Crayfish Capers - Part 2

Going potty

Bait cages, either built in or tied into the pot, prolong bait life and keep the crays there longer.

Into a pot of boiling water for seven minutes is a simple way to cook a cray.

Sacrificial anodes added to pots will greatly prolong their life.

After cooking the crays should be allowed to drain and cool.

There is nothing better than a feed of freshly cooked crayfish.

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Fishing

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Although I do a bit of snorkelling and occasionally encounter a cray while looking for paua (another kaimoana that has fallen prey to commercial excess and the black market it has spawned), nearly all my cray fishing has been with pots.

The pot or trap is an age-old method of catching crustaceans. Maori developed their own cray pots (taruke) before the arrival of Europeans, often making the familiar beehive shape from supplejack vine. Over the 40 years or so I have been involved with cray potting, we have tried a range of pot designs and building materials (including supplejack), and eventually settled on a rectangular design made of steel mesh. These are robust, have quite a few years of use in them, and catch well.

Here are some of the regulations concerning pot design:
• Round or beehive pots must have at least three escape gaps or apertures (other than the mouth).
• Square or rectangular pots must have at least two escape gaps or apertures (other than the mouth) in opposite faces of the pot. Each aperture shall not be less than 80% of the height or length of the pot’s face containing the apertures.
• Each aperture shall have an inside dimension of not less than 54mm x 200mm.
• Any pot constructed entirely of unaltered spot-welded mesh with inside dimensions of 54mm x 140mm does not have to have escape gaps or apertures, but pots must be used without covers or liners, or have covers or liners that leave at least 80% of the surface area of two opposite sides unencumbered.
• No escape gap or aperture shall be incorporated in either the top or the bottom of any pot.
• You must have your initials and surname permanently and legibly marked on both surface float and pot.
Escape traps are designed to allow undersized crays to exit the pot without handling. Some of the old boys grumble that escape gaps also allow the cray’s great enemy, the octopus, easy access into the pot (if you find empty cray shells in the pot, an occy is usually responsible), but occys are pretty smart and I am sure they would find a way in, escape gaps or no.
There are regulations on the number of pots you may use:
• Individuals may use, set or possess up to three rock lobster pots in any one day.
• Two or more individuals fishing from a vessel may use, set or possess up to six rock lobster pots in any one day.

Except:
• Paterson Inlet: Within Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island (those waters lying inside a line between Ackers Point and Bullers Point on The Neck), there is a limit of two rock lobster pots per person.
• Mimiwhangata: No person may use more than one pot per person per vessel.
Here are some other suggestions on pot design that may make your pots more effective and save you a bit of bother.
• Rectangular pots seem to fish better than round ones. I suspect this is because crays like to back into corners where they feel safe. Some people like to enhance this feeling of security by adding some sacking, flax or cord to part of the pot.
• The entry hole is often lined with a section of plastic from a bucket or drum, making it easy for crays to get in and harder for them to climb out. Some prefer white plastic, as it seems to attract the crays’ attention.
• Most crays can eventually find their way out of a pot. Encourage them to stay and feed by using plenty of bait.
• We used to tie fish-frames through their eye sockets into the pots as bait, but bait cages either built in or tied into the pot prolong bait life and keep the crays there longer.
• Anything dead can be used as cray bait, but some things work better than others. Fish frames are my favourite, with gurnard or blue cod being an ideal size to fit in most bait cages.
• Rusty old pots seem to fish better than new, shiny ones.
• Sacrificial anodes added to pots will greatly prolong their life.
• Use a decent thickness of rope on the float; thin ones are hard on the hands.
• Over-long ropes are a hazard to navigation and much more likely to be accidently run over by boats and cut off.
• Nylon ropes sink, and while more expensive than polypropylene ropes (which float), they will last longer and are less likely to be run over.
• Add some decent-sized weights to the bottom of the pot so that it sinks vertically, sits upright on the bottom, and is less likely to roll over.

Setting your pots
You have to put your name on the floats, so number them as well, and set them in a pattern (such as a straight line).Take careful note of where you set them, either with landmarks or GPS. This can save a lot of searching when you run them, and the number will tell you where in the pattern you are, and which pots you have already done.
Obviously crays like rocky bottoms with plenty of cover and feed, so this is where you should set your pots. Initially place them in a line running from shallow to deeper water until you have located the depth that is fishing best, and then concentrate your pots along that depth.

Beating the burglars
Run your pots every morning, weather and tides permitting; this helps prevent octopus predation of your catch. Get out there early (first light), as crays that have been feeding overnight will have had little time to find a way out of the pot.
Getting there early may help beat the two-legged burglars, too. Unfortunately, there are plenty of these low-lifes around nowadays, but they don’t like going about their thieving ways if there are other boats around to see.

Several years ago I was staying with a mate at his bach. The cray fishing had been poor all week, he told me, with just the odd undersized one in the pots. Next morning I dragged him out pre-dawn to check his pots. There were heaps of ‘takers’ in the first couple. Then, at first light, just as we were pulling the third pot, a boat came buzzing in from down the coast. It belatedly spotted us, stopped about 400m away, then abruptly turned around and headed back the way it had come. You did not have to be Sherlock Holmes to work out what had been going on...

This sort of anti-social behaviour has even prompted the development of a timed link that holds the float underwater, and then releases it after a set period. I haven’t tried the device myself, but it may be worth investigating if you have a heavy poaching problem. The other thing you can do, if you have some hard information, is to dob the bastards in to MFish. They may be professional poachers or just amateur thieves, but like as not they won’t be sticking to bag or size limit regulations either.

Killing crays
Having ended up with a few keepers in the bin (you are allowed six per person per day, but in some regions there are voluntary [not legally binding] reductions to four per person per day) you must kill them before you cook them. Dropping them alive into boiling water is considered cruel, and also causes the legs to fall off.
Accepted methods of killing crayfish include putting them in an ice slurry for a minimum of 20 minutes, or into a freezer for at least half an hour. Crays are cold-blooded and if their body temperature is reduced enough they will just ‘shut down’ and die without suffering.
Another method often used is to put them in a bucket or bin of fresh water, which will also see them off in a short time. To check, pick them up by the over-the-back grip. If the tail and legs sag down and don’t move, the cray is dead.

Cooking crays
There are many ways to cook crays, but I will leave the more complex recipes to Al Brown. Personally, I just boil them. The worst thing you can do to a cray is over-cook it, so timing is of the essence. We will come to this in a moment.
First, you need some water, and it needs to be salt water, so bring in a bucket of clean sea water with you when you come back from running the pots. If you forget, adding salt to fresh water is a secondary alternative. You will need a decent-sized pot to take the cray; folding up the tail and snapping off the feelers will help if necessary.
The crays need not be fully submerged; as long as the pot has a lid, steaming will do most of the job. Now bring the water to the boil, drop the cray/s in and from the moment the water starts boiling again, if the bugs are of normal size (read a couple of millimetres over the limit), leave them for seven minutes, then remove them to drain and cool. Big boys may need a minute or two longer, depending on their size. With their snapped-off feelers pointing downwards, put them in the sink, or hang them from the clothesline or tent guy ropes, and let the excess water drain out.

Breaking down
Breaking down a cooked crayfish for eating is not difficult.
• First, grab the body in one hand and tail in the other, legs down. Twist your hands in opposite directions and the tail will break free of the body.
• Now place the tail down flat on a cutting board, underside facing up. Take a heavy knife and cut it in half lengthways.
• The meat can now be removed from the shell. You will find the colon tube running centrally along the top of the tail; this should be removed and discarded.
• Break off the legs at the body joint.
• You can now cut the upper body in half and pick the meat out of that, too. There is usually a bit of brown ‘gravy’ involved here; some people like it, some don’t.
• An alternative method is to just split the cray in half lengthways with a heavy knife or cleaver.

The best bit
Now you are ready for the best bit – one of the great parts of our Kiwi lifestyle – getting outside the kaimoana. My preference is to eat the meat cold, but don’t leave crays sitting in the fridge for more than a couple of days as the fine meat in the legs will dry out. The tail meat is cut into smaller portions and the legs are a great appetizer – ‘finger food’ that is fun to snap open with your hands. The big fighting claws at the front may require a little mechanical aid to open. This summer I tried a pair of needle-nosed shears, originally designed for crabs, that a friend brought back from a New York store. They were great for the heavy work – I hope someone imports some here.

For a dipping sauce, should one be required, I usually knock up a mix from whatever condiments are around. My favourite is a blend made up of roughly one-half mayo or tartare sauce, one quarter tomato sauce and one quarter sweet chilli sauce. You can throw in a little lemon or lime juice too if you have it – delicious!

On a sunny day at the beach with the surf rolling in, or on the back of the boat in an evening anchorage, accompanied by a fresh baguette and a cold beer (or a crisp chardonnay if you prefer), there is not a finer meal than a freshly-cooked cray on this watery planet, I promise you.

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