YOU don’t see prawns this big in Lake Macquarie every day.
Nearly the length of a man’s forearm, weighing over 100 grams each and well on the way to being mistaken for a lobster, these ‘‘Leader’’ prawns herald the start of the November prawn run.
They certainly had good mates Evan Martins and Adam Morse whooping and hollering about 9pm as the tide turned on a wet and windy Wednesday night.
The boys had backed themselves against the weather, working on the theory that the prawns would be running.
The gamble paid off.
‘‘We had the lake to ourselves and after a slow start from 9pm to 2am it was on,’’ Adam said.
‘‘Adam got the first big one as it floated by about a metre under the water. Then three minutes later another one came by that I got.
‘‘Then the rest of the night it was exciting, I’ve never seen so much ‘stuff’ in the water.
‘‘Crowned by these huge leader prawns, we got two and saw another, maybe, 10 float by.
‘‘It was the best night of prawning in five years. Insane.’’
Jason Nunn, from Fishermans Warehouse, was impressed with the size and rarity of these colossal crustaceans.
‘‘They’re probably a tiger prawn, some call them pilots, but any way you look at it they’re big prawns mate. You won’t see that all the time.’’
Mr Martins and Mr Maus weren’t keen to cook up their leaders.
‘‘They’re just so thumping big, it’s amazing,’’ Adam said.
source:theherald.com.au
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 