An excerp from The REEL TRUTH book (custom curing and rigging for prawns):

While the coastal native steelhead season is underway the Columbia & Willamette River springer runs are coming up soon (with the coastal springers a few weeks away).- Properly cured prawns are perhaps the most affective overall bait on the lower Columbia R. and Willamette R. from the Oregon City area on down (of course if you can get the squawfish to leave your eggs/shrimp alone they're right in there and herring are excellant as well). That area is where red prawns are most often used though. However, they have a much broader affective use range than most fishermen are aware. They are excellant in both coastal tidewater and above for springers, fall chinook, and steelhead; the taiils only are great for steelhead too. They are great backtrolled with a custom hookup in large rivers such as the Clackamas, Cowlitz, & Skagit (rigup to follow). - Curing: Order a large box of uncured Marcy brand frozen cooked whole prawns (available at some seafood stores or bait dealers). I cure these 2 ways, as I do sardine filets. 1st; if you have enough juice left over from curing fall chinook eggs, simply soak the frozen prawns in it for a couple hours. If you have a good redish egg cure this is absolutely the deadliest! Refreeze them in ziplocks or small jars. ... 2nd way; cure them in a brine made with a gallon of distilled water combined with 1/2 cup Pro-Glo Red (or Orange or combo) coloring powder (not cure), 1/2 cup sodium sulfite, 1 cup non-iodized salt, and 3 T. MSG. This is a little weaker brine than for eggs, because they have already been cooked in water lightly salted. Soak them for an hour to several hours. Shorter soaks with just a pinkish color is good for clear water on Willamette and Columbia tributaries and the coastal rivers. Longer soaks with a bright red color is good for the colored Willamette and Columbia; but the lighter pinks ones will work out there too. Drain & pad them with paper towells before freezing. - Guides Choice or CCB brand cured prawns are good alternatives. Try the prawns as is or try the usual array of WD40, injected bait oils, or sprinkled nitrates for variants. ....

The most common rig-up for backtrolling, backbouncing, or anchored fishing with prawns in large river currents (such as Willamette @ O.C.) is to use a prawn threader, available at tackle shops, to thread a long 20 lb., 4/0 hook/leader thru the entire prawn body head first; thus fished head downstream. This is also effective for slower water forward trolling; as are stock spinnerwire prawn rigs. However, I have a custom hookup that is more effective for most other conditions, other than backbouncing, with the head facing upstream (better action & the hood stays on)!. Buy or tie up double hook long leader rigs with a 4/0 lower hook & a 2/0 sliding upper hook tied on with dacron backing line. To rig: cut the lower half off all legs hanging under the front part of the prawn; leave all the filia (sp?) fully attached under the tail section. Take a 2" piece of thin wire or toothpick & nick a small notch on top of the head about 1/4th" back from the eyes. Then insert this wire into the first tailsection joint forward of the back fantail joint, straight forward into the prawn while holding it almost straight, very little bend and the fantail will curve downward a little. Then, with the hooks about 1 & a half to 2" apart, feed a loop of leader thru the upper hook eye; a bit challenging, so you may have to loosen the dacron a bit and retighten it. Curl the lower hook into the lower underside of the tail section. Curl the upper hookpoint right into the center of the face and out the underside near the front legs, leaving the hook eye and leader loop just barely sticking out the front of the face. After taking up the slack between hooks put the leader loop over the beak/head and very gently deslack snug it into the notch you nicked on top, to hold the head to the upper hook. This is the key for best action. You will usually have an excellant forward rolling action for trolling. To fine tune, pull the line between the 2 hooks closer for slightly more bend before looping, to slow troll in slacker currents. For more colored water use a spinner blade or 00 dodger at mid-leader as you would with herring. For backtrolling faster water with Jet Planer divers, such as on the Clackamas R. or rained raised coastal rivers, leave the hooks a bit further apart with a straighter body and just a slight curve of the back 2 tail sections. This still rolls faster in these stronger river currents but often outfishes backtolled sandshrimp! ... Prawns are also excellant variants for tidewater chinook fishing and upriver deep holes using floats. Use either the single hook prawn threader hookup (above) or hook it folded, as they come in the package, by feeding the hook thru from the outer mid-bend, then curlhook thru the underside. It works! Also, try trolling the above custom hookup for upper T-Bay springers, as an alternative to herring or spinners. - Steve Hanson (RT)




[This message has been edited by Reel Truth (edited 01-26-2001).]