The Crayfish Thread - The Undeadliest Catch

A local grocery store was selling frozen packages of peeled crayfish tails last week so I picked up a couple of pounds and added them to my favorite cajun recipe given to me by my southern friend. It's called sauce picante (Troy made it with alligator on Swamp People in season 1). It was delicious and I want more! As part of the adventure of being up north this summer at the cabin, I got three crayfish traps. I have been researching good locations and bait to use which are rocky shorelines and rock piles and fresh dead fish such as perch or walleye heads and entrails. They apparently are more active at night so we're going to "set pots" after supper, check them once before we go to bed and again in the morning. It should be fun, especially for my 12 year old son. I'm headed up to get things ready for the opener tonight and plan to do a trial run. It might be a little slow yet with the water temps but I'll post the outcome next week. In the meantime, please share any experiences or tips you have on this subject, The Undeadliest Catch.

JZZZ I have ordered from Cajun Grocer and got good mudbugs mostly alive sent to Chicago, but that was in Feb-Mar time frame, never tried it this time of year- they do tend to send a lot of spam email tho- Two other alternatives- one, try and talk to your local grocery store and see if they can get a special order of live crawfish for you, sometimes they can at a minimal extra cost- Two, if you have the money and are throwing a big shin-dig, there are several companies down in LA or MS that travel with their cookers, cajuns, cranes, and crawdads and will drive Up North to do the cooking for you- and, if you take them out wally or musky fishing, show them a good brat and Leinies, you'll have friends for life and a place to do some black-water bassin in the winter. Seriously, if you have the money, that is the way to go- they will throw a party that is a once in a lifetime experience. Or, there is always getting the frozen stuff from wallymart, but most of that crawdad is from China or the Nam.

anybody ever order the crawdads from down south and have them deleivered??? one website out of louisiana seems the best.

Good general info on rusties: http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/mscms/fishing-articles/the-rusty-crayfish-a-culinary-delicacy/ Aieee! dem dere mudbugs be shoremighty good in dat biling pot, you betcha' If you are goona suck them heads, you should let the bugs soak for a day or two in clean, clear water before you drowned em'

Canned cat food works awesome make about 10 holes in top we used it all the time find rocks u find crawfish also wire a half hot dog in trap so they don't crawl out. They are awesome to boil 50 to 60 crawfish whole 6 ears of corn broken into 1/3rds small red taters throw the whole mess in a turkey frier with 2 gallons water 2 cups old bay seasoning 1full head of garlic 2 onions cut in 1/4s and one 5 lb lake trout cut into 2x2 chunks salt to taste bring to boil 20 min dump on table and eat like a pig

Came across a trap while fishing last weekend. Lots of rusty crayfish in it. Thought that would be a good past time to trap a few and help rid the lake - for what its worth. I assume you can eat rusty crayfish - same as any? Or is there a difference between different types of crayfish? Any special way to cook and eat them?

Hold the damn phone! Crayfish pearls? Really cds? I think that I just found my next business opportunity.

Never heard of them.Where in the crayfish can they be found?

Do you have to cook them before you freeze them?

nick, yes yo can freeze them that way. I do it all the time. or you can vaccum seal them, with no water

any idea how to store these for eating? we're having a Cajun party next summer and i want to catch some for this. would i just put in a bag, fill with water, and freeze like i do fish fillets?

Are Crayfish safe to eat from all of Wisconsins waters? Don't they have high Mercury Levels?

This may sound stupid, but I catch them all the time in southern illinois in the middle of my buddies yard when it rains heavy. I don't know where they come from, but its the craziest thing I've ever seen. Went out one night to get some night crawlers only to see hundreds of crawdads and big mud leaches all over the place.

I grew up on the little chain of lakes just North and West of your place. We would trap a few times a summer. One thing you might want to consider is letting the little buggers sit in a bucket for a day or two, changing the water a few times, to let them clean themselves out before cooking them up. We had a big wash tub our mother wasn't too happy about lending to us for this. Often times we would sneak it. This really did improve the taste of the crayfish, tho. Straight up boiled with drawn butter.

probably too cold yet for good results

My first attempt didn't go so well this weekend. I didn't catch any. I sort of figured that may happen with the water temps being what they were up north (surface temp - 52 degrees). I had both traps set in about 4 feet of water on a sand bottom with fresh, dead bluegills in each. I explored a mid-lake bar yesterday and found that one edge that drops off into 9 feet of water has some fairly good-sized rocks in about 6 feet of water. I plan to try that next along with a rip rapped shoreline spot.