Cowell, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

First stop on our fishing trip was the coastal town of Cowell on Eyre Peninsula, about five and a half hours from Adelaide.  We fished from the rocks and beach north of nearby Arno Bay to gather a hard-earned bag of tommy ruffs. Dinner was a very nice tommy ruff linguini.  The following morning we were on the Cowell jetty just after dawn with our crab nets, in pursuit of blue swimmer crabs.

Located on the shore of shallow Franklin Harbour that is bordered in places by mangroves, Cowell is possibly the best place in the state to catch these delicious crustaceans.  We had a good morning, snaring about two dozen of them.  Blue swimmer crabs are beautiful looking creatures, although their powerful claws can be a painful trap for the unwary, as I found when I was silly enough to drop my guard for a moment and rapidly felt one of my fingers being crushed. Ouch!  It was no easy matter to prise the claw off with a pair of pliers.  Blood and Band Aids followed.

Back at our shack, Lee Tuan quickly turned four of the blue swimmers into crab sushi for lunch, and another four into crab soup for dinner last night.  And tonight it was stir fried chilli crab on the menu.