2015 Hunt Wa Crawdad Mania

[h2ofowlr]

Any good recipes for cooking these?

[DOUBLELUNG]

any one do it on high mountain lakes. couple years ago I was up deer hunting in a wilderness area, went in a day before the season opened to get situated and do some scouting. we caught a few trout and gutted them and left them in the lake to stay cool till we cooked them, came back from scouting that night to find trout bones and tons of crawdads, needless to say we had crawfish instead of trout that night. shocked me. it was about 6,000 ft elevation

Yes, some of the best crawdadin and biggest i have seen are from the Mt Lakes...  either dog um or through a trap.. Its fun to watch cause typically the Mt lakes are so clear you can see the mudbugs heading towards the trap.. pretty cool..

I was hunting Rimrock off the PCT 2 years ago, was VERY surprised to see a huge claw in a tiny little creek about 100 yards off the Cascade Crest. 

[luvmystang67]

I think I need a picture of what acceptable creek habitat looks like.  I was wading around the Pilchuck river like an idiot, getting my jeans soaked, on Saturday looking for Craw-bitat.  I found... nothing that I deemed acceptable and no claws laying around.  Anyone have a pic of what preferred habitat on a small creek looks like?

-Stang

[grundy53]

I would think the Pilchuck would be a good spot. It reminds me of the river I caught tons of them in when I was younger. We used to catch them by hand and fill up 5 gallon buckets. The water doesn't necessarily have to be deep we catch a lot in the riffles. Lately my dad and I use traps. We've found if you leave it overnight a lot escape. Throw out the trap an hour or two before dark then pull it at dark.

[luvmystang67]

I would think the Pilchuck would be a good spot. It reminds me of the river I caught tons of them in when I was younger. We used to catch them by hand and fill up 5 gallon buckets. The water doesn't necessarily have to be deep we catch a lot in the riffles. Lately my dad and I use traps. We've found if you leave it overnight a lot escape. Throw out the trap an hour or two before dark then pull it at dark.

Do you have to find like deep water areas or larger rocks?  I wouldn't assume fist size and smaller cobble in 2-3 feet of water holds many 'dads.  Fist size and smaller cobble is what I was walking over this weekend.

[grundy53]

We don't set ours in deep water. 3 or 4 feet is good. The rocks don't need to be huge fist size and bigger works. But honestly we do best when the bottom is solid rock like limestone or whatever. Find a slower spot where leaves and sticks collect. They like to hide in that.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Real nice pulls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Elkpiss]

Any good recipes for cooking these?

I just like boiling them tell they turn lobster red, then just shuck the tail and dip them in cocktail sauce or garlic butter..  taste just like a little lobster and shrimp..   

[Elkpiss]

any one do it on high mountain lakes. couple years ago I was up deer hunting in a wilderness area, went in a day before the season opened to get situated and do some scouting. we caught a few trout and gutted them and left them in the lake to stay cool till we cooked them, came back from scouting that night to find trout bones and tons of crawdads, needless to say we had crawfish instead of trout that night. shocked me. it was about 6,000 ft elevation

Yes, some of the best crawdadin and biggest i have seen are from the Mt Lakes...  either dog um or through a trap.. Its fun to watch cause typically the Mt lakes are so clear you can see the mudbugs heading towards the trap.. pretty cool..

I was hunting Rimrock off the PCT 2 years ago, was VERY surprised to see a huge claw in a tiny little creek about 100 yards off the Cascade Crest.

When you see just a claw in a creek, its from battle and another crawdad tore the claw off.. They are little warriors...  sounds funny but its true.. aggressive little *censored*s...

[Shrimper]

35 count.. nothing over 7.5..

Nice haul elkpiss...

[Shrimper]

I think I need a picture of what acceptable creek habitat looks like.  I was wading around the Pilchuck river like an idiot, getting my jeans soaked, on Saturday looking for Craw-bitat.  I found... nothing that I deemed acceptable and no claws laying around.  Anyone have a pic of what preferred habitat on a small creek looks like?

-Stang

Below are a few pics of some promising areas I scouted yesterday.  All of the pics have crawdads in them.

Stang - your not an idiot you are just starting to ge the crawdaddin' bug. 

Here is a quote form Elkpiss a few years ago, pretty much sums up the crawdaddin' bug:

There were days of elk hunting I wanted to go check my crawdad pots more then elk hunting... WTF?? 
  im addicted to this chit...   Pretty bad when i got a screamin bull coming in to my calls and all I can think about at the time, is where and how to catch a 9.5 inch mudbug..    & we did kill that elk.. lol

[luvmystang67]

Game time, thanks Shrimper.  That will get me started.

[Elkpiss]

lol that's funny Shrimper, that was awhile ago that quote.. we had the bug bad that summer...   We had pots in every body of water within 10 miles of where I live.. once we found the glory hole it wasn't really as fun anymore.. so now we are just trying to find a 9 incher..  A 9 inch crawdad is the equivalent to a 400 inch bull..  There hard to get... ive got 8.5's but No 9er's yet..  Its always fun to pull a pot in New Water.. could be that 9 incher...  ..   

[MtnMuley]

That's weird, cause word on the street is you've taken several 9"ers

[h20hunter]

Hey-O!

Let the 'dad smack talking begin!