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Text by David Royal |
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| Day 4. Houseboat on the Murray River 5.45am After a peaceful sleep it was great to wake up on the mighty Murray River. The night before we had put out the nets without any success. We did catch freshwater shrimps and ordinary yabbies, but the Murray crayfish was hard to find. It was also late in the crayfish season and I feared that the water temperature may be too warm for them. |
5.45am Murray River |
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7.00am Murray River |
The holes
in the bank indicated the presence of murray crayfish, however only crayfish in the net would satisfy us. The crayfish are found on the deeper side of the river, not on the sand bar sides. They can be caught well into the warmer months in deep holes, but guess who forgot to bring his fish finder. |
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Everyone is up early on the boat. Renate insists Nutella is Germany's national dish |
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Getting James motivated can be a bit of a challenge! |
But mention crayfish and things start to happen rapidly! |
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At last, Chris catches his first murray crayfish, Chris called him Kaiser Maximillian, bit of an over kill really |
Chris also caught plenty of Macrobracium australiaensis, our largest frershwater shrimp, note the stainless steel container. |
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Renate cleaned up the deck |
James and Ollie kept on checking the nets, but unfortunately the weather was getting warmer and the crayfish were getting scarse. |
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Ah, Catching crayfish is back breaking work, James and his girlfriend Ollie take a well earned break. |
I think this is the best way to see the Murray River, these river houseboats are quite luxurious. |
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The Murray River is generally a slow flowing river. Although is it subject to occasional flooding
and fast currents, you can be pretty sure that you will be safe in one of these unsinkable houseboats. Chris and I were thinking how great it would be to get a group of crayfish crazies together for next year, really worth thinking about. |
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Chris at the helm steers the boat back to Moama. |
Ah well, back to Melbourne, and of course more crayfish to find and photograph. |
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