Crayfish Mania-2020

[fowl smacker]

Couldn't find this posted for 2020 so I'll start one.  If someone knows of the Crayfish Mania 2020 already started, feel free to move this.  Finally made it out to my spot for the first time this year.  Did ok, wasn't as good as it has been, but got enough to satisfy our bellies tonight.  The kids had a blast doing it too.

[Watimberghost]

Looks good!

[shootem]

That looks like fun. What kind of traps do you use?

[fowl smacker]

That looks like fun. What kind of traps do you use?

We "picked" all these ones by hand, but I do have some oval tube shaped traps that I picked up a long time ago at Bobs.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Nice haul!

[Shrimper]

Nice Catch!

Sorry I didn't start crawdad maina 2020 this year.  Wa parks cancelled our camping reservation for our big crawdad trip and I'm still a bit pissed about it.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing all the catches this year and the tasty boils, Cheers.

[WSU]

What traps does everyone recommend?

[Shrimper]

What traps does everyone recommend?

I use a combo of a few half size and full size square shrimp pots with the smaller mesh and use a few clyndrical pots I made.  I like the square pots because they sit well on slopes whereas I think the clyndrical tend to catch and hold more crawdads.

Here are some pics of the shrimp pots I use.

[RC]

What's your bait of choice?

[fowl smacker]

What's your bait of choice?

Canned cat food, smelt, anchovies, sardines, salmon/tuna parts.  They'll eat about anything.

[Shrimper]

What's your bait of choice?

Fresh fish, trout, perch...  Whatever is in the body of water you’re looking to get crawdads in.  Filleted trout/perch carcasses seem to work best for me.

[WAcoueshunter]

How long do you soak?

[scotsman]

We are heading to Sun Lakes next week . Any c’dads in that area? Or Banks lake?

[duckmen1]

How long do you soak?

I've left pots for 30 to 45 minutes in small creeks and filled them full. Typically I'll leave them for that time frame in a small creek to do a test run to see if there's any action. If so next soak will be 3 to 4 hours or if dropped in evening an overnight soak.
Larger bodies of water I like to start with a 1 to 2 hour test then depending I'll lengthen the soak accordingly. Overnight soaks are awesome if left in the evening.
Every spot is different though. Just gotta test the waters.
If there is a target rich environment you can start seeing action pretty quickly though.

[dilleytech]

What traps does everyone recommend?

I recommend making your own. They cost around 10$ to make and they are far superior to those “minnow” traps they sell at any fishing department or you can order some. Making the funnels one way escape proof is a huge component. Can’t recall the video I watched but some kid in Wyoming has the design figured out.