Fishing live crawfish

[WRangler506]

When to use them? How to fish them? How to best hook them?

 

I have a seemingly endless supply of live crawfish to use, but Ive never tried them yet.

 

I watched a few videos on youtube, and Im not sure it was the right way. The guy was letting the first bite and wait like 10 seconds to set the hook also.

 

I figured I would ask the experts!

 

 

[TnRiver46]

When: anytime you have some. Smoke em if ya got em. How to fish them? On or near the bottom. How to hook them? Hook point goes into underside of the tail, think of the meatiest part to eat and try to hook it there. Endless supply? I'm hungry....... 

[WRangler506]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

When: anytime you have some. Smoke em if ya got em. How to fish them? On or near the bottom. How to hook them? Hook point goes into underside of the tail, think of the meatiest part to eat and try to hook it there. Endless supply? I'm hungry....... 

They are pretty small, the ones we catch. My kids put out a minnow trap every trip, and they catch 3-4 minnows,and about 3 dozen crawfish everytime overnight. The are about 2.5 inches long, and are always pretty active. Do you leave them sit on the bottom or fish like a slow moving or twitch bait?

[TnRiver46]

31 minutes ago, WRangler506 said:

They are pretty small, the ones we catch. My kids put out a minnow trap every trip, and they catch 3-4 minnows,and about 3 dozen crawfish everytime overnight. The are about 2.5 inches long, and are always pretty active. Do you leave them sit on the bottom or fish like a slow moving or twitch bait?

I usually try both. Maybe jig or twitch them more after they die 

[Scott F]

If you remove the claws, you'll get more hits.

[MickD]

I have tried them a few times, never did well. Did better with tubes and other plastics because I think I could make them do what I wanted them to do.  Which was, most likely, act like a live craw.  Go figure.

 

[Mbirdsley]

I’ve always wanted to try live craws. Seems to me you would want the craw suspended with a bobber a few inches off the bottom.  If you  let it just sit on the bottom. Wouldn’t the craw just jet too or burrow under the first rocky crevice they could get to? 

[MikeInWyandotte]

Fish with them all the time in the Detroit River, beats any artificial bait hands down.  Found the best method is drop shot method with dropper only 4-6" below the hook.  I like to use an EWG worm hook.  I put the point of the hook through the last tail segment pushing into the topside of the tail and pushing through to the underside.  Then I push the tails segment up to the offset near the line tie.  Then push the point of the hook into the underside right into it's breast plate.  It doesn't matter if you kill the crayfish, it still works.  I do it this way because without the hook point near the head I have had too many times where bass chomp off the crayfish body and leaving me with just a tail with no bass hooked up on the business end.

[Turkey sandwich]

If you're taking the time to pick live bait, I cannot overstate the effectiveness of hellgrammites and (where legal) madtoms where either is present.  Both will out fish live crayfish 10:1 on the Susquehanna, Delaware, etc. and are as simple as flipping rocks and holding a seine.  

[Bdnoble84]

I have plenty of success just fishing the tail. I got tired of catching carp on them though so i dont fish em that much. I too pull off the pinchers. If nothing else, it saves my fingers some later on. Try a 1/8 oz lead head jig deadsticked on the bottom.

[FishDewd]

I use them sometimes for catfish, but never had much luck fishing them for bass. Granted, the ones I use are fairly large and I don't remove the pinchers. Maybe I should try that sometimes with a little smaller crawfish. What works best for me rigging is pushing the hook through the thickest part of the tail before the body starts. I've tried rigging them other ways, even using tiny rubber bands for hair braiding, but it never works. I've lost them on casting, and had fish hit them and put it free of the rubber band. Don't do that anymore as a result.

[Ktho]

I’ve always hooked crawdads in the little hard shell hood that’s over/above/behind their eyes. They’ll live forever hooked this way and when stitched you can get them walking right towards you in a natural way. Or if the cover is real light you can just let them walk around. I don’t use any weight. 

 

When bit I let them run with it a little bit 5-10seconsds and then whack em real good. 6lb-10lb line. 

[Deeare]

I have great success rigging a split shot weight 2 feet or so above the hook.   hook them through last tail segment and drag them SLOWLY on the bottom so they can't hide.