Boats that will catch you your Christmas lunch

Christmas lunch in Australia is one of my favourite occasions to prepare the perfect lunch for the whole family. Annual holidays give all of us the time to get out there and catch lunch ourselves making it even better.

What goes into your Christmas lunch is entirely your choice, but I suggest you focus on things you know you can catch.

I tend to rely on the easy to acquire delicacies such as mud crabs, fish and occasionally prawns if available. Where I live on the mid-north coast though, we are blessed with a stunning array of choices stretching from inshore to offshore.

From about October onwards through the warmer months, mud crabs are easy to find, provided it does not rain too much.

I start to put the crab pots in, baited with a mullet, around a week before Christmas. That gives me enough time to ensure I have something for Christmas day. I keep my caught crabs alive in a cool place in an icebox and change the water regularly if I hit my limit early in the week.

The best boat to go crabbing in is a side console boat around 4.2 metres in length.

There is plenty of space onboard for one or two people plus the necessary crab pots which can take up a bit of room.

Having the space to bait the traps and prepare them really makes the whole exercise a lot of fun. I have my favourite spots that have produced in the system I fish, but you cannot go past places where a drain or tributary flows into the river you are in.

Crabs are lazy and you want areas where the current will bring food to them.

One thing I also do is mark where I put my pots on the chart plotter. That way, if someone has taken one, I know I will not spend hours looking for it thinking I have forgotten where I dropped it in.

Christmas is a time for giving, sadly some people also like taking.

Cook the crabs simply in salted boiling water. Aim for around 13-15 minutes although larger crabs will take longer.

On the fish front, flathead is a delicious and easy to catch target in summer, readily taking almost any lure or bait.

They also freeze well and are easy for the kids to eat.

Any open or smaller tiller or console tinnie is ideal, offering room to move and cast lures. A casting deck is ideal, an electric engine is a must as it will allow you to fish flats areas quietly and efficiently.

I have recently been targeting flathead on surface lures, which, while not guaranteed of success, is spectacularly exciting as large flathead will launch themselves out of 30cm-deep water at your lure.

Fishing like this can also land you a couple of whiting if you are lucky.

Flathead is easy to clean. Simply knock the fillets off and remove the skin, debone and then drop the fillet into flour, followed by egg and finally panko crumbs. Cook in oil and serve as an entree.

Nothing beats the impressive sight of a whole baked fish on a table surrounded by family and friends and for that, you need an offshore fishing boat.

A half cabin or larger centre console will do. Depending on conditions, and your ability, 4.5 metres or larger should do the trick. It should have plenty of space, high sides and be fitted with the appropriate safety gear.

Chasing snapper is a sport that can be enjoyed in any number of ways. You can float down whole pillies in a berley trail, cast soft plastics or even use semi-hard and hard vibes. Your options are endless.

For a Christmas statement, you want a fish around 4-5 kg to feed 6-8 people with other sides.

Being part Chinese, I like to cook this the way my mother taught me. Julienne some long red chilli, shallots, and ginger. Then add coriander (yes, controversial I know but you can leave it out), white pepper, and a little sesame oil.

Mix it all together and then add a splash of soy sauce. Make a bed with half the mixture on greaseproof paper and aluminium foil. Place the scored fish on top and add the remainder. Then add another sheet (or two if required) of greaseproof paper and aluminium foil.

Wrap it all up like a parcel and then cook in the oven or on a barbeque. Try not to use the elements under the fish in the barbeque or you will burn one side. A fish like this could take an hour to cook but while it does, the smell is intoxicating.

Depending on where you live, you can switch out the mud crabs for blue swimmers which I find to be sweeter anyway.

Flathead are an option around the entire country as are snapper for the most part, but any whole fish will do.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

It is not really about that though. The act of catching, preparing, and serving good food to friends and family is intensely rewarding and good for the environment, so what are you waiting for? You have a couple of days ...