prawns - cooked or raw

[The Flying Tench]

I had a brief experimental session jigging for perch on the Thames today, where I thought there was a shoal. First I tried small lures, and sure enough the perch were there. Then lobs, and of course they greedily devoured those. Then I tried modest size prawns, and to my surprise I didn't get a touch. Admittedly the perch I caught on lures and lobs today were smallish, but the prawns weren't big, and I didn't even get any knocks.

 

The prawns were cooked. Should I have got raw?

[philocalist]

Not sure it makes any difference John - biggest problem I've found is that they seem to be massively attractive to eels - even larger ones, who seem to hunt out prawns fater than anything else in the waters I fish. Some very respectable ones too - shame I really dislike them :-)

[Newt]

You could always try both raw and those you cook yourself so you will know that no odd spices were used. That should pretty well give you the "are prawns good perch bait" answer.

[Anderoo]

I've only ever used the cooked ones, and then only at one water, but they worked well. I have been told that it can be a very water specific bait, on some waters perch love them and on others they don't - maybe the Thames perch just don't!

[Tigger]

I've only used cooked ones and that was when targetting tench...caught a lot more perch than tench with them !

[Vagabond]

I will use raw or cooked prawns, whichever comes to hand first.

 

That used to apply whether the prawns were destined for eating, or for use as bait.

 

When I was a kid I would catch prawns from rock pools and eat them straight away.

 

These days I am a little more fussy, will eat raw prawns caught (say) on Uist, but will cook English Channel prawns first

 

For bait, I have found either will work well.

Edited December 5, 2015 by Vagabond