Anything biting?

Last night I went prawning (i.e. fishing for prawns).  It was a work event.  We have a small group and we try to do group outings every now and then.  I had heard about prawning from another American who's here and she tried it earlier in the year (Asian Red Head).  I was worried about being hungry, but luckily food was served first and the prawning was the activity.

I forgot my camera and only got some partially blurred pics from the blackberry.  Basically we went to this big park that had small ponds built into the decks.  Groups can rent the ponds, which are filled with prawns (large shrimp - see pic below).  You get 5-10 minutes of instruction, poles (which are sticks with fishing line, bobber and hook on the end), bait (diced up chicken liver), a seat and a net basket to keep your prawns in. 

They varied in size and color, some more blue, some more clear/white, some pinkish.  Those blue "legs" up front are pinchers.  You had to hold them by the back of the neck to not get pinched.  I did get clamped once, but it wasn't too bad.  You slid the tiny chicken liver on the end of the hook, dropped it in, waited for your bobber to sink, then waited another 5-10 seconds and pull 'em out.  Just like fishing, sometimes your bait gets eaten, sometimes you hook 'em and still have bait left.  The hook would be right in the front of the prawn beneath all those antennae on the bottom side.  I guess that's their mouth? :)

I was fairly successful.  I think our group (3 people) caught around 15 in around an hour/hour and a half, which was average I would say.  Here's me and my team with each of our first catches.

I think the winning group collected about 6 kilos of prawn.  Here are the bags of all the prawn caught by our group.  We did get some fresh prawn thrown into the pond about 2/3 of the way through. 

Usually once you've caught your prawns, you BBQ them.  Since we'd already eaten, our group wasn't keen on cooking and eating more.  So I'm not sure where these all ended up.  Can you throw back prawns like fish? I hope they weren't wasted....there were a lot.  I did see some BBQ going on though and I wasn't heart broken to not eat the prawns because it takes some effort to do so.  I believe you basically skewer the whole prawn, drop it on a mini grill and get flame grilled prawns.  Maybe they get boiled first or something to kill or numb them.  I'm not sure.  But they are BBQ'ed in full dress - head, antennae, legs and shell.  So it becomes hard and messy work decapitating and peeling them.  On another occasion, where I hadn't caught them, I ate some prawn kabobs, so I do have experience with eating them. I was told that's why prawns are enjoyable - I'm not so sure about that.

It was a fun night and reminded me of fishing with Grandpa.  Miss those days :).