Rising on sun-up the Sullivan crew, which includes Kayla, her elder sister Tiana and dad Brad, head up Tilligerry Creek to their secret spot where the girl’s bait and set their own traps.

There was plenty of excitement on their last trip through the week when Kayla struggled to lift her trap only to be greeted by a very big and very cranky mud crab.

The crab, well over two kilograms, was far from pleased. It was decided by the girls to let dad remove the crab from the trap. Getting the crab to wait patiently in the cooking pot presented another challenge.

Look closely at the undercarriage of Kayla’s crab. The brown colouring indicates that the crab is full of meat. A greenish white colour may mean that the crab is “hollow”.

This has been an extraordinary year for mud crabs as told to me by Jimmy “The Crab” Longson.

Jimmy who is on personal first name terms with all the Tilligerry crabs tells me that the muddies have been around all year with some months more productive than others.

If you’ve got a picture of a whopper, or a fishing yarn to share, you can email it to stinkerfishing@yahoo.com with your contact number and details about your catch.