What type of net do I need to catch crawfish? and where can I get one. Also has any one been to sportsman’s warehouse lately and are the shelves still bare?
Thanks.
It just needs to be the one with the smaller holes in the netting and the longer the handle the better. You can get them at sportsmans and cabelast or other fishing shops.
Are the nets made of the old football jersey material?
Have you thought about a trap? You just bait it with a greasy old piece of chicken or some other meat that will give off oil or scent and go fishing for an hour or so, then come back and empty the trap, throw the little ones back and start again. It’s less work than a net, not as challenging though. You can get them at Sportsman’s for less than 20 bucks (at least you used to.)
dj
**You could use a net (basically any kind of net). Or, you could tie a chicken leg on a string and toss it in the rocks, let it sit for a beer or two, and then drag it back slowly and pick off the mudbugs and throw them in the cooler with your other beers. **
Or, you could do it the real easy way and use a trap. You can buy one at Sportsmans or Cabellas or Fishtech for pretty cheap. Or, You can go look at one at those places and then go home and make your own trap out of just about anything you have laying around. Throw a piece of the left over Kentucky fried that you brought to the lake for lunch, sit back in the shade with a tall cool beverage and wait a beer or two and then haul in your trap and collect the goodies.
Before I got my traps I would use milk jugs. Cut the top off of them, leaving the handle. Punch a bunch of holes in the bottom and tie a raw chicken leg in there. Wade out into about 2-3’ water and lay the jug down sideways on the bottom with a small rock in it to keep it from floating around and leave the rope up on the shore. 15 minutes later pull them in quick and you will have 5-10 daddies in each bucket. You can use 5 of these per kid or licensed fisherman. We never needed more than 5 to keep a group of 15 people chowing down on the shoreline.
These actually worked faster than the traps. It seems to take a couple hours for the crawdads to find their way inside the traps.
I just use my regular fishing net. You just need to scoop it fairly quickly and get it over dry land. They will fall through often, but hopefully after you get it past the water where you can easily pick them up. I find this a lot faster than any other trap method. We stopped using any bait of any kind. Just walking around in the edge of the water stirs up the mud and brings the curious bugs close to shore.
Also, fishing just after dark with a lantern or spotlight will find a lot more bugs than fishing during the day.
**wait a beer or two **
my kind of way to tell time right there!
can anyone tell me where is the best place to catch crawfish? I heard of strawberry, but it’s so big, where exactly?
and is this the good time for fishing them?
Anywhere along the shorline. Focus though on areas that have some rockiness and weeds in the water close by. There seems to be more of them on the Soldier Creek side, but that lake is full of them everywhere!
I got my family long handled butterfly nets they are in about every dollar store around they are about five feet long and only cost a dollar so you are not out much if the kids brake one. My kids have a blast catching them up to Scofield if you are down that way.
over by the marina at night with a flashlight comb the shore its a blast.