Crab or no crab. That is the question. Location: Peel Inlet which is one hour drive south of Jandakot at a place called Mandurah. This inlet is a unique geographical feature where rivers meets the sea and forms a huge lake but waters are just knee deep. Don't know when the season begins and when it ends. Legally only 2 months in a year strictly no crabbing i.e. September and October. However, we didn't want to take the chance missing the crabbing season as there's sign that summer is getting shorter by day and therefore conditions may not be favourable for crabbing anymore.
Its a pretty interesting device that we use to crab. It is made of spherical wire mesh hooked to the end of a stick. We had to saw away some end of the broomstick so that it fits into the car boot. Because the mesh is wide, we have to carry a pail with us so that when you scoop up the crab, you put it immediately into the pail or else it'll scurry around and fall back into the water.
Evening and night is the best time to crab. Walk around in the inlet and sometimes you'd spot something moving in the water. As you approach it, the crabs (which has camouflaged back and quite hard to spot) would be in its attack (or defence?) position with its pincher raised. This would actually cause its white contrasting bottom to stand out in the water and thus making it easier for us to spot and catch it. Kindda silly isn't it?
Interesting part of the trip was some of us got pinched by the crab at night because we can't see where they are and we're not wearing slippers. I guess that's the best time for them to take revenge on us. Also at night, wherever you shine the torch, there'll be some silly fish swimming in the beam and most of time we mistaken it for crab. Too bad the fish is too small to be eaten and too ugly to be kept as a pet.
Anyways, we caught some crab and missed some, let go of some which are too small (minimum size is 127cm at its widest). And in the end, the number of catch for the day tallies to 8! But I guess its not the number that counts but the fun and excitement of catching them. The chilly and egg crab dish we had for supper is just the bonus....
2 comments:
Roland - Yeah.. during our meeting with Helena’s dad, one thing leads to another and I found out that he works in your ex-office. Where are you now buddy? Busy flying ah… =)
Did the janitor make a fuss about broom that lost its stick?
btw roll, lack de photos of the chilly crab, to complete the airliur-ness :)
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