Last summer a couple of mates and I started a tradition that will last years to come I hope. Hunting the mighty swan river blues!

It all started when we headed down to the river for a bit of tailor fishing one evening. Nothing beats those balmy WA summer nights throwing around mulies for the choppers that cruise past with the rising tide. Beers and rods in hand, we sat waiting for the bite only to have nearly every mulie we cast being chomped by crabs. We adjusted our rigs so they were up off the bottom but there weren't any choppers around that night. So our attentions turned to the blues.

When we got home we sat around the outside table planning tommorow nights adventure, dropping a few nets to get these bloody crabs. After work the next day we picked up a few bags of spleen, packed up the car and headed for the spot at sunset. We brought the rods along again, just in case the choppers were about tonight. After two hours of pulling nets we had no crabs and every mulie that had been cast was chewed! This was starting to grate on us.

Back at the round table at home the boys and I figured that the only way we were gonna get these buggers was to get in the water and grab them! A few beers later and we had a plan for our first night snorkle.

It was actually pretty exciting the first time we decided to hit the murky depths of the swan, in hunt of the blue manna crabs that had eluded us for the last couple of days. That evening we packed up the car again, but this time with snorkling gear and torches, much to the dismay of my wife. (Who had watched a doco on bull sharks that day...LOL) We got to the spot at about 10:00pm and geared up by the water, all a little bit nervous of the unknown.

After swimming out a fair bit we spotted our first few carbs! You beauty! They were harder to grab underwater than we anticipated and we soon discovered that the mate on my right was a born crab hunter! We would swim along scanning the river bed and the moment a beady eyed crab raised his claws, SWIPE! my mate would be wrestling him into the catch bag much to my amusement. Before long we had a enough for a feed - only ten or eleven between the three of us should be heaps at this size! We scoured the river bed again for a few mussles to throw on the BBQ before we headed in.

We emptied our catch bags onto the pavement and measured our crabs - none undersize and most way over, all blues (males). We were really happy and there were a few high fives exchanged all round. It was almost midnight and the night was still warm and no one was tired, so back to my place for crabs it was.

One of the boys washed down the gear, the other got the beers and I put our crabs into a pot and turned on the grill for the mussels. The round table was much more animated tonight, with stories of the underwater fights and the giant crabs that didn't make it to the bag! Just as the mussles started to open ,the smell wafted over to the table and we all crowded around the barbie. The were fat ones and tasted brilliant with a squeeze of lemon and some salt and pepper, it was hard to wait until they were off the grill to grab them. Just then, my phone timer started beeping to say the crabs had been on the boil for nine minutes - time to pour out the water and replace with some iced water from a jug. Once cooled a bit they looked great.

We laid some newspaper on the round table and devoured most of them, all washed down with cold beers. The cuts on our arms still stung and it was after 1:30am but what a feed. Laughter and teasing and stories of the the murky swan river filled the warm night air. We loved every minute of it, from the chase to the meal. Something we would not soon forget.

My wife wasn't all that happy that I'd been out crab hunting and drinking beers with the boys until the early hours but when I invited her dad over for lunch and laid these on the table with a bottle of nice white - all was forgiven pretty quickly.

Anyway, sorry about the long story but I hope you enjoyed it.