okay just wondering what bait works good in a trap for crawfish. Behind my brothers house in a creek my niece catches a few dipping a worm, but most fall off when she lifts it up. So i was going to give her my trap to try, but dont know what to bait it with or to be honest dont know much about it at all. Any suggestions would be great.
I have used a variety of baits. The carcass from a chicken seems to work very well, or even old/outdated lunch meat. The soak time seems to be important. Once you put it in, you can see the buggers start to migrate towards it. I like to let it soak for at least 1.5 - 2 hours.
Curious - what’s your trap like? I have a minnow trap - the cone type ones, but don’t think it’s do so well for 'daddin.
I’ve tried chicken on a string, and it draws them in pretty good. I think they likes meat and fatty stuff. Probably something oozy like livers would work good.
If you have some nylon or mesh - wrap it around the outside of those worms, and they get their claws tangled and won’t fall off so much.
I saw a dead one in the Bear the other day - didn’t realize they were out there. But with so much muddy water - I bet the congregate more in rocky areas.
Wouldn’t mind getting a big crawdad boil together! Maybe it’s time I hit Hyrum.
We use chicken bones both for in our home-made trap and also tied around a string. It works great.
When I take my grandkids, we stop at the grocery store and buy some turkey legs … Tie a string to the turkey leg and throw it in the water … When you get 3 or four dads on it, pull it in slow …Get one of those nets that they use to catch goldfish with and put it below the turkey leg when it comes up, the dads will drop in the net.
Kids have a lot of fun catching them this way and we always come home with buckets of them.
raw old chicken
Poke some holes in a can of cat food or good ol’ chicken legs like mentioned.
Yep. A 30 cent can of cat food with holes poked in it will last a couple of days if you’re using a trap. The other baits will get eaten.
trout guts are awesome for that or like filleted perch carcass or anything like that.
From the UDWR Guidebook:
You may take crayfish by hand or with a trap, dipnet, liftnet, handline, pole or seine. You must also obey all of the following rules:
• You may not use game fish or their parts for bait, or use any substance that is illegal for fishing.
Might wanna rethink that one.
Im pretty sure a lot of people know that is illegal but it hasn’t stopped them, i always see people using whole dead chubs, fish guts and cleaned fish for traps at a lot of reservoirs since i have lived here so i can see where he might have thought it was okay, especially at strawberry.
you hit that right on point for me cause i did not know it was illegal but i have just seen alot of people doing it so i thought i was okay. thanks for claryfying that for me fishrmn.
daiwa man we still need to get out and show you the perch spots that we have here in utah, id glady show you some spots this weekend if your able. pM if you want
pm sent
You can use chubs. Whole, diced, cubed, filleted, or whatever.
okay makes sense just no gamefish, i dont think crayfish will really care what kind of fish it is so do it with the carp and chubs if your going to do it. thanks again fishrmn
Might want to read a little farther. Check the “allowed baits” - which includes non game fish (carp), and well as perch - in some locations (there’s a list of waters). Also chub, shiners, red-siders, fathead minnows. I’m not gonna quote it, but there is a list.
I’d love to hear more about what kind of traps ya’ll use. Seen some plans for home-made wire mesh styles.
I have a minnow trap, might work, probably need to enlarge the hole?? Any alternative suggestions like maybe a live rat trap with the door kept open ? My wife would not go near me if I brought some crayfish home, but ------------ I like em.
Anyway, wife is going into surgery Mon, for a hip replacement, sparky is doing a little better. This is something I would do under different circumstances. Now, ---------, maybe??? My biggest problem! I know Strawbeery is “the place”, but the distance from Ogden makes it “just not worth it”. Maybe Hyrum but they have dog laws and fees, and it’s still a bit of a distance, but, maybe?
Is there a closer location to Ogden that would make it worthwhile?
No doubt that you can use shiners, chub, carp, fat heads, etc. Perch are allowed as bait in some waters. But not all. You couldn’t use perch as bait for crawdads at Scofield or Strawberry. If it’s legal to use as bait for fish, it should be legal to use it in a crawdad trap.
• Dead yellow perch may be used as
bait only in Deer Creek, Echo, Fish
Lake, Gunnison, Hyrum, Johnson,
Jordanelle, Mantua, Mill Meadow,
Newton, Pineview, Rockport, Starvation,
Utah Lake, Willard Bay and Yuba
reservoirs.
Keerect. Looks like da Berry and Scofield are not on the list. Think it’s mostly waters that hold perch, though they don’t seem to restrict the perch to have come FROM the same water. Newton and the View have size limitations too (1").
• Dead, fresh or frozen saltwater species,
including sardines and anchovies,
may be used as bait in any water
where bait is permitted.
• Dead mountain sucker, white sucker,
Utah sucker, redside shiner, speckled
dace, mottled sculpin, fathead minnow,
Utah chub and common carp
may be used as bait in any water
where bait is permitted.
• The eggs of any species of fish caught
in Utah, except prohibited fish, may
be used in any water where bait is
permitted. You may not, however,
take or use eggs from fish that are
being released.
The eggs and guts question gets a bit vague. I’ve asked DNR and the answer seems to be the eggs or innards of even a trout are ok, but not the meaty bits. BUT - I’d suggest you do your own checking (don’t quote me!)
Doesn’t actually say anything about catfood or chicken. But I know chicken livers are so commonly used (judging by all the CRAP containers trashers leave all over!!! grrr. . . pretty sure they don’t have a problem with “meat”.
Crawdads can be used as live bait, on the waters they are caught on. So boil the bigguns, and hookup the small ones.
As far as the trap goes, I took 1/4 inch mesh from Home depot and made a tube about three foot long and one foot wide, then used the same wire to make a cone funnel on each end with the funnel going to into the interior of the tube. I made the opening of the funnel only about 2 inches wide so the 'dads could crawl in but not easily find their way out. Into the trap I put a rock for weight, then the chicken carcass or lunch meat I mentioned above. Tie on a rope and throw it out on a rocky bottom in 10 - 15 feet of water and let soak. Last time I went out I took my three boys, and between the four of us filled a 30 gallon garbage sack to the brim at the Berry. Even after harvesting only the tails and the larger claws, it left us with over 15 lbs of meat which a friend of mine did up Louisiana style.
Sorry, no pictures. The trap is on loan to a neighbor. However, the basic style is similar to the one seen here:http://www.terrybullard.com/ only mine isn’t as fancy. Total cost is only a few dollars to make it yourself.