crawdads in the columbia?

[syoungs]

reading through the whos addicted to crawdad thread, Im really wanting to catch me some mud bugs, problem is, im on the east side, and dont have alot of time to travel for such a gig.

But, talks around with some of the old timers say the snake, below ice harbor, has produced some nice crawdads in the past, and the columbia can if your in the right spot.

Can anyone put any truth to this? most my google searching came up with arguments about why you shouldnt eat any out of the columbia, but everyone was talking about the lower river, im in the tri cities area.

anyone have any tips to get started, im completely new at this but would love to try it out!

[Mfowl]

I know they're in the river, I've seen them before. Maybe try dropping some traps in backwater areas, bays/sloughs out of the current. Catch some pikeminnows or something for bait and give it a try. Good luck!

[Wacenturion]

In my college days, I used to work on the log booms on the Willamette, sending logs up a lift to be stripped for telephone poles.  Got pretty proficient and stayed well ahead of the yard above.  To kill time I use to drop crayfish traps off the boomshed.  Tons of crayfish.  Would stick a carp sucking up against the floating logs in the boom with my pike pole and put chunks of it in the traps.  As I said.....lots and lots of crayfish.  That was in the 60's.

Had a VP for the company, an Asian guy who just loved me.....I was his crayfish dealer.    

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

We have been setting test pots in the Columbia the last week and have only turned up one softshell crayfish about 3.5" long.My experience with it is to keep setting till you find em. Once you find em your good to go! As for soft shell I have no idea if there is a certain time of year for it or what causes it to happen?

[Elkpiss]

We have been setting test pots in the Columbia the last week and have only turned up one softshell crayfish about 3.5" long.My experience with it is to keep setting till you find em. Once you find em your good to go! As for soft shell I have no idea if there is a certain time of year for it or what causes it to happen?

Bingo.... Set test pots out, find a creek around your house too that flows in to the bigger waters and there well be mud bugs... Columbia has them, you just got to test spots out tell you find the mother load...  Soft shell, hmmm must have been a bad bug, cause right now is the prime time...

[Carp Commander]

I run crayfish pots through out the season in both the Snake and Columbia (Tri-Cities) been doing it for years. If I have the boat in the water, I have five pots in to.

The Snake above Ice Harbor is the best water I have found but you can catch enough for a boil in the Columbia. The secret is bait, time and location. Don't bother with cat food, hot dogs or lunch meat. You need FISH! Oily the better and don't use catfish or other natural predators of the crayfish. Carp, Shad, Salmon bellies! I am an avid bowfisherman so I always have fresh carp.

If you want to go out during the middle of the day, that's great. Just know that during the day you may get into a couple and think the location is wrong. When in fact the location was perfect and at night you would have caught 20. Night time will beat day time in a big way, no mater where you are.

Don't bother with deep water. All your crayfish trapping is in less than 14 feet of water. Rocks, brush, structure and more rocks is where you want to be. Spread you pots out and test different areas until you get into them.

Oh yeah and remember, crayfish can get out of traps! Don't think for one second your crayfish trap is a "ounce they come in they can't get out" type of trap. You should run your traps every 30 to 45 minutes. Crayfish will consume the bait quickly! Once the bait is gone or at least the choice cuts are picked out, they crayfish leave in a hurry. 

The over the counter traps I don't care for. Shrimp pots work very well and are heavy enough to with stand our currents. I have gotten into building my own and if your serious I would suggest the same.

Hope this helps!

[Evil_EdwardO]

My pictures on the Whose Addicted to Crawdaddin thread are from the Snake, Lower Granite area.  This is my first time doing this also. I had one suggestion from a friend which I think increased my numbers: Use about 6-8 4inch zip ties in the entrances. They get in but when they try to get out they get hung up on the zip ties.

[syoungs]

Thanks for all the advice so far guys! I am going to look into buying or preferably building a few traps this weekend, ive got some ideas of where to go that may produce based on what you have said, ill keep it updated if I start getting into em!