But all we do is get em out the pot chuck em in esky on ice take them home and if the missus isnt eating them that night then put them in plastic bag and into the freezer my oldies just ate 2 last night that where in the freezer for 4 days and not a problem hope this helps

 When I freeze them now, green or cooked, i use pallet wrap--you know the stuff, like heavy duty gladwrap, just roll them in it and keep folding the ends in, which makes it thicker where the sharp bits are. Works a treat for keeping them for long periods. Sea water slurry is good for transport and to stun them, but don't leave them in a freshwater slurry for too long--osmosis will make them blow up as they absorb the fresh.

 awesome, thanks heaps guys, really approeciate the input.

any preference as to whetehr to freeze cooked or raw?

also if cooking from frozen, do you defrost then boil? or straight to boil, and if so, how long for?

cheers!

Cook first then freeze(my preference) in vac pack,never ever let freshwater touch any seafood at any stage of the cooking or cleaning process incl fish.All shellfish should be cooked in saltwater.

 freeze raw . defrost . then put in boiling salty water after water comes back onto boil cook for 7 minutes you wont go wrong

 2 days in the fridge from fresh caught not a problem, I have caught them and had in fridge for 3 days both raw and cooked with no hassles. Better fresh than frozen. Also better straight in an ice slurry as soon as caught. 

 I’ve kept them for a couple of days in the fridge. No problem. If you are serving them cold you can always cook them tomorrow arvo and chill again overnight.

 I like to freeze them raw so you have more options. I like Rammars idea. If you get a few building up in the freezer you want to keep them compact tubes with no sharp bits to snag on eachother and compromise the wrapping. I myself stun them then wrap in a supermarket bag (stops newspaper sticking), then wrap up in newspaper then another supermarket bag over the top twisted up and tied up. I write the weight and month and year caught. They end up as nice tubes that can stack up in the freezer without snagging.. If tailing them I stick two tails top and tail, wrap in newsopaper then cryovac.

If you want to keep them alive for long periods then stick them in a  hessian bag that has been soaked in sea water or in a fridge that is set on 14deg, any colder will kill them

 for me, heads off

tail face down on small piece of corona box and vacuum pack, spikes dont pierce bag this way

 for me, heads off

tail face down on small piece of corona box and vacuum pack, spikes dont pierce bag this way

 I was doing the wrap in newspaper and cryovac for one year, newspaper was pretty disgusting when defrosted, but they held OK. Tried double vac sealing, that gets expensive and still no guarantee that a horn won't pierce the outer seal. I'd love to find a cardboard tube that would fit your average cray. But we also get a lot of jumbos up here nowadays, half your catch some days. We do a mix of cooks and green. I got the idea for the pallet wrap off here from someone, I think. Got my first roll from the local freight yard for a couple of crays. The local hardware shop stocks  it now , because there is a lot of demand, cost $25 per roll, and that should last two good white's worth. I actually cooked some up that had been stored green by this method all year,  just before Xmas, when we found them at the bottom of the freezer, did the halved chilli/lime thing, came up quite acceptably good.

thanks guys, heaps of great advice! ended up eating fresh that night, but now if I am lucky enough to ever catch enough to freeze I know what to do!
cheers!

I tried this and it works every time...

1. Take the heads off so you are only left with tail with shell on.

2. Put two in a vac bag, making sure to fold the tail under well.

3. Vacuum seal the bag.

4. Fold the excess bag under the bag. This then gives you
three thicknesses of bag on the bottom where the spikes are bad.

5. Place in another vac bag and seal again.

At this point you have 4 thicknesses of vac bag where the spikes are bad and I have not had one let go.

Uses two bags per two crays, but worth the cost I reckon

2x trays, 1x Vac bag. 

that looks the goods.... where do you get the meat trays from? I take it they are raw?

 Can get the trays at MBL in Canningvale if you're SOR

 Butchers use a product called bone guard for an obvious reason. You could try it inside a vac bag. Might be another cost effective method?

Steve