Crayfishing

We recently had some visitors up to the farm from the city. We all decided we would like to do a spot a crayfishing(or yabbying) as some call it.
We catch them in freshwater stock dams out in the paddocks(on a neighbours property) with sticks stuck in the mud with cotton and meat.We also have special crayfish traps in the shape of the Sydney Opera house.
We arrived at our designated fishing spot only to have  a few cattle surround the cars for a stickybeak at what we were doing. The little  fellow we had with us was terrified of them, I don't think he had ever had much to do with them before.

We placed all our lines and traps in and waited, we had a quick response  and in no time at all we had taught lines and crayfish coming quicker than we could pull them in.

Our city visitors were such fun to watch, we get into the water to about knee deep and catch them in scoops before they can escape off the lines, but they were afraid of the mud and water and preferred to stay at the edge, but in doing so ,so many crayfish escape back into the water.

We had a wonderful few hours, which included a picnic on the dam bank and watched as our youngest visitor was fasinated by the crayfish, and was horrified at the prospect of eating them.
I haven't as yet had a go at canning them, but I am sure it could be done, maybe in vinegar. We eat them  just boiled in salty water, and cooled with  either vinegar, squeeze of lemon or mayonaise. The other favourite is as surf and turf in a lovely creamy melted butter white sauce on top of steak or chicken ..Yummm...Food is never far from my thoughts.

I am sure we will  repeat this on many occasions as it is a favourite pastime of ours.
So until next time.
Cheers everyone,
Jane