On another thread jamotrade mentioned trapping crawfish to go with a meal of fish. Have any of you had much luck with this? What sort of setup do you use and what kind of depth/structure do you set the traps in? Thanks in advance for sharing your b-dub brilliance with all of us new guys!

Well i don't know about cooking crawdads but if you want to catch them just use a flashlight along the shore by camp. My kids use to catch them all the time.

One easy method is to take a little stick, distract the crawfish with it, then grab the thing from behind at its abdomen and pull out of the water. I have also heard of people catching them by a small piece of meat on a hook, but its not too tough with just a stick. They come out in big numbers at night. We haven't eaten them, just used them for bait. To eat I believe you want to either purge them with some salt water, or just remove the vein to reduce the nasty taste. There are several threads about eating them on here.

You can bring one of those wire mesh minnow traps and it works great but it takes up space. I prefer the vodka bottle method of homemade trap. I bring the booze and have to pack out the bottle when it's empty, so it might as well do something for me while I there.

As far as eating them I never thought of purging them in a saltwater solution but I think it's a good idea. I just boil them and de-vein them like a shrimp by making a cut along the top of the tail meat and rinsing it away.

I have not trapped crawfish in the bdub but have had many boils here on Leech Lake. Minnow Traps work great, just make sure you put plenty of fresh bait in there. Contrary to popular belief, a fresh killed and cut bait will catch many more crawfish then a dead stinky one. I put two or three "light northern" suckers in the trap with the fillets cut off part way. Change bait each day or every time you reset the traps. Good luck!

I have visons of setting a trap like this at night and waking up to mess of crawdads to use for a lunchtime boil. They seem light and inexpensive enough that it's worth a try. Anyone else have expereince with a similar trap?

Bwoods...we have been bringing that trap in for the past couple of years. Have only caught a few crawfish (and only a few minnows for that matter), probably because we don't change the bait enough (and use bread/pancake as bait, trying to catch minnows not crawfish).

We have done crawfish boils before in the bw. We have always just caught them by hand next to shore after dark, they aren't that hard to catch (it actually is fun trying to grab them with your hand). the right lake and you can have a pot full of them in no time.... you grab them right and you don't need to worry about getting pinched.

will have to take out the vein next time though as we didn't do that and was a bit gritty (was pretty late at night and at that point wasn't thinking of anything but boiling and eating them).

Bring a small, wire mesh, two piece minnow trap with you. After cleaning your fish, put the guts into the trap and sink it in about 3-4 FOW.
It'll be full of crayfish in the morning.

here is a quick boil we did...only a few minutes of hand landing got us a nice appetizer...

A crawfish boil is an art with all the spice, corn on the cob, potatoes, garlic, peppers, crab boil sauce, boudin, etc. See my below photos.

quote bloody stump: "here is a quick boil we did...only a few minutes of hand landing got us a nice appetizer...


"

Where's the spice, taters, jalapenos, shrimp, boudin, etc. !! :)

quote Boarstalker: "

quote bloody stump: "here is a quick boil we did...only a few minutes of hand landing got us a nice appetizer...



"

Where's the spice, taters, jalapenos, shrimp, boudin, etc. !! :)
"

too late for Emeril to show up

You meen like dis?

well we weren't planning on eating crawfish when we left the entry point so didn't have all the fixing you show, just some butter, salt and plenty of firewater....however, it was crawfish and the water did boil so i called it a crawfish boil ;p

Looks pretty good to me, for the bdub anyway. I might have to try and catch some of those mud bugs up there this year too.

Looks like the complaint in the reviews seems to be that critters like turtles or otters can rip open the mesh pretty easily to grab the bait or your minnows/crayfish.

I think the wire trap is bast but the vodka bottle is a pretty fun way to do it since it's homemade.

by far the most fun is by hand at night. nothing like running up 3-4 crawdads with pinchers screamin to the pot on the grate and you or your buddy screamin' "OUCH!"" a blast,, just like a kid chasin minnows in the shallows!!!! stuff like this-- even us olde timers don't forget!!!!
something about a flashlight in the water at night= FUN!!!!

Is it just me or do they realy like sandy beaches at night?

Thanks for all the feedback! If I could have a crawfish meal that looked half as good as any of the pictures on here I'd call it a success. I've heard some people say a rocky bottom is the best place to catch them and some people say a sandy bottom is best. What do y'all think?

As above, fresh fish bait is best, wire traps or hand catching over the net trap. You HAVE to bring Cajun Crawfish/Seafood Boil spice. The veggies are great but not necessary, but I would add a head of fresh garlic. Veins, who cares, I never pull them out. Some very fine eating. Yes to Crawdaddy boils.

My son and nephews caught dozens of crawfish a couple years ago on Basswood. They learned the crawfish would clamp onto the end of their finger and it didn't hurt, so the three of them were picking them out of the waters edge and tossing them into the kitchen sink. We cooked them up with some rice, brats, smallie chunks, garlic, onion and spices. It was a delicious meal!

Never done it, but Zataran's makes a good jambalya mix. Fresh crawfish and smallmouth would make it even betterer.

"betterer"? LOL! Yes, it would make it even better :)

quote Arlo Pankook: "You meen like dis? "

Nice looking plate !!!! But, hmmmm....those are some pasty looking crawfish. After they boil for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and let them soak for 30-minutes. That way they can suck up all those spices, peppers and crawfish boil. That gives em a good, dark coloration like this.



Crawfish boils are a big event though and done right take allot of effort. My hat's off to anyone who even attempts that out in the wilderness.

Haha I agree with lundojam, smallies and crawfish would make it betterer!

Find a rocky shore with 1 to 2' of water, send the kids out a couple hours before dinner with a fine mesh bag & have 'em turn over rocks to catch a couple dozen or so. Bring a little Zatarains spice & boil 'em up. Nice change of pace for your daily protein.

quote Boarstalker: "

quote Arlo Pankook: "You meen like dis? "

Nice looking plate !!!! But, hmmmm....those are some pasty looking crawfish. After they boil for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and let them soak for 30-minutes. That way they can suck up all those spices, peppers and crawfish boil. That gives em a good, dark coloration like this.





Crawfish boils are a big event though and done right take allot of effort. My hat's off to anyone who even attempts that out in the wilderness.


"

yeah, I think that was my first boil. Couldn't find any better pics. Mostly catch Rusty Crayfish now, their twice the size and very plenifull here.

How early in the spring or summer do crawfish become active? Does the water have to warm up before they swarm the shallows?

quote cburton103: "Thanks for all the feedback! If I could have a crawfish meal that looked half as good as any of the pictures on here I'd call it a success. I've heard some people say a rocky bottom is the best place to catch them and some people say a sandy bottom is best. What do y'all think?"

How I used to do it is look for a rocky shoreline with visible crayfish all over. Then I'd move towards one until it scooted under the rock with just the claws sticking out from under it. I'd put my hand behind the rock where it's tail should be, move the rock to the side, and as it swam backwards to escape, grabbed it by the main shell. Never got pinched that way, and we ended up with 76 crayfish for the group of us! I'm sure a trap is less time consuming however!