How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

[Grant Brown]

I have a live well on my 20 foot Spectrum that works pretty good when the boat is in the water.
The problem is when I'm on my way home all the seafood usually dies. Sometimes it takes an hour or more to get home from the marina.
Does anyone know of a portable live well or aftermarket aerator I could install?
BTW - I am in Vancouver and talking about dungeness crab and spot prawns (the spot prawns turn to mush if they die before they are beheaded).

Grant

 

[lprizman]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

they have battery operated airaters
usanglers.com or just google it
or behead and throw on ice for the ride home

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

I love how people are so quick to thow people away from iboats..... it's a shame that people do not realize what a great resource the iboats store is.... but what would I know .......

iboats store carries the supplies you might need look here http://www.iboats.com/Boat_Parts_Ac...97772--keywords.airator--**********.070533191

 

[lprizman]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

or use the iboats store,,,
oops

 

[Campylobacter]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

Dunno about dungeness, but blue crab will live for at least a day on ice (I'm East coast). Try a cooler. Take the heads off the prawns and I expect they will last awhile in the cooler as well.

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

What i do is put the crabs in a bucket of fresh ocean water. Put a lid on it and the way you go. Works for me. I don,t use the live well for crabs on my 17 foot Spectrum as it does not keep the crabs under water but put them in the same bucket I take them home in. Never had a problem.

PS don't use fresh water

 

[Grant Brown]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

puddle jumper - I was just up in your neck of the woods last summer. Stayed at a friends place in Port Alice for a week and had AMAZING Coho fishing...
Spent a couple of days at Alder Bay resort at the end of the trip trying for Hali. Not much luck though.

Do you ever fish Spot Prawns? I've done it a few times around here but never had much luck. The ones I did catch were pretty mushy by the time I ate them and I was told it's because they excrete an enzyme through their body from their head when they die.

My dungeness always seem to use up all their oxygen before we get them home. They are either dead or very near it.

As far as the prawns go, I could just pop their heads off before I leave for home but the kids LOVE this job and it's less work for me...

Grant Brown
White Rock, BC

 

[dan t.]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

We have a 1 1/2 hour drive home frome Prince Rupert where we fish, we just put the crab in a cooler with a wet towel over them, seems to work fine,full of life when we get home.As for prawns we behead them and get them on ice as soon as they come out of the trap

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

puddle jumper - I was just up in your neck of the woods last summer. Stayed at a friends place in Port Alice for a week and had AMAZING Coho fishing...
Spent a couple of days at Alder Bay resort at the end of the trip trying for Hali. Not much luck though.

Do you ever fish Spot Prawns? I've done it a few times around here but never had much luck. The ones I did catch were pretty mushy by the time I ate them and I was told it's because they excrete an enzyme through their body from their head when they die.

My dungeness always seem to use up all their oxygen before we get them home. They are either dead or very near it.

As far as the prawns go, I could just pop their heads off before I leave for home but the kids LOVE this job and it's less work for me...

Grant Brown
White Rock, BC

Grant i saw your boat go bye on the trailer and have a photo of it on my phone to show my wife. When you were out Port Alice you were in prime prawn/crabbing area.

Its funny i saw your other thread and the way you described your boat it sounded like the one I saw. Cool. You don,t seem to see to many Spectrum boats up here.

Up here most people take there prawns and cook them soon after catching them. We have many crab lunches on a beach some were and take the rest home. Coho fishing was fantastic this summer. We all limited out in about 6 hours and there was three of us.

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

We have a 1 1/2 hour drive home frome Prince Rupert where we fish, we just put the crab in a cooler with a wet towel over them, seems to work fine,full of life when we get home.As for prawns we behead them and get them on ice as soon as they come out of the trap

Hay Dan do you race in Terrace. We us to come up and play at your track once a year.

 

[Grant Brown]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

That's pretty cool you saw my boat and got a pic of it even. I'll be up there again in June and maybe again end of August.
Yes like I said my previous post after my Port Alice trip I stopped at Alder Bay for a couple of days. Tried prawning but no luck. Maybe it's my cheap traps? Or maybe I'm doing something wrong. I'm getting to the point of giving up (almost). It really sucks to pull the traps from 300 feet by hand and have nothing in them...
Got any pointers or tips? I can usually catch anything if they are around but these darned spot prawns have me beat (so far).

Grant

 

[grego]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

Not sure it is relevent. I used a livewell for a trip with a crappy fisherman buddy. I forgot to empty the well after. The minnows died and have cleaned the well MANY! times. I have stopped using that well because I have a much larger dead count. not sure why?

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

IN addition to the battery powered aerator: for blue crabs, they can live out of water for several hours, but will drown (as will fish) if under water too long--they use up all the oxygen. I purge my crabs in the sink with water just nose-deep (their noses not mine). Or ice them down when you pull the boat (can't speak to effect on prawns).

 

[Old & In the way]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

My expereience with blue channel and dungies is that fresh water or ice melted on them will kill them.

If you go to Home Depot and buy a plastic grate, like what they use for florescent lights - egg crate small diagonal square holes.

cut it to fit the cooler or built in storage area. put 1 - 2 inches of ice on the bottom of the cooler. put the grate on top of the ice then put the crabs on top. DO NOT cover the crabs with ice. Cover the crabs with a thin layer of newspaper.

works for me.

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

That's pretty cool you saw my boat and got a pic of it even. I'll be up there again in June and maybe again end of August.
Yes like I said my previous post after my Port Alice trip I stopped at Alder Bay for a couple of days. Tried prawning but no luck. Maybe it's my cheap traps? Or maybe I'm doing something wrong. I'm getting to the point of giving up (almost). It really sucks to pull the traps from 300 feet by hand and have nothing in them...
Got any pointers or tips? I can usually catch anything if they are around but these darned spot prawns have me beat (so far).

Grant

The only tip is to use fresh bate. Salmon heads work well as well as a Halibut carcass. Stay away from the packaged bate you buy in the store. Like you said you go deep but near a river out let. Hope this helps.

 

[dan t.]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

Hey Puddle Jumper,I used to race a 80 camaro hobby stock, I quit 10 or 12 years ago rule changes just made it too expensive,the wife wasnt realy into it,and try as I might I couldnt catch any fish out there. Boating is somthing we enjoy together.Great year for coho up here too

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

Hey Puddle Jumper,I used to race a 80 camaro hobby stock, I quit 10 or 12 years ago rule changes just made it too expensive,the wife wasnt realy into it,and try as I might I couldnt catch any fish out there. Boating is somthing we enjoy together.Great year for coho up here too

I was with wescar . I was only up there once but a beautiful town and great hospitality at the track. At that time we were out of Williams Lake. My wife got tired of the hot dog dinners and the track in general.

 

[Grant Brown]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

Puddlejumper - do you know anything about Sointula? I'm looking at a small cottage there as a recreational place. Anything that jumps out as bad?

 

[moonfish]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

My expereience with blue channel and dungies is that fresh water or ice melted on them will kill them.

If you go to Home Depot and buy a plastic grate, like what they use for florescent lights - egg crate small diagonal square holes.

cut it to fit the cooler or built in storage area. put 1 - 2 inches of ice on the bottom of the cooler. put the grate on top of the ice then put the crabs on top. DO NOT cover the crabs with ice. Cover the crabs with a thin layer of newspaper.

works for me.

I sorta do the same thing in FW but I just pull the cooler plug so it can drain. I've thought about using that egg shell stuff before too. Fish keep good on top of ice but not in the nasty melt water.

 

[esobofh]

Re: How to keep prawn/crabs alive?

The problem is when I'm on my way home all the seafood usually dies. Sometimes it takes an hour or more to get home from the marina.
Does anyone know of a portable live well or aftermarket aerator I could install?
BTW - I am in Vancouver and talking about dungeness crab and spot prawns (the spot prawns turn to mush if they die before they are beheaded).

Grant

Grant;

I do my crabbing in the Arm, out of Cates Park. I drive home to surrey afterwards and it's always more than an hour.

For Crabs, never store them in water (salt or fresh - they will decline rapidly). All I do is pop them in a cooler. Even on a hot day, where i'm collecting 6 traps and spending 2+ hours doing so, my crabs are always moving in my sink at home. Beleive it or not, i've placed crabs in my crisper in my fridge, and on day 2 when i pulled them out, they were moving!! The trick is no liquid.

For prawns.. on ice is best.

Can I ask where you do your crabbing and prawning? and for prawning, at what depth?