[AngelinaLip]

This is a tale of a (cray)fish that didn't get away.
Eight-year-old William MacKenzie, from Blenheim, was in a boat with family in Queen Charlotte Sound fishing for blue cod when he pulled up a 4.4 kilogram (9.8 pound) crayfish on his fishing line


The colossal crustacean even stunned a man with 30 years of experience in the lobster industry, who said it was the biggest he had heard of.
William's dad said the family were on their 5.5-metre boat on December 23 fishing for blue cod and sea perch when William got his hook caught on what they thought was the sea floor.
But it came up and he thought it might have been seaweed, but once the group realised what it was they scrambled to get a landing net, he said.
William landed the beast, aka a spiny red rock lobster, on his own, his dad said.
The crayfish was weighed back at shore.
The family were in an area where they fish regularly and was not renowned for lobsters or as a spot for diving.
Cramac 5 executive officer Larnce Wichman said the lobster was the biggest he had heard of and was stunned when shown the photos.
"I don't know if there are any records kept [for crayfish sizes], but it'd be damn close to it."
It was "near impossible" to tell the age of a lobster once it grew to more than 800 grams because its size depended on where it lived and the food sources available to it.
"The problem with ageing anything over 2kg is that it doesn't necessarily moult every year, but [this lobster] could easily be 50 years old."
It was not uncommon to snag a lobster on a fishing line, but the more popular methods were diving or bobbing.
Bobbing involved lowering a stocking filled with bait and weighed down by a sinker which catches the spiny legs of the lobsters as they feed.
Wichman said if he had known about the lobster he would have offered to swap it for several others so it could be stuffed.
However, the family had already eaten the lobster on Christmas Day. They said it tasted delicious.
* Correction: This story originally said the crayfish was 9.8 kilograms. It was in fact 9.8 pounds (4.4 kilograms)




http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6229...p-whopper-cray

[MidwestMadman]

WoW, pre-Noah's flood size

[Suentiend]

Looks delicious!

[themsrsdude]

Looks delicious!

Get out of here! Those things taste like taking a bite out of swamp lol. I can't believe anybody actually likes them.

dys

[GinaIsWild]

Well I have never tried one, but I like lobster! Crayfish are popular in a lot of southern states too.

[24MurinivaMak]

Nothing better....lol

[StevenS]

Holy crap, JJ, where were those pictures taken!?

[RokgroofeTeme]

this thread reminded me of when i was a kid; awoke and i would catch crayfish in a nearby creek, then take them to his folks' place and race them on the back deck...lol

jeez...hadn't thought of that in years...thanks for sparking a good memory!

awoke- imagine if they had been the size of the one in the OP?! lol

[6ZCo3xuK]

awoke- imagine if they had been the size of the one in the OP?! lol

We wouldn't have been using our bare hands...

[soprofaxelbis]

so how does this work? A lobster is salt water and a crayfish is fresh water? If thats right then we call the lobster a crayfish down here. And what are all those small ones? Are they crawfish? They look like joolgies/yabbies/koonaks to me. Are they fresh or salt water? Thats amazing.

[bonyclayd]

Those (In JJ's pictures) are regular everyday Crayfish in North America. They are the standard size of crayfish here.
They are freshwater. They are also called crawdads, and whatever else you can think of, but they are just crayfish.

Lobsters are saltwater.

[lammaredder]

I've never had crayfish, but I love lobster. With lobster, once they are past a certain size (which is correlated to a age), they taste kinda tough an chewy. Still, amazing catch. Whew.

[Erexecike]

We used to catch them when we were kids on Georgian Bay.

If we got enough big ones the old man would boil them up. Pretty tasty. They actually used to have a small festival a bunch of years back.

[irrascaft]

I'm going to build a Crayfish trap this spring. I want to eat some.

[Jeaxatoem]

I'm going to build a Crayfish trap this spring. I want to eat some.

how about this...why don't we just go to the creek and get them the way we used to? only now we could bring a few beers too!

sounds like good times to me.

[gogoleanylinkfo]

I wouldn't eat anything out of that water man.

[esconsise]

One of the nuclear survivors. Must be a baby. Soon the big unns will be attacking. They already ate godzilla. People are next. They will be called Fukucray.