Hunting the Cherax destructor. (AKA Yabby)

[kingwilly]

Yabbying. An Australian pasttime for kids.

Here is a how to,... Creature Features - Yabby Catcher

basically the yabby is an australian freshwater crayfish. quite tasty and hours of fun to catch. I spent hours and hours playing around in a small lake near my house as I was growing up catching yabbies.

So I decide it was time to take KW junior down to the same place, unfortunately a brief internet search suggested that the numbers and likelihood of catching many yabbies was going to be much lower.

But never mind, I'll give it a go anyway.

First to ready the equipment, stole mums clothespeg bucket. found some leftover xmas ham. some old panthose to make a net our of a coathanger and off we trooped down to the park.

the water was very low, but there was still plenty of ducks on the lake.

A few bites from the resident carp in the lake, (shoulda brought some hooks too!) but patience, and we noticed a strong tug on the line, a few peices of ham were eaten off the line but evantually we caught this ....



but no yabbies!

never mind, we released the turtle, much to MKJunior's disappointment.

[nedwalk]

last time i went yabba-ing, i used to set traps, i went down to collect the yummies and abloody great eel was stuck in the trap and there was a red belly black haveing a go at it so i just left em to sort em selves out and went home and a vegemite sanger instead

[melvbot]

Poor kid. Does he always hang his head like that when you wear your pink cap?

[Happyman]

What is a red belly black ?

[baldrick]

What is a red belly black ?

a kids pet that scares southerners

[Happyman]

What is a red belly black ?

a kids pet that scares southerners

Ok but what is it ??
Snake?
Mammal?
insect?
bird?
An imaginary beast?

Or what?

You gotta remember there are people here who have lived sheltered lives !

[good2bhappy]

when I was a kid in Hampshire i used to go down to the local river the white water and catch crayfish to stock up our pond
many a wet afternoon was spent trawling the riverbed for these little creatures

[ChiangMai noon]

red bellied black.

[nedwalk]

Snake?

sorry mate, its just like a crow bar or a shovel, you don,t pick them up either

[Johnny Longprong]

Poor little bloke looks disappointed. These might help him see what he is looking for.

[Johnny Longprong]

[Johnny Longprong]

I note the Juncas grass there KW. Are you in the Murray/Darling area?

[Happyman]

red bellied black.

mean lookin little bastard - thanks !

[Loy Toy]

mean lookin little bastard - thanks !

And their the ones you get to play with when you are kids before you move onto the Tigers, Taipans and Death Adders.

Where I grew up if there was a sheet of corrugated iron on the ground you would for sure find at least one red belly or a few copperheads underneath it.

A few funnel web or red backs spiders to go along with the snakes was always a bit of fun and in the afternoon we would go for a swim in the shark infested river.

[Johnny Longprong]

mean lookin little bastard - thanks !

In fact a very tractable fella. He will move away from you if he hears your footsteps. Of course if you try to pick him up, kill him or step on him, he will bite. The poison is a neorotoxin and not to be taken lightly. However, there have been no deaths reported from this snake. He lives along the east coast of Australia and usually near water where he eats frogs, lizards and the like. Part of the scene and deserves respect..

[Johnny Longprong]

A few funnel web or red backs spiders to go along with the snakes was always a bit of fun and in the afternoon we would go for a swim in the shark infested river.

And that's why we are so bloody rugged eh LT? 55555.

[good2bhappy]

^^^ good thing there weren't any salties

[Happyman]

So it is the wild life as well as the locals in Oz that are dangerous then ?

( Oh Shit - hope they realise that was a joke - otherwise a shower of reds are incoming ! )

[Johnny Longprong]

( Oh Shit - hope they realise that was a joke - otherwise a shower of reds are incoming ! )

Shit no, we have a sense of humour. The old saying is "if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?"

[Loy Toy]

good thing there weren't any salties

No only fresh water crocs mate! You had to go a little further north and to be able to play with the salty's.

So it is the wild life as well as the locals in Oz that are dangerous then ? ( Oh Shit - hope they realise that was a joke - otherwise a shower of reds are incoming ! )

No pleblem HM as we are thick skinned down under! exept for when we get beaten by the Poms in the cricket!

[Loy Toy]

And that's why we are so bloody rugged eh LT? 55555.

I don't know if that is 100% true mate (don't forget we have Paddo and Rose Bay Aussies) but really that is exactly what we used to do as kids and now when I think about it we were fvckin crazy!

[Happyman]

( Oh Shit - hope they realise that was a joke - otherwise a shower of reds are incoming ! )

Shit no, we have a sense of humour. The old saying is "if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?"

Agree 100% - thanks
So many times I have sat here by myself chuckling thinking " what the f*ck do you think you were doing , you stupid old fart" when I have been a prat !!

( occasions seem to be more frequent in direct co- relation with advancing years - but there you go ! )

[Johnny Longprong]

that is exactly what we used to do as kids and now when I think about it we were fvckin crazy!

Bloody hell no, we were allowed to have fun and test our limits. I really feel sorry for the kiddies now who aren't allowed to scratch themselves with out mum or dad watching. We used to leave at dawn and had to be home by night, right from little fellas. Sure we got up to some mischief, and perhaps put ourselves in danger occasionally, but there were plenty of older blokes to learn from who had been there and done it. You certainly didn't dive into the shallow water where old Mick had drowned. trouble is, there are no peer group role models for the kiddies in this regard. The first thing they learn about danger is on the TV.

[Johnny Longprong]

So many times I have sat here by myself chuckling thinking " what the f*ck do you think you were doing , you stupid old fart" when I have been a prat !!

Yea, I get a bit of that too sometimes. Then I balance that against the opinions and actions of others and realise that they are probably as senile and dopey as me.

[Happyman]

Same in UK !

We used to get an old lorry tyre from the army camp dump outside the village - take it out onto the moor and find a nice smooth grassy hill.
Stuff the smallest kid inside the tyre and roll him down and see if we could make him sick !!
Alternativly get a section of Nissan Hut from the dump ( a corrugated iron hut with sides straight and the roof curved ) which was like a huge ski.
Top of the hill 10 or more kids sitting on it and off you go - bloody crazy toboggan ride - kids falling off everywhere - go home with skin off knees and elbows - torn shorts - get a thrashing from caring parents - back up the hill next day !!!
No Nanny state then !