Crayfish Questions

[BD]

Are you all seeing crayfish moving around right now?

I am going smallmouth fishing this weekend, and want to use both live and artificials.

When I was a boy we could catch crawdads with raw pork tied onto a string, and bring them in....is this still a good way of catching them? Any other tips for catching that works better for you, etc?

Keeping them all day, is it okay without a pump, or do I need to drain/redrain water?

Fishing the crayfish....do you all fish them weightless on an 1/0 hook, or bobbers etc?

Thanks

[Raul]

I use a crayfish trap to catch 'em, but they aren 't for bait, they are LUNCH !.

[BD]

I love eating them as well.

[Deuceu72]

We always used chicken liver tied to a string.........when the crawfish "bite" you can slowly pull them in and grab them when they get close enough. I always have used a weightless rig with a live crawfish. Just hook em through the little horn on the front, lob them out in the water and let them do what they do!

[SPEEDBEAD.]

When I used crayfish for bait, we always went along the river bank with a seine net. Have a partner stand about 10 feet downstream from you with the net. Kick around and make a commotion as you make your way down toward the net. Make and effort to move around rocks with your feet as you go downstream. As you get to the net, have your partner pick the net up out of the water and you ought to have some of those little critters in your net. That will give you the opportunity to pick and choose which craws you want to keep.

Hope this helps....

[jomatty]

i used to catch them the same way that speed did. we would find a small creek flowing into the main river and kick up rocks and whatnot to catch craws and helgramites.  i never hear about people using helgramites anymore but they were king when i was a kid.

if you catch some of them while crawfishing i would give them a try.

i always fished them with a splitshot but that was in large part because i was a kid and if i did it nowadays i would def. go weightless and never use a bobber like you suggested you might do.  fish them on the bottom.

matt

[Troutfisher]

Use a minnow net, and head out to almost any small creek, or the place where you're fishing, and uncover rocks and scoop under them with the net.  I've caught crayfish (called crawdads here) all day long with this tactic.  8-)

[roadwarrior]

"crawfish" you eat

"crawdads" are what you fish with

[NJfishinGuy]

whats the diffrence

[BD]

No difference ;D

I was going to buy some, this one bait shop use to have some monster ones, but he said yesterday the local ponds are all dried up (where he buys them from.)

Man I love eating them too, I can remember being real young and my uncle would have boils and serve them with veggies!

The net idea is a great idea, but I really don't want to have to buy a net, or have my buddy help me catch them (he is new to bass fishing, part of the reason I am showing him to use live bait.)

Chicken liver and pork is the same in my house, this is much easier for me to use....the wife won't notice I bet

Thanks alot guys, I appreciate it.

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

Crayfish, crawfish, crawdads, mudbugs, all are decapods that make a good meal if the numbers are there. When camping out I set out jug lines to be sure to have some fish for a meal. We collect tree frogs on fly paper, and go up a creek to get crawfish. I have a plastic mayonaise bottle for that. I cut a hole in the lid and formed a screen mesh through it so the point of the cone is inside. The cone hole is 1", wide enough to allow small minnows to come & go. Once a crawfish climbs through the cone it can't go against the edge of the cone to escape. Unscrew the lid and get the critters.

I put it in a fairly deep pool, usually the last pool the boat will float in. For bait I prefer a fairly fresh chunk of fish. What's in the carcass cans at a fish cleaning station is fresh enough, or catch a bream on a bream hook with nightcrawler, and put it in the jar dead. While it's working we still love to go up the creek flipping rocks over like already said. I hold a dip net right against a flat rock, then lift it gently towards me so as to let the animal dart around the back side into the net.

Need enough to eat? Make bigger traps and several of them.

How to fish? Put them where fish are feeding, on bluff ledges, on gravelly bottoms, but never on rock bottoms with cracks they can crawl into. They can wander to the backside of a rock and pin your line in a crack. To help prevent that hook it through the horn part of its head with a #4-#6 bass hook. For C-rigging (or when the head is too soft after molting) hook segment #2 from the tail a little off center close to the side of the segment, and use a floating jig to suspend the critter. You don't want it rooting around in deep kah kah weeds where a bass can't find it. Remove the main claws to get quicker bites.

I fed my family most of the flesh we got during the late 1950s fishing crawdads for bait. When I got to college I was penalized for not saying "Crayfish".

Jim

[GeneinTX]

I don't know where you are but here in Texas, if you seine for minnows at night you will pull in 100 crawdads.

[bass2187]

We collect tree frogs on fly paper, and go up a creek to get crawfish.

Jim

Collect tree frogs on fly paper?

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

They make great live bait. When camping I hang a strip of fly paper in a tree next to the trunk. Tree frogs crawl onto it and get stuck. I bait up yo-yos for crappie, but catch catfish, bass, whatever on those little noisy critters. They tread water until something gets em, and it doesn't take long.

Jim

[Raul]

Finely chopped parsley, finely chopped onion, a touch of lard, a little butter, salt, pepper and frog legs..... YUMMI !.

[NJfishinGuy]

you said lard hahaha, srry im stupid

[Raul]

A New Joisier don 't know much 'bout southern cookin '.  

You northern guyz fear snakes, down here snakes fear us.......they are potential shore lunch. Armadillos, skwerlz, gators, you name it...... if it walks, swims, crawls or flutters around to the frying pan it flies.

[roadwarrior]

Be careful eating those armadillo.

Over the past several decades armadillio have been moving further north and are now quite common in the Mid South. This was of some concern to a lot of people, including my wife. I seems this animal is a carrier of leprosy. Although this is technically true, the only way humans contract the disease from this animal in by undercooking the meat. So, next time you scrape and armadillo off the highway, be sure to grill in thoroughly and serve it up "medium" or "medium rare", but stay away from "rare".

p.s. An orange sauce, wild rice and a dry Merlot really make the meal.

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

Fortunately about 95% of us are immune to leprosy, and the disease is treatable.  It's estimated about 5% of armadillos are infected.

The one big objection I have to them is the stink when you get under the hide. To me it has the odor of burning hair. But the flesh reminds me of pork when cooked up, and it does take a lot of hours to cook it done. We have "Coon Suppers" once a year here where the main entry is "cold coon & rice", mostly around the last of gun deer season. Raccoon isn't all that's served. Every known critter is contributed, and a lot of it is armadillo from an armadillo roundup in early fall. It's great BQed.

Jim

[Cajun Caster]

Crawfish, crawfish

Boil 'em red

Pinch da tails

and suck the heads.

[FatBoy]

Do crayfish feel pain???

Just kidding...  ;D ;D ;D

[56 crestliner]

hahaha when i was younger i used to walk around the river bare foot looking like huckleberry fin and catch bucket fulls of crawdads with my hands.

[paparock]

Crayfish, crawfish, mudbug, they all look the same on the inside. :-?

[Troutfisher]

Crayfish, crawfish, mudbug, they all look the same on the inside.  

Ha, great point Paparock!  ;D  ;D  ;D

[Guest avid]

Interesting about the Armadillo's.  I always thought when I saw them in pieces on the highway it was due to a semi not a disease.