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  Category: Articles » Travel & Leisure » Article
 

How to catch South Australia seafood delicacies.




By Steven Pike

Camping by the coast is a popular pastime for many individuals or families. It offers activities such as swimming, surfing, snorkelling and diving, fishing, exploring and hiking.

With a little thought and effort, it is possible to explore and sample the culinary delights the area has to offer.

In my home State of South Australia, we are blessed with kilometres of diverse coastline which is home to number of seafood delicacies that are quite easy to obtain, especially in lightly populated areas. Generally speaking, the more isolated the spot, then the easier it will be to catch something.

We will concentrate on species other than fish, such and shellfish and crabs, this time around.

Blue Crabs

One of the most popular species here is the Blue Crab. In the warmer months, the crabs enter the shallow water in the sheltered bays of our two Gulfs, St. Vincent Gulf and Spencer Gulf.

In areas consisting of tidal flats, the best method is to wade through the shallow water, concentrating on the sand patches amongst the weed beds. The crabs bury themselves in the sand. The sandy areas are raked, using a crab rake funnily enough, and when a crab is disturbed by the rake, it comes out of the sand and grabs onto anything it can get its claws on. Hopefully this is the rake. The crab will be reluctant to let go of the rake.

This is where the tub you have had tied to your waist and floating behind you comes in handy. You have to swing the crab over the tub and encourage him to let go of the rake. Sometimes a tap on the side of the tub will make him let go, but it's often easier to take hold of his claws and prise them off the rake.

If the crabs are plentiful, it won't take long to obtain you limit of crabs (currently 40 per person per day here). Make sure the crabs are over the legal size (11 cm across the carapace) and only keep the males. You can keep females, if they have no eggs, but keeping only the males will help ensure a future population.

Cooking the crabs is easy. Boil a big pot of water (preferably saltwater) and place the crabs in when it has boiled. Leave them on the boil for about 7 minutes. They should be bright orange. Cool them down as soon as possible, which stops the meat from continuing to cook in the shell, and that's it. The white meat inside the claws and body is delicious and can be used in many different recipes. (Eating straight out the shell is the best though).

The other method is to use a drop net. This is suitable in deeper water and is popular when fishing off jetties or from a boat. Bait the net with fish, squid or raw meat, and let it sit on the bottom, preferably near a broken sea bed (weed beds and sandy areas). The crabs won't take long to find the bait if they are there. Check the nets every ten minutes or so and replace the bait often.
Once again, this method can be very productive if the crabs are about, even more so when the tide is running strongly.

RAZOR FISH

Razor fish are a shell fish. They have a large narrow fan shaped shell. The top half of the shell sticks up out of the sand, whilst the pointed end is buried. Up to half the shell is buried and the end that protrudes is quite sharp, hence the name.

Razor fish are generally found in the same areas as crabs; on tidal sand flats exposed at low tide. However, Razor Fish are prolific in certain areas where crabs are not always located.

They are easy to collect at low tide. The shell can be seen and it's only a matter of gripping it and pulling it out. Wear gloves or you can buy tongs that are designed specifically for the job. Be aware that the deadly Blue-ringed Octopus likes to hide in dead or open Razor Fish shells, so use caution.

There is no size limit for Razor Fish, but there is not much point in taking the small ones. There are bag limits however, so please obey these.

When you have enough shells, the work begins. Each shell has to be prised or smashed open. Then the insides have to be removed to leave just the white muscle. The intestines and other yucky bits can be used to attract fish if you intent to go fishing. Or the local seagull population will make short work of it.

The white muscle is then cut away from the shell.

There are absolutely delicious and can be eaten straight from the shell or fried.

Razor Fish are still plentiful in some areas, but they have been reduced in numbers significantly over the last five or ten years. People are now realising how tasty they really are, whereas in the past they were used solely as bait.

SQUID

Known as Calamari in the restaurants, squid are another species that were used for bait almost exclusively when I was young.

Now, they are an important commercial species and are very popular with fisherman across the State. So much so, that they are nowhere near as abundant as they once were. However, country locations still provide the opportunity to catch a few.

Squid are caught off of jetties and rocky headlands and tend to prefer rocky and reef covered areas. They are also abundant over ribbon weed beds. At high tide, especially early morning and at night, they are caught in quite shallow water over the weed beds.

The number one way to catch them is to use a specifically designed lure. It is meant to look like a prawn, the squid's favourite food. They don't look much like a prawn to me, but the squid obviously think differently.

These lures are cast and retrieved slowly. The squid race in, wrap their tentacles around the body of the lure and then pull back. They are then snared on the wireless barbs at the end of the lure and wound in. Once hooked, few are lost, as long as the line is kept tight.

Another method is to bait a jag with a fish and suspend it under a float. The squid will grab the fish and try to move off, catching itself on the barbs.

There are other methods used, but these two would have to be the most popular.

Squid are great fun to catch and I think this is mainly due to their habit of expelling amounts of thick black ink when they are hooked. It's amusing to watch a well directed stream of this ink hit some unfortunate person. It smells bad and stains too. Kids love it and never tire of catching them.

Apart from all that, they taste sensational. Everyone has a favourite way of cooking them, so I won't dwell on that here. Suffice to say that deep fired and crumbed would be hard to beat.

CRAYFISH

Crayfish would be that hardest to catch of the three already mentioned. According to most, they would also be the number one seafood in the country.

Cray fishing is a multi-million dollar industry in the South-East of South Australia, and there are several ports out of which Cray fishing fleets operate.

For the recreational fisherman, it is possible to set you own craypot and catch a few.

Cray are found in deeper water where they live on underwater reefs, amongst the rock ledges. Access to a boat is usually necessary to set the pot, which is purposely made contraption. It is baited with fish and left overnight.

Our Gulf waters themselves are not productive areas, but the more exposed coastline at the bottom of both Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas are the spots to try. It is not necessary to set the pot miles off shore, as long as the water is deep and is near rocky, reefy areas.

Please keep on eye on sea and swell conditions in these locations. The weather can change very quickly and the swell is very large at times.

The other method is to dive for them; if you are game. Unfortunately, the home of the crayfish is also the home of Great White Sharks and Bronze Whaler Sharks. Of the two the Bronze Whalers are less likely to devour you completely, but it would still hurt.

A snorkel, flippers and a good set of goggles are all that is required.

Swim over the reefs and dive down peering into the crevices and caves. The crayfish will back into a crevice when they see you, but you should be able to get hold of their feelers. Take hold of both the feelers and pull them out, which is easier said than done. Wear gloves and make sure to keep your fingers out of the area under their tail. They flick their tails when you hold them, and if your fingers get stuck underneath, it hurts!

Hard work to be sure, but once you have tasted fresh crayfish, as I'm sure most of you have, it will be all worthwhile.

All four of the abovementioned species are subjected to either size and bag limits, or both. Please adhere to these. A booklet is freely available from numerous outlets in South Australia, documenting these. It also contains other interesting and helpful information.

If you visit South Australia and have the time, go camping along the coast. As well as enjoying the scenery and isolation, you may be able to sample some of the most delicious seafood you'll ever taste.
 
 
About the Author
Steven Pike spends all of his spare time visiting country areas of his home State, South Australia, taking photographs. His interest in nature extends into the areas of camping and fishing, but his focus is on the magnificence of nature. He hopes to portray some of this beauty in his photographs and encourage people to view their surrounds in a different light.

http://smp.photostockplus.com

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