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Crayfish and Crustaceans Considered (Part 2)

© Louis Bignami

CATCHING CRAYFISH

Crayfish grow best and biggest in limestone streams, pond and lakes. As most of these clawed critters are nocturnal, concentrate on lake banks or streams which run East to West or overgrown with trees as crawdads stay out later in the morning and come out from under rocks or burrows later in the afternoon.. Tempt them with food and you can truly say, "look what crawled out from under a rock" or, in the case of ponds, up from a hole in the mud.

A number of methods catch crayfish. The commercial solution is a wire mesh crayfish trap baited with whatever is handy and cheap -- pork or other liver is good -- placed in a spot where some current will take the smell of food to these freshwater lobsters, Most traps are left in overnight and emptied on a daily basis.. This remains the best bet for stillwater.

More challenging methods of catching craws from moving water take them one or two at a time. Trophy hunters dangle a weighted strip of bacon in likely spots along rocky or undercut banks. During day hunts, Polaroid glasses let you spot crayfish hiking upstream to your bait. Patient folks wait until the crayfish sizes the bait. then pick the bait off bottom and slide a net underneath. Teenagers and compulsive types, try for crayfish on the fly by sticking a net behind them and prodding them with a stick. When startled, crayfish flap backward.

Kids can use a stick for a rod, some string weighted with a nut or bolt tied to a piece of bait with good effect and minimal risk of your good tackle. Daytime or nocturnal crayfish safaris with landing nets and, hopefully waterproof, flash lights seem lots of fun for the small fry, if rather wet, on summer nights.

It's more efficient, if less fun, to use eight or ten single slices of bacon, each pierced with a big nail and wedged in the bottom just upstream from likely spots along a quarter to half mile of stream . This "jogger's special" lets the sweat set run point to point and collect bait, or dinner. The more sedentary should try the outlet sumps at rice fields, especially when they are drained. It's not unknown to net enough crayfish to fill a bass boat.

Keep crayfish in a bucket of cool water in the shade and aerate the water frequently as you collect a batch. If you plan to eat the biggest crawdads you catch, as you should if you like shellfish but have priced lobster or shrimp lately, several changes of water and a little cornmeal in your container help remove the mud. This also works for shellfish.