tossser, ......prawns are great for salmon as well as steelhead, especially coho & chum. Add a piece to your drift gear or tip a pink jig with a piece of prawn dyed pink with pro glo. I have had days where the chums would not touch a bare jig, but would hammer the same jig if it was tipped with a piece of prawn. Have fun!

Spring Chinook love prawns.

If you cure eggs with a wet cure (scents, dyes, oils, etc.), take the eggs out of the cure when done. Then you have this liquid of salmon egg goo, scent, oils, and dye. Put you prawns in this mix. Tada! Super Shrimp!

Same as stlhead! Tiger prawns, 6 per ziploc baggie, fresh out of the freezer as I head to the river. I've found that I can tear off smaller pieces when their frozen and they stay on the hook a little longer. I've also cut them into small pieces before freezing to save time between casts.

Jig and prawn........does it get any better?

The results of my prawn experiment. It was a slow day on the Cow with people there all day with nothing to show. I was there maybe an hour and had this fish. I'm impressed with the prawns. I plan on experimenting with some different variations.