Cray fishing is really fun! Will definitely do it again next year. Olle used moose heart, liver, herring, and the internal organ of pike as baits. What an investments! Anders caught a 7kg pike the night before, so we had plenty of bait to attract the crayfish. We started fishing at 6pm, the fishing permits start from Friday 6pm until Saturday 12am. The fishing permit cost 200 kr for each 5 cages, we had 25 cages so that´s 1000kr (200 sing dlr) altogether. Smart Lena & Olle went to the site at 4pm to "chope" the best site. I think it was the best site because it´s close to the shelter, fire pits , wild raspberries plantation and car park. The weather was perfect, no mosquito's & quite warm in the air. At 6pm everybody already load their traps into the water, after that we started fire & prepared dinner. I made some Malaysian chicken curry with bread as starter and for dinner we ate Anders 7kg pike! Olle pickled half of the pike & smoked the other half in a smoking bag. Oh dear, it was so delicious! I am so glad I finally met a few Swedish that appreciate pike! The fish was so tasty, you can really tell it´s pike. Even my parent in law who don´t like pike were impressed.
After dinner, we went to check on our traps, I was so excited when we picked up the traps, it´s like Christmas presents! We got approx. 30 crayfish the first 1& half hour, not bad huh? They sky turned dark at 11pm, the air became slightly colder & mist came rushing into the whole area. There were many torch lights on the water surface & it was so beautiful. We sat around the fire drinking wine & whisky to keep us warm. Our neighbours were having a karaoke party, they were singing on top of their voice it´s so nice to see people having so much fun!
I got a little sleepy at 2am, so I went to bed in our tent. It was so cold I couldn´t sleep well. The hard ground was not so good for my back so I tried to lay on the side, it took me a long time to fall asleep.
The next morning, Margot told me we caught 159 crayfish altogether. About 50 of the crayfish were too small to feed (Less than 9 cm) so we set the small crayfish back into the water, hopefully they are big enough when we come back next year.
After breakfast, we packed & set journey back home for a nap. It´s nice to take a nap before the big party, poor Margot & Anders have to go to town to sell fika at the local farmers market.
I sinked into my bed like I haven´t been sleep for one week, the soft madrases is all my back needed! I slept for 3 hours while Nelina was at her friends pool party and Mattias continue painting the garage door.
Anders came to picked us up at 6pm, we headed to Olle & Lena´s place 12km from our place. They live in a big cosy house filled with painting & beautiful handicrafts from all over the world. It´s like a museum at their home, there´s so many nice stuff to look at.
Olle was the crayfish master cook and a expert in crayfish preparations. He even wrote a scrapbook about cray fishing & had it printed on hard covers. Anyone interested in getting a copy? Olle had prepared a special Louisiana Craw fish Boil. The stock was absolutely delightful! The aroma gave the whole kitchen a strong perfume & it made us very hungry! Soon everyone took their turn to boil the crayfish, I tried to avoid the ceremony. After the ceremony, we toast our achievements with a glass of champagne.
Olle prepared 2 different types of crayfish, the first one out was the Swedish ways crayfish cook in dill crown and salt water. I prefer the Cajun style one, I find it more tasty & the corn was so delicious! The stock was so sweet I thought Olle poured tons of sugar in the stock. There´s were plenty of "hum, huh, oh.." and sounds of sucking juice from the crayfish..we started laughing at each others. We were in paradise! There´s really alot of different in taste between the frozen imported crayfish, of course the fresh one is the best! We had a few rounds of cold snaps & a few songs. The atmosphere was magical!
During dessert time, Olle used his computer to make funny face on us, the special program turned our faces into Alien and monster, we laughed so hard! I haven´t laugh so much for very long time, it was so fun!
After coffee, we went upstairs to view Olle´s art gallery. Nelina took the chance to learn a few tricks from Olle and she was so happy with the painting.
We left their place half past one reluctantly. The moon were shinning bright, I feel so fortune & happy! Thanks Margot, Anders, Olle & Lena for these wonderful experience & memories. I hope we could do this again next year.