Fishing Club report December 2020

 

In the absence of any December Report from Commodore Barry and his First Mate Pam it seems like Patches and his team have been our most successful fishers for December. Once again the Sinkers have little to report and we still haven’t even been out in the SS Vaucluse or Tiny Tinny. I think I’ll look for a new team.

 Anyway in view  of the old adage “If you can’t lick ‘em then join ‘em” I decided to accompany Patches and Michael across the Ferry to South Ballina one afternoon to catch some of these whiting and bream Patches keeps telling me about. They certainly weren’t leaping out of the water at us but we managed to get two keepers each. Patches said “You should have been down here this morning when every throw was a fish!” That’s about the story of my life.

 Despite the fact that we only managed two fish each the entertainment was provided by Michael (aka Banjo Ray) Sherlock. Banjo lived up to his name by catching 10 banjo rays as well as his couple of whiting. Every time we looked over at him he had another ray. I guess some people have some kind of innate ability which enables them to succeed where others fail. Onya Banjo but I’d rather it be you than me!

 Report on the Sinkers

Although we haven’t managed to catch too many fish we have had a ball with the crabs this month. In one three day period we caught over twenty legal sized muddies from our secret spot in Emigrant Creek. We had an absolutely amazing feast one afternoon and treated our partners to a seafood extravaganza!

Tip of the Month

The danger with catching a lot of crabs is that you can become a bit complacent with the way you handle them. Anchors Away Johnnie and I decided to sort out a big group and place them in to separate buckets according to size to help with the cooking. Now we know that when you take them out of the refrigerator where they have been sleeping peacefully they don’t take long to wake up. Anyhow we tipped them in to a big bucket and we were lifting them out to sort them when one of them woke up and took a vice like grip on my finger. I wailed so hard I was heard all along the Street but no matter what I did the damn thing would not let go. I finally shook it off and despite weeks of treatment from Nursie Joy (the Fishing Club Nurse) I am still getting over the infection. Well Hammerhead has been at it again getting advice from his local cronies and he tells me I should have put the crab on the ground and it would have let go straight away.

I’m not absolutely convinced and I hope I don’t have to try it out but that’s the tip for this month for any of you silly enough to let a muddie get hold of you.

Our Special Guest Reporter

 This Month we are fortunate to have an article from our very special reporter Lyn Pramana (wife of Bam the Clam) and despite the fact it may have some inaccuracies I have agreed to publish it as an addendum to the December Report.

CRABS - CAUGHT – CLEANED – COOKED – CONSUMED (THE REAL STORY)

CRABS OR CRAP – THAT IS THE QUESTION

For some reason none of us can fathom, the guys decided to cut and clean the crabs before they boiled them. This proved not only to be a not good idea, but in fact it was a really bad idea.
It seems that Doug had never seen inside of a raw crab before and was quite put off by all the “translucent crap” he found inside. He decided he better clean all that stuff out and it was about 4 crabs later that someone looked at what Doug was doing and asked him why he was cleaning all the meat out from the crab. It took another bottle of beer each to discuss if it was indeed translucent crap or crab meat.
Once all the crabs were cleaned they were then thrown into the 2 big pots (regardless of size) and boiled up. Even Doug’s empty crabs were tossed in just in case he missed a bit.
The result was not too bad for the smaller crabs but left a lot to be desired for the larger crabs. When you cracked the claws water squirted all over your face and clothes.  They were full of water and translucent crap. There was a lot of scolding and head shaking and “I can’t believe you did that” from one particular wife.
The ladies ate modestly and the guys polished off the rest of the 21 crabs. As luck would have it, Doug did not get one of the empty crabs.

Happy New Year

 What a great party we had at the Centre on New Year’s Eve and many thanks to all those who made it happen. Let’s hope we can have many more great times at the Centre throughout 2021.

 Stay safe and Happy New Year to you all !

 Tight Lines Douggie