Hiya
We've fished ONLY prawns for years and have pretty much got the preservation technique sorted. As mentioned earlier, after pumping the prawn, sort out all the dead ones. Put all the alive ones on a newspaper, so that the paper can absorb the water. Towelling paper also works well.
We used wooden trays, similar to a ice cream container. These are built to fit your specific cooler box. Line each tray with newspaper/towling, then put the prawn into it. My trays held 50 prawn each. The tray is then wrapped in 4 layers of newspaper. It is then put into the bottom shelf of the fridge. On my old fridge, i use to put them in the vegatable rack right at the bottom, but my new fridge simply freezes them there.
When you get ready to leave for fishing, put a layer of newspaper at the bottom of your coolerbox, then a tray with the prawns, then another layer of newspaper and another layer of prawn, etc. Put in a ice pack or two and off you go. When fishing, simply remove only the first tray and leave the coolerbox closed. Treated like this, prawn will live for up to 5 days.
Why pump prawn before?? Quite simple, its not so tiring. We used to fish 5 guys, so Friday afternoon, you pump the prawn at Milnerton and then two guys drive up to Langebaan and pump the bloodworm at the "dam". We seemed to have better luck with Langebaan's brighter coloured pink bloodworm than Strandfonteins black bloodworm. Then, a good nights sleep and we leave at 3-4am. We've tried pumping at Uilenkraal, on the way to Rietfontein/Aghulas/Bradfontein, but have found that pumping and driving tires one out rather quickly.
Sandvlei Lagoon, is INDEED A RESERVE!! Some of my friends were fined for pumping there about 10 years ago!! As far as i know, it still is a reserve, so NO POACHING!!!
We also often target the 3-4 kg Hotties in the Army base reserve when the red flag is down (ie no bombs and amunition being fired).. that is however not my favourite fish to eat but lekker to catch..
MIC, 3-4kg hotties?? Allowing for fishermans ability to sometimes guestimate their fish's weights incorrectly, thats a bit over the top!! The SA record stands at 3.00kg's!!
http://www.ncau.co.za/records/SASAA%20Records20072.htm I've spearfished MANT hotties, as in winter it was pretty much the ONLY thing i could do. Anything over 2kg's is BIG!! I've speared the area just outside Saldana and can't confirm that there is PLENTY of BIG hotties, but i haven't seen or even heard of one coming close to 3kg's!! My personal best was a 3.05kg hottie speared on a reef 16m deep at Dassen Island. See pic....
