Crayfish Traps/Trapping

[pikestabber]

Anyone trap crayfish? How soon do you start (too early yet?)...what type of traps do you use...what do you bait with...how many crayfish do you typically yield per trap? Any information you could provide would be appreciated.

[jigginjim]

The trap it designed just for crawfish. You could a few how, just add a piece of fish,(fish heads & skeleton work good) you need to keep trap low enough that crawfish can't get under the trap. As for numbers, how big is your trap and were you trap is the key. Rocky areas are the best. (Follow DNR rules on use of crawfish, see page 70.)

[MurkyWaters]

How prevalent are crayfish in MN? Are they in most lakes? I don't think I have actually seen one in person.

[onlydrakes4me]

more of them found in northern lakes, probably north of st cloud area

[LOTWSvirgin]

I use to atch them when I was a kid with a cup and a stick in SwMN

[CarpKing921]

Crawfish are everywhere. Start kicking up rocks and you'll see some.

[delcecchi]

Rustys are said to be good eating. The traps you can buy look like a box made out of hardware cloth with a ramp that they walk up and fall off. Look online for a picture.

If you search for posts on crawfish you will find instructions on purging them so they taste good when cooked.

I think maybe I will try to trap some this summer. Pinch tail and suck head as they say down in Cajun Country.

[pikestabber]

Thanks, everyone.

[Pickelfarmer]

Last year I used one of those Black wire mesh Minnow traps that you see at some of the sporting goods stores and bait shops. It worked ok but I think that the opening on it should have been a little bigger. I like the Idea posted above about the ramp that they fall off of. I got anywhere from none to 15 in my trap.I think the big thing is to check them early in the morning before they start looking for a way to get out?? I used dead minnows for bait. I'm sure there is a better bait than that though. Have fun!!!

[FinsandFeathers]

for bait....chicken or you could use chicken and then there's always chicken

[Tom7227]

Isn't there a big deal about some of them being an invasive? If you trap them you better check that out cause I think I saw something about some kind really screwing up the vegetation in a lake.

[fivebucks]

Yes the rusty crayfish is invasive. You cannot take crayfish from one lake and use them for bait on a different lake. I think this post is about trapping them for din din though.

[Burbot]

Mille Lacs is absoulutly stuffed with them in the rocks on the south east side. They are Rusty's so do not transport them for fishing, the DNR will give you a permit for consumption, and to answer the next question YES! they eat very well!

[nofishfisherman]

I had a big plate of crawfish while in Spain a few years ago. They came free with a glass of wine I ordered. Man were those tasty. They came piled on a plate and were cooked in some sort of light tomato sauce.

Don't forget to suck the meat out of the head, thats were the good stuff is.

[mrklean]

lura lake is full of them i was castings a jig and twister 5 years or so ago and caught one, it clamped on to the tail and didnt let go

[JewellOutdoors]

We used to use a 1/4 in wire mesh that had a rectangular shape, but was sloped on the sides. There was a hole in the top - and then we'd throw a sucker head (or some kind of fish). Worked pretty good!

[shunker_lure]

The best way to catch them is with the wire minnow traps but you need to cut the opening just a little larger. then make sure that the bottom is set so they cant get under it. about 5-1 ft of water depth seems best. put your traps out in the evening and get check them early morning. I will run about 5 traps when in the bwca and can get about a two gallon pail full in a night.

they make a nice side with walleye. They seem to have a much sweeter taste then the ones u buy in the store.

[thedeadsea]

shunker,

Do you batter and fry them or boil with something like Old Bay?

I have had them fried while in Florida and they are awesome!

Steve

[Pickelfarmer]

If you search for posts on crawfish you will find instructions on purging them so they taste good when cooked.

Yeah I guess the Purging is an important part of the process??? How do you do it. Don't you have to let them sit in a salt water salution for a while?? Is that what they call purging.

[shunker_lure]

I like to boil them then dip in butter. I dont purg them instead when u get the tail meat out u can pull the top meat of the tail off then put away the vain with sand. Not much different then doing shrimp.

[stick]

Vermillion is filthy with them. My buddy has a rectangular trap about the size of a shoe-box (a bit bigger). We put a filleted walley in the trap (and caught a bunch of grief by people saying it's illegal) and then removed the carcus from the lake in the end. This thing was FULL in a matter of a few hours. We do that each time we're there and pull out as many as possible. We put them in a big vessel in water and put a heavy concentration of salt in it. We also exchanged the salt water a few times to remove the "stuff" from the water. Then we boiled them up, let 'em cool, melt some butter, pull 'em apart, dip in butter, eat, sip whiskey occasionally...yummy!!

[Burbot]

Pickel, With the cold lakes up here about the most you have to do is soak them in distilled water (alive); the tap or salt water will kill them, they will still eat Okay but they look terrible. Bring the water to a boil drop em in when they turn red they are done approx 45sec-1min? I like a product called Crab Boil in the water and a product from August Schell in my hand. No cocktail sauce or butter neccesary in my opinion.

Burbot

[Burbot]

Pickel, With the cold lakes up here about the most you have to do is soak them in distilled water (alive); the tap or salt water will kill them, they will still eat Okay but they look terrible. Bring the water to a boil drop em in when they turn red they are done approx 45sec-1min? I like a product called Crab Boil in the water and a product from August Schell in my hand. No cocktail sauce or butter neccesary in my opinion.

Burbot

[IcePro]

WOW......

With people throwing out traps and baiting them I can see a new TV series on Discovery Channel.

The Deadliest Catch....Crawdad Style

[OnAFly]

Or possibly, The Least Deadly Catch.

Here's the first episode:

Fisherman: "Oh no, I'm falling in the water!"

Buddy: "Are you ok?"

Fisherman: "I actually feel better."

[SevenTine]

Check out JK Enterprises in Cyrus, MN. They make great crayfish traps. I use fish heads for bait. I have one spot in a small dam that I can just set the traps along the walls with no bait and fill them up overnight. Open end downstream. I put a rock on top so they don't get carried on.

[pbooth]

As a kid, we would take a chunk of liver on a stick and a pail of cold water, and go down to the creek. Hold the stick in the creek and they would grab on pick the stick up and put in cold bucket of water they would release. We would spend hours catching crayfish, I'm sure the folks loved it!

Paul

[tjpitch5]

To make the traps, go to google and type in "wut2 crawdad trap". I used 1/2 inch hardware cloth. A 2' x 5' roll is plenty. Then pick up some plastic wire ties to hold everything together. This is pretty much the way I make them and the homemade traps catch a lot more crayfish than the few store bought traps I have.

As for bait, I get salmon fish heads from seafood stores in the spring before I have any heads in the freezer from fish I catch. The fattyness of salmon works well and one fish head cut up works for about 2 traps. When I clean fish I catch, the fish heads from anything else work just as good.

[crawdad]

I've had the best luck with the oily fish also. Have also used liver. The 3 traps I ordered online have done well. They're a little larger size, but I had about 80-100 nice size rusties in one trap in a one night soak in Ely. The design is pretty simple but well thought out. Better than my first homemade box style traps, but I'd like to make something similar to the purchased ones.

Bait boxes in the trap are key IMO.

[JacobMHD]

What do you look for when setting the traps?