Where to catch crawdads around Eugene?

[Xpanzer88x]

Any know any spots around Eugene to get some crawdads??

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[WAYNO]

Any know any spots around Eugene to get some crawdads??

Absolutely any body of water! They're everywhere!

A crawdad trap for catching lots of them, or a string and safety pin with a piece of hot dog. The crawdads will grab the treat and not let go, even while you're dragging them in.

WAYNO.

 

[RVTECH]

There is a two person system that works really well. Get another person and a small hand grip style fly fishing net. Find a clear spot on a river where you can wade about a foot or so deep and one of you reach down and flip a big rock over and the other have the net ready to start lashing through the water to catch the quickly retreating crawdads. It takes a little practice but two can gather a lot of crawdads this way.

 

[OFADAN]

What do you guys use for bait in traps? Cat food in a can certainly doesn't work!

Also do you leave your traps overnight??

 

[Xpanzer88x]

I know how to catch em, just wondering some good spots around Eugene, I usually smash a crappie or white fish, or use chicken necks and soak overnight. But I'm new to Eugene and looking for some spots

 

[WAYNO]

Well, the Willamette is easy access, and loaded with crawdads. The McKenzie, the Willamette forks, any of the Willamette impoundments, Siuslaw, Little River, and any similar rivers are crawdad infested.

 

[jbett98]

If any gold mining is present, then avoid those rivers.

 

[Stinkerbelle]

Try the Siuslaw river on the way to Florence. When I was a kid (granted, many, many moons ago...) I went to a summer wrestling camp (camp Lane?) out there and we caught a bunch of them in the river, by hand. Cooked them over a open fire in coffee cans....fun times that.....

 

[Jamie6.5]

Try the Mohawk River, out by Marcola.
This time of year you should be able to find spots that are shallow enough to wade, and/or deep enough to set a trap.

A little further out Marcola Rd. is Shotgun Creek, and you'll find some there too.

 

[Don H]

Stupid question, but do you need a fishing license to catch crawdads?

(I hate even asking these questions... remember back in the day when you could just fish in any old backwater and the only thing you had to make sure of was that you were not on private property. I miss those days.)

 

[Burt Gummer]

From age 13 to 17 I ran a fairly large craw fishing business with two boats and about 250 traps on the Willamette Channel. Supplied Jakes with most of their crawfish, bait to stores. A guy back east bought a lot also. I'd keep them in holding tanks and feed them corn and potatoes with was a big selling point for the wholesalers.

Good money because I was under 18 the law required no license, not even for the boats, outside of normal registration.

I had the second largest paper route in Oregon up to that point, 9 to age 12, so lets just say I am no stranger to a good work ethic.

Fresh caught carp was the best bait at the time. Fishermen also gave me Salmon heads. Unlike a crab which will come running for something rotten and decaying, crawfish will not. Fresh stuff only.

For the last three years handling thousands of crawfish I was never pinched. I could sort them and pick them up almost blindfolded. My dog was trained to do the same.

 

[U201491]

From age 13 to 17 I ran a fairly large craw fishing business with two boats and about 250 traps on the Willamette Channel. Supplied Jakes with most of their crawfish, bait to stores. A guy back east bought a lot also. I'd keep them in holding tanks and feed them corn and potatoes with was a big selling point for the wholesalers.

Good money because I was under 18 the law required no license, not even for the boats, outside of normal registration.

I had the second largest paper route in Oregon up to that point, 9 to age 12, so lets just say I am no stranger to a good work ethic.

Fresh caught carp was the best bait at the time. Fishermen also gave me Salmon heads. Unlike a crab which will come running for something rotten and decaying, crawfish will not. Fresh stuff only.

For the last three years handling thousands of crawfish I was never pinched. I could sort them and pick them up almost blindfolded. My dog was trained to do the same.

I'll be, So did I. Ran about 5 miles of 1500 ft longlines with a trap snapped on every 40 ft.
Also fished for Jakes when they were on Swann Island.
Fished between Wilsonville and Newberg mostly. Someone else was running lines below the I-5 bridge.
That wasn't you was it.
I was fishing out of a custom built blue totally open Harvey Dory with lower sides and a side roller, puller on the bow.
I ran the long rectangular traps that guy in Hillsboro made.
Burried both ends with a trap and picked the lines with a leaded grapple. Never a float. They would get ripped off.
They shipped most of the ones I got to Scandanavia. They had some disease kill off all theirs, so the royalty there bought from over here.
They got em mercury and all

Just noticed the age thing.
Guess that wasn't you.
I had to have a commercial fishing license when we did it. That was in the late 80's.

 

[coop44]

I can see burt now, floatin' down the river with huck and jim.

 

[ocarolan]

Stupid question, but do you need a fishing license to catch crawdads?

(I hate even asking these questions... remember back in the day when you could just fish in any old backwater and the only thing you had to make sure of was that you were not on private property. I miss those days.)

A commercial license is needed if you sell the crawfish, but otherwise no.


Description: All persons 14 years or older must have in possession a valid Oregon shellfish license to take any shellfish for personal use, except:
during one "Free Fishing Weekend" in June when licenses or tags are NOT required;
when taking crayfish or freshwater clams;
Oregon resident landowners and members of their immmediate family may take shellfish on land they own or reside on.

Statutes, Rules, Ordinances: ORS 497
Duration: Annual (expires December 31 every year)
Fees - application, exam, etc.: $7

 

[Burt Gummer]

I was doing it in the mid-late 70s, mostly on the Multnomah Channel.

The crawfish were just thick through there. I made all my own traps. Bought the materials from Linton Feed and Seed on St Helens Road.

Living on a houseboat, my 'work' was only a few steps away. There I was, running up and across log rafts and I couldn't swim a stroke. Aerosmith Rocks playing on a boombox.

Now and then I'd miscalculate when the loggers would be moving their floating log rafts and it would be goodbye to my (30-40) traps on one rope pull.

It was sure good and profitable work for an industrious kid that is for sure. Not many other kids were making $400-$600 a week. But then I was used to making $800/month on my paper route when I was 9-12 or so years old.

TAKU, that was back when a person could go out and make a buck. I am sure now with all the restrictions and regulations, fines and fees, taxes from the parasites, the small business owner is pretty much screwed.

 

[U201491]

I was doing it in the mid-late 70s, mostly on the Multnomah Channel.

The crawfish were just thick through there. I made all my own traps. Bought the materials from Linton Feed and Seed on St Helens Road.

Living on a houseboat, my 'work' was only a few steps away. There I was, running up and across log rafts and I couldn't swim a stroke. Aerosmith Rocks playing on a boombox.

Now and then I'd miscalculate when the loggers would be moving their floating log rafts and it would be goodbye to my (30-40) traps on one rope pull.

It was sure good and profitable work for an industrious kid that is for sure. Not many other kids were making $400-$600 a week. But then I was used to making $800/month on my paper route when I was 9-12 or so years old.

TAKU, that was back when a person could go out and make a buck. I am sure now with all the restrictions and regulations, fines and fees, taxes from the parasites, the small business owner is pretty much screwed.

Yeah, and now Shunshine out of Kalifornia moved in and pretty much took over most of the supply to Jakes. They were trying to hog their way in when I got out.
There were a few battles over on billy chinook.
When young, anr everyone else was out picking beans, I spent every day catching carp hor Tonys fish market. They used them for crab bait. Made more doing that than I could in the berry fields.
On the weekends we would run the deschutes canyons catching rattlers to sell to a lab for anti snake bite serum. That was big bucks. Our dog would sniff em out and we filled gunny bags with them. We made more in a weekend than most kids did in 5 summers.
Those were good years.

_______________________________
At my age I shoot forward a lot better than I run backward.
Rearward movement is only used for a forward Advantage and better sight alignment !

 

[Del474]

ok so i live in Springfield and i have set lots of trip and have come up with nothing Whats going on

 

[Certaindeaf]

ok so i live in Springfield and i have set lots of trip and have come up with nothing Whats going on

you need to be wearing a I like turtles shirt is what

 

[Del474]

you need to be wearing a I like turtles shirt is what

lmao

 

[Flymph]

They might be molting, which will put them deep under rocks in any hole they can feel safe in. They do not forage much while their exoskeleton is still soft.