Catching Crawfish!

[eldbillbo]

I've been wondering about Johnsons creek. Would you have eaten the crawdads otherwise? It just seems like the creek goes through alot of city, or were you catching them further up?

maybe not the glowing ones

this was many moons ago

i later found that parasites were on crawdads even in cleaner water and parasites are found in just about every kind of animal but seeing them on the bellies of them grossed me out and they were on the out side of the crawdads as well so the insides were probably fine.

besides i was wading in the water they live in we would turn over rocks and grab them with the exception of growing a couple extra toes and some scales on my feet i'm fine.

as i mentioned i used to give them to my neighbor by the bucket loads and they would eat them up

i also occasionally threw one at the other neighbors barking dog for entertainment

we were catching them between 72nd and 82nd there were some huge ones in there even up to 7 inches maybe they were mutated

 

[The B]

does anybody just net 'em? we always used butterfly nets.. at 5-6 years old, i could catch 5-10 a day

 

[FlyGuy]

Hotdogs wrapped in bacon. Worked well along time ago, I'm sure those crustaceans will still eat it up!

 

[eldbillbo]

maybe dead sage rats after all its sage rat season

 

[MSol]

This always worked for craws (fresh water) and shrimp (saltwater - tiger prawns and the like) when I was a kid. Larger Folgers can with lid off, so that it is sitting flat on its side on the bottom; rock inside to hold it down on the bottom and hold the bait in (chicken fresh / squid salt - stinkier the better); keep the lid handy to cap the end when you check it later so that they don't escape out the open end.

The shinny inside of the Folgers can and the smell attract them, the bait keeps them there, and the lid keeps them in. I used to have 4 or 5 of these setup and would always get 5-10 in every one. An old-timer that I grew up next to taught me this trick. He would just pull out the bait, poor off most of the remaining water, and put the cans right on his fire to boil them up.

 

[The B]

this thread is making me hungry... and nostalgic for those long summer days of our youth.

 

[ZachS]

does anybody just net 'em? we always used butterfly nets.. at 5-6 years old, i could catch 5-10 a day

That's the only way I've ever done it... Two nets: one to scoop 'em up, and the other to hold the ones you've caught.

 

[michaels]

Eldbillbo, thanks, I was thinking it must have been a while ago. I have heard that crawdads won't live in polluted water, but I dunno. Must depend on the type of pollution?
I'm not too sure about eating out of Johnsons, but, damn. Such a nice creek, it's a pity i'm scared to eat out of it.

OP I know you're looking for credible first hand experience here, but this story just warms my heart.....

Neighborhood kid told me about a friend that used the head of a nutria to bait a super big trap...

 

[overunder12]

fish guts, liver and bacon all work great. had lots of fun tying shad guts on a string and waiting until the crawdads started dragging them away, then gently hoist them ashore.

 

[country boy]

We either use cheap cans of tuna and punch holes in them like was previously stated (packed in oil, not water) or put a couple of fish carcases upstream of where you want to hunt, wait a for the oils and scents to drift downstream a ways and then just sneak up behind them and grab 'em. In a good area we could get two or three gallons of crawdads in an hour or so (with a couple of people hunting that is).

 

[pirateer2007]

I used to make my own bait with tuna, hotdogs and WD40. I'm guessing most would frown on putting half a can of WD40 in our streams and rivers, but dang, it worked like a charm. I would have them clinging on the outside of the full trap when I pulled them out of the water.

 

[VWTim]

Hotdogs wrapped in bacon. Worked well along time ago, I'm sure those crustaceans will still eat it up!

If you have bacon wrapped hotdogs, wouldn't you just eat those in a survival situation?

 

[Gunner3456]

who needs bait sneek up behind them and grab them by the body behind the claws used to catch hundreds of them like this as a kid

me a buddy caught a hundred and fifty in one day once down in Johnson creek
his family ate them but i could not since i could see the parasites on them

+1 right on. In a survival situation you might not have equipment or bait. Just start turning over rocks and grab them right behind the front claws so you don't get pinched. We used to catch enough that way for the whole family for dinner out of the Molalla River just W. of Canby when our family had a cabin there.

If you are lucky enough to have some traps you can leave, crawdads are cannibals. They molt (lose their shells) as they grow, and eat each other at that stage. Catch some from under rocks, crack and dig out meat including guts and bait the traps.