# Outdoors > Fishing >  South Island Koura

## john m

I have been in Central Otago for the last month and tried out some Yabbie pots my son brought over from Aus.WOW do you S I chaps have some good fishing down there. Never had an empty pot. We put all the smaller ones and those with eggs back keeping just enough for a tasty entree each day.

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## CreepingDeath

Cool bro what did you use for bait?

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## Gibo

Shit those are a good size!!! Nom nom nom!!

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## Twoshotkill

Wow they are big. The bigist i have ever seen these ways would barely cover my little fingrenail

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## Gibo

> Wow they are big. The bigist i have ever seen these ways would barely cover my little fingrenail


Those are crutch crickets 2shot!!! :Psmiley:

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## Rushy

Well done John that is the biggest Koura I have ever seen.  Man I used to eat a shit load of them in my younger days.

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## Twoshotkill

No... Those fuckers ive seen big!!! They were using the matchsticks on the back of the tiolet to polevalt across the room!!

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## Munsey

Bugger me paint them orange and call them crayfish . I had no idea they could get so big . Good skills

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## veitnamcam

Massive! I used to find plenty as kid Pissing round in the river all day,dunno if there would be any there now.
Most of the ones i used to find were only 80-100mm long.

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## Twoshotkill

Are they out of a river or lake???

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## mikee

> Massive! I used to find plenty as kid Pissing round in the river all day,dunno if there would be any there now.
> Most of the ones i used to find were only 80-100mm long.
> 
> Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2


They are here and I know where :Have A Nice Day:

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## john m

The bait was what ever was on hand that day Goat,Pig,Duck,Bacon,Turkey,Venison, didnt seem to make any difference. No need to paint them theys all orange when cooked.They came out of a power station water canal.

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## Rushy

They love liver

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## Gibo

> The bait was what ever was on hand that day Goat,Pig,Duck,Bacon,Turkey,Venison, didnt seem to make any difference. No need to paint them theys all orange when cooked.They came out of a power station water canal.


Taste better than their briny cousins IMO. Lucky bugger!

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## Munsey

> Taste better than their briny cousins IMO. Lucky bugger!


Never tasted them , man I've got to get me one of those nets

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## Rushy

> Taste better than their briny cousins IMO.


Yep they are sweet.

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## Gibo

> Never tasted them , man I've got to get me one of those nets


You can whip one up pretty easy Munsey. Bit or #8 and some netting and string. 




> Yep they are sweet.


Yeah personally I can handle half a good size cray before im over it but can chow down on Koura till they are all gone! Havnt found any up here close to the size of those hua's though!!

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## JoshC

Awesome mate. We used to spend hours catching them as kids eh. 

A real bushy piece of manuka with a chunk of meat tied in the middle works really well. Leave it to soak in a water hole for a while than slowly lift it out and the lobsters will be caught amongst the brush.

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## kotuku

we used to catch em in a local creek using one of mums forks tied to a stick with flax.one big bastard bit me and ive never liked em since.yeah we used to eat em by the pot ful,little gutsers we were.usually find each hole has a dominant male and he will be a big mofo with nasty claws to match,and he dont hesitate to use em.
 that looks a good catch tho.

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## Dundee

Very impressive size and catch :Thumbsup:

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## hunter308

Definitely good sized haven't had Koura for years, used to get them out of the stream at the local park in Te Puke at night time. But will say I had the pleasure of trying yabbies last year while in the aussie outback and they get feckin huge and have very nasty nippers on them and strong enough to put a good dent in a beer bottle top, they are very tasty after soaking them in clean rainwater for 24 hours before cooking.

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## P38

My understanding is that there are two species of Koura in NZ.

The ones that populate the south and west of the South Island are a bigger species than those that populate the North of the South Island and all of the North Island.

The daily bag limit is 50/person/day.

They are delicious too.  :Have A Nice Day: 

Cheers
Pete

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## kotuku

there was a programme on sky TVa while ago about avisitng international chef mixing with some maori blokes and their kai.they used scuba and dived somelakebed up to 30m.some of the buggers they were catching would give ya nightmares.armour and hardware like bloody battle tanks

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## Scouser

HUGE.....what the hell are they feeding on?????......is it by that lake with the giant trout?

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## kotuku

dunno scouser-all i remeber wasthentakin these things in 90+'of water and how aggressive some of em were towards divers.mind you Ive heard that these buggers are capable of eating fingerling trout and indeed theyre bloody cannibalistic.

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