Crayfish Trapping Experts...

[teej89]

I'm curious about taking on this task of trying to trap my own crayfish for eating. Here in PA I can't imagine they get very big but I live near the delaware river so I'm hoping since it's a larger river they'll be bigger...

Anywho, what I'm coming up with is I can only keep 50 a day. I'm going to get my fiancee a license so we can keep 100 and have her tag along with me. Next is what kind of trap..... does anyone have a preference? I was leaning more towards a square trap and painting it tan(the color of the bottom). I see the round cylindrical traps are cheaper tho....

As far as bait I was just going to pick up some tuna in a can/some salmon heads from the store.

The last question.... where in the world should I be tossing these in? Don't say the river.... I was thinking where there's a return along the river and the current slows up pretty good. Anything else I should look for?

Just kidding, this is the last question, probably the most important. PA has an obnoxious rule to behead the crayfish prior to leaving the river due to the invasive rusty crayfish. I called the warden and he ended the call with go do work of those rusty crayfish for us son! ha! He said he wouldn't even recommend takign them from the river and transporting to my truckbed to boil, that another warden may see that as me trying to get one past them. He recommended me boiling them right at the river back. As far as care goes, I didn't see an issue if I boiled them there and set them on ice to transport home then either cook them in something that night or freeze them still in the shell for use later. Any thoughts/comments?

Thanks!
T.J.

 

[Gr8bawana]

I'll give you what little I have learned the few time we caught them. I really don't think the color of the trap makes any difference at all. We used several of the cone-shaped traps and they worked very well. Don't use tuna because it is too loose and will probably wash away. The fish heads are good because they are solid. Most any kind of meat will work as bait like a hot dog. I've even used a chicken bone and a bbq rib bone and they all work.
We weren't required to kill at the source so we kept them in a cooler and changed out the water for 2 days so they would expel their poop. We put a few chunks of ice to keep the water cool because they came from cold-water lakes.
Use some Crab-boil and ad whatever you like such as corn and anduoille sausage and maybe potatoes.
They're a bit of work but I think they are delicious and very much worth the effort.
I'm sure others have their own method but this works for us.

 

[LopeHunter]

I would unintentionally catch crawdads in the old glass jug style minnow traps that are sunken in on the big end forming a cone. You face the open end downstream. The pressure of the mild current is needed so minnow could not easily get out but also to help spread the bait downstream to attract the minnows. If the current is too powerful then the bait will soon flush out of the trap. We used saltine crackers as bait. You tie a loop of cord around the neck of the jug to retrieve from the water. Here is directions to make your own that looks similar but has the cone at the cap. https://www.instructables.com/id/Pickle-Jar-Minnow-Trap/

One difference between minnows and crawdads is minnows might be anywhere in a stream but crawdads probably are only in a portion of the width of a stream.

 

[Big Slick]

Use a pack of cheap hot dogs for bait, inexpensive and they seem to love the oily scent in the water. We usually have riders on full traps....sorry, to much deadliest catch...

 

[teej89]

Thanks for the input on not using the salmon! The videos I was watching was preaching about salmon but they also weren't setting traps out for 24hrs. They were only putting them out there for 1-2hrs and were killing em! My finacee thinks I'm crazy and that I'm wasting my time and that they won't be any good tasting... once i catch enough for a meal (probably like 500 hahahaha) I'll show her! haha!

 

[Brauee20]

I'm in Michigan but trap the hell out of these Rusty bastards. Luckily we can transport, and I return our handful of natives to the water. They get bigger than you think and are good eats.

PILLOW TRAPS! Don't settle for anything else, and fresh bluegill carcass as bait. Use panty hose or muslin cloth if you want to use a bait holder, but i usually just tie the gill to the top of the trap and to the bottom, one side to the head the other to the tail so it's suspended inside. Zip ties are quick and easy.

Set your traps on the rockiest section of river you can find. Downstream sides of dams are best bet for us here in the mitten. June and July are go time so get after it. Stake your trap and tie it off, you want to be setting in gently moving water a foot or so deep. Never had a problem with four legged critters, but people will mess with them so set them late and pick them up early. I'll occasionally get a bullhead in the trap as well. PM me with any questions.

 

[Brauee20]

Another option. Get a couple buddies, a couple cases of beer (you'll be out all night), a 5-6ft stick for each person, a headlamp, and most importantly go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of cheap butterfly nets. If you like doing it this way you can get some fancy ass nets off Amazon for like $10 a pop.

When you see them put the net behind them and slide the stick in front of them. They'll swim backwards, right into your net.

 

[sharpshooter97]

Used to catch a lot of them in my minnow traps baited with dry dogfood or a piece of bread, occasionaly a bullhead too. I would bet that fish carcass would work better though. Usually set in shallow water less than 2 feet deep where the current was slower. Never intentionally went after crayfish though but maybe that helps

 

[Ajax2744]

Not an expert but we grew up catching 5 gallon buckets full by tying bologna to fishing line then dropping it between rocks next to shore. Leave for a few seconds then slowly lift carefully and they will hang on with their claws. Then shake em I to a 5 gallon bucket. As we got older we ran the square traps with any processed cheap lunch meat or hotdogs. Leave it overnight and with a few traps we would fill a 5 gallon bucket. I would focus on slower current with good size river rocks or concrete chunks that the can get in between cracks. Toss it out with a bouy tied to it or a rope tied to shore.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Not an expert but we grew up catching 5 gallon buckets full by tying bologna to fishing line then dropping it between rocks next to shore. Leave for a few seconds then slowly lift carefully and they will hang on with their claws. Then shake em I to a 5 gallon bucket. As we got older we ran the square traps with any processed cheap lunch meat or hotdogs. Leave it overnight and with a few traps we would fill a 5 gallon bucket. I would focus on slower current with good size river rocks or concrete chunks that the can get in between cracks. Toss it out with a bouy tied to it or a rope tied to shore.

I did the same but only using bacon. That entertained me for hours, as a kid

 

[teej89]

I'm in Michigan but trap the hell out of these Rusty bastards. Luckily we can transport, and I return our handful of natives to the water. They get bigger than you think and are good eats.

PILLOW TRAPS! Don't settle for anything else, and fresh bluegill carcass as bait. Use panty hose or muslin cloth if you want to use a bait holder, but i usually just tie the gill to the top of the trap and to the bottom, one side to the head the other to the tail so it's suspended inside. Zip ties are quick and easy.

Set your traps on the rockiest section of river you can find. Downstream sides of dams are best bet for us here in the mitten. June and July are go time so get after it. Stake your trap and tie it off, you want to be setting in gently moving water a foot or so deep. Never had a problem with four legged critters, but people will mess with them so set them late and pick them up early. I'll occasionally get a bullhead in the trap as well. PM me with any questions.

Awesome thanks for the advice about the rocks and water depth!

I'm not sure we can use those here in PA, they have to be at max a 1" diameter opening. I didn't get a chance to watch the youtube video but I'll check it out tonight. I'm excited to give it a shot!

 

[Brauee20]

Awesome thanks for the advice about the rocks and water depth!

I'm not sure we can use those here in PA, they have to be at max a 1" diameter opening. I didn't get a chance to watch the youtube video but I'll check it out tonight. I'm excited to give it a shot!

Awesome! You can set your opening to what ever size you need. I do it a little different in that I make a tube with the material and then make a cone of what ever size is working best and ziptie that to the tube. There are a million YouTube videos that show how to make all kinds of different traps. You can always use zipties to draw the hole down. Did I mention zipties? Go to harbor freight to get them. They are like 100 for a $1.

 

[hank4elk]

We used to use ham hocks for bait in streams. Tie a hock in chicken wire & tie to nylon stringline. Sit with cooler of some cool drink for an hour. Whole pool would fill with crawdads & you walk out in a swim suit & fill the now empty cooler with them by hand.
Go home & have a huge food fest.

 

[2rocky]

Have any of you fed the small ones at home to get them up to good eating size?

 

[teej89]

Have any of you fed the small ones at home to get them up to good eating size?

hahaha! start your own crayfish farming Last year I used our bathtub as an overflow for boiling my deer heads. The fiancee wasn't too keen on that (we didn't live together yet and now do), I don't think I could sell her on raising crayfish to eat but I'm interested!