Grab a crab – with care! by Gary Earl

I can remember my first experience with a mud crabs as if it were yesterday. I was minding my own business flicking lures for barramundi and mangrove jacks on the Lee Point Road at Buffalo Creek boat ramp, just out of Darwin.

A total stranger came up in a 12' tinny and asked if I had a lighter, he had a few problems with a fuel hose. I give him a lighter and he proceeded to heat the end of his fuel hose to expand it enough to attach it to a fuel fitting.

I was backing away from him pretty quickly and thinking, 'You're one crazy dude, a lighter and fuel don't mix, mate!

But I got talking to him and he said he'd dropped off a few crab traps up the creek and if I wanted I could go up and try for a barra at the next junction, where a couple of creeks met.

The lighter episode should have been enough for me not to go but I thought, 'what the heck' and I jumped in.

We started pulling in crab traps made from chicken wire, they were like baskets.

After about pulling up about 20, I asked how many he was legally allowed to have. Back in those days you could have 10 traps per person, so with me there it was legal to have 20, which we had already brought up. But he still had about 10 more in the creek, then a few just tied in the mangroves.

He pulled them up and when we were done. There were at least 35 traps and about 50 huge mud crabs all tied up in a hessian bag.

We stopped at the creek junction and threw a few lures about, then heard a motor of what we thought was another boat in the distance. As it came closer we saw it was a helicopter, a Fisheries helicopter!

It hovered over us and as I looked at this bloke through the pile of wire traps I was thinking, 'I can lose my rods, tackle and even my car outta this'. I was in a bad situation.

My 'mate' gunned the 15 horses to full throttle and the small tinny rose up and headed into the smallest side creek with little room for a boat, as he started yelling 'Get rid of the traps!' but all I could do was sit there panicking about what was going to happen to me.

We dumped the traps and bashed over tree stumps and branches, chucking everything as well as ourselves all over the boat. He stopped the donk and we sat there for what felt like forever but was really about 10 minutes before we sneaked out of the creek and headed for the boat ramp.

I said, 'Let me off at the mud bank up ahead, I'm going to walk back. I wanted nothing to do with this and don't worry, I have seen nothing. I don't want to be involved in any of this.'

As we headed to the bank the helicopter swooped over the embankment and we were told to stop. My mate didn't listen and we took off for the boat ramp.

The chopper gave chase and I got out at the ramp while the crab thief kept going. I jumped in my car and headed towards Casuarina and about 5km along the road shot past Fisheries and National Parks vehicles racing the other way.

I don't know what happened to the bloke but I was glad to just be far away from him.

These days my mud crab adventures are a lot more peaceful!

NET GAIN

I have been chasing muddies for over 20 years now, mostly in the upper estuaries of Port Stephens