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.

Anyone know of crawfish infested lakes in the Iron River, MI area? Looking like I'll be spending more time up there this summer

We catch a lot of our cray fish for bait and do quite well over the summer. I know what you guys are saying about leaving traps out over night on lakes. Had 2 stolen last year. That had nothing to do with kids taking them as much as we set traps in an area that someone claimed as their own. After we moved them to another area we have had no problems. Also if you have problems with people takeing them, take them out at last light and get up at first light before most people are out of bed. We have yeilded couple hundrend dozen in a weekend using only 3 traps. Those kind of numbers come of the sides of shallow rock bars setting traps in 6-9ft of water. Using traps I have found though have yeild crayfish on the smaller side. If you never tried, and have a lake that has a healthy crayfish population, find a sandy shoreline and take a flashlight at night. I have spent many hours walking the shore catching them little buggers. Great fun for kids and you can find some bigger ones. Agreed that you dont need to find a rocky shore, but defanalty cant be a mucky bottom. As for bait any FRESH fish guts will work. The key is fresh or fresh frozen. Dont leave the guts sit in your traps for more than one day. I have also noted that if you use a "bait box" within your traps to hold your guts, they dont seem to do as well as just leting the guts free float within your traps. Im not sure on the legality of using a float that stays under the water. I wouldnt recommend using that. What happens if you wreck someones motor, or worse if someone would get hurt because they couldnt see a rope under the water. Just my two cents. Love eating them little buggers. Share on how you like them cooked. Me personally I just like them boiled with salt and fresh dill.

Walmart has cajun crawfish frozen love to eat it with some horsy sauce!

it's illegal to have live cray fish and fishing gear in your possession. so, if i have fishing poles leaning against a tree and i just empty my crayfish traps in a 5 gallon bucket on shore is this illegal? just wondering i will ask the dnr before i do this just seeking your thoughts.

Mmmm, crayfish are some tasty buggers aren't they. Looking forward to getting more this summer. We always just throw a bunch of veggies in a pot with some salt and seasoning and then dump in the crayfish.

Funny that you mention this-a couple summers ago we set traps all over Trout Lake for a couple months and made a series of videos we called the "The Undeadliest Catch" when we checked the traps everyday. Some funny stuff on there. I'll have to dig those movies up!

We used to catch em' on washers on string w/ a piece of bacon tied to the washer. Just toss the washer and bacon into a rocky river bank, let it sit five to ten minutes and retrieve the washer slowly (trying to lift not drag) and usually a half dozen crawdads will be hangin' on to that bacon for dear life. Great for the kids. If you know theres crawfish in the water you'll catch em'. And as always check the rules and regs!

Looking forward to the recipe also.Can you post here when it's in the other forum? The wife works with someone who lives on the Wi. River and they catch them by hand. I live on the Prairie River and see allot of them in there.Is there a recommended trap to use?

Thanks for the great idea of sinking the floats. I will do that. N.Pike, I'll post my Crawdad Sauce Picante recipe on the Cooking Forum early next week. I'm on my way out the door and up to the cabin. It's a great recipe but I hope you like spicy. Oooweee!

Do you live on the lake where you trap? Do people mess with your traps while they are unattended? My biggest worry about trapping somewhere besides the lake we're on is getting my traps stolen even if I have them identified per the DNR regulations. I saw plans on the internet to make an underwater floating rope harness that you catch with a grappling hook. Unless someone would snag it while fishing, you wouldn't know that it's there.