Could be that they have just changed their shells and haven't filled out properly.

 Very strange never had this happen before 

How many did you have. In my last trip out 6 out of 10 was "empty" and they tend to turn mushy then. Overcooked tends to dry the meat, undercooked it more gel like than mushy. Dont suspect its the fault of the "cook".

Im the only crab eater out of the family, but the deckie (Mrs) loves catching them. I find 10 plenty for a feed or 2, and it was only in the last week odd that I have noticed increased "empties".

EDIT: were they also kept on ice or very cool. Crabs "go mushy" fast if not kept moist or cool. Go buy some "fresh" cooked crabs from Woolies etc ( I wouldnt) and you will find the same thing often.

 I would never blame the cook mate, they were definately a bit light on so maybe that was it, not sure bit strange 

 We got a good feed of crabs out of the swan on the weekend and they were chockas full of meat and big.

forgot to mention that we have had mushy muddies before and assumed we had undercooked them- we were new to crab cooking so who knows

 We got a good feed out of Mandurah on Sat afternoon. All good size and full of very tasty meat. No mushy ones at all.

i agree. Very strange.

Dave

when you catch them pinch their bicep (or what would be our bicep)on their big claw. If its soft at ALL throw them back. It should be rock hard. It means they have just shed their shell.

When they shed their old shell they pump themselves up with water to expand the new shell to allow for room to  grow into over the next twelve months or so. Once the shell hardens  it leaves them with very little meat in a big space and when you cook them it all turns to mush.

I took home 6 of the 13 crabs we caught in the swan the other week and 5 out of 6 were mushy. We cooked chilli crab also. When I boil em they are always sweet and succulent...very interesting!!

Gday dirt, ive just joined your forum and happy to offer my input , Im from Adelaide and we have a very good population of blue crabs here..as cudbfishin wrote soft crabs are crap so turf them back as you catch them.. we usually cook about 20-30 at a time and it goes like this... bring the water to the boil chuck the crabs in.. cook for 10 mins and drop then in a bucket of cold  salt water or ice slurry to set the meat.. if you dont cool them off quickly after taking them from the pot they keep cooking in their shells and over cooked crabs means mushy pasty meat.. If you were cooking 10 crabs I would follow the same directions but halve the cooking time to 5 minutes after the boil.

cheers

Marty

 Welcome to the site mate, thanks to everyone for the input, so that I've got it right, squeeze the nipper of the crab and if it's soft throw em back, bring water to the boil, throw crabs in boil for five minutes, remove and cool in an icy saltwater slurry

I reckon it's 5 mins after they come back to the boil. Usually about 10 minutes in total