Match The Hatch

[Guest]

I'm wanting to catch some crawdads for lure making purposes.

Custom painted crankbaits are nice but I want an exact color match.

I like to tie my own jig skirts so it would be very beneficial to "match the hatch"

I know a lot of streams have different colored crawdads in them.

Anyway, I've used these traps in the past with no success.

Where should I place them?? gravel bars & rapids, slack water pools, mud banks, etc ????

Whats the best bait for these traps??

Any ideas will help.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I'm not sure what kind of trap you're using but we used to use the nets with a tripod. We tied a piece of bacon in the middle. Worked like a charm, they liked it and couldn't get it loose to drag it away.

SIO3

[TroutFearMe]

Ah I remeber catching those clawed mudbugs growing up in the county, we just took a window screen out ( I hope my mom doesn't read this) and would remove it from the frame and fold it in half and staple the three open ends closed but would leave a little hole in the front and would just throw it in the stream with bacon in it.

[Kayser]

Use some form of meat inside one of those store-bought wire minnow traps. Plastic won't work as well, as the crawfish can't get a good footing on it. Use it in places with larger gravel (current hasn't been a factor for me) and let it sit overnight. Dead fish, bacon, and even punctured cans of dog and catfood work great for them.

Rob

[Al Agnew]

If you really want to "match the hatch", you gotta catch crawdads in the same places you plan to fish. If you usually fish lakes, but catch your crawdads from a stream, chances are that the ones you catch will be a different species (and a different color) from the ones that live where you fish! Maybe an easier way to do it would be to obtain the book, Crayfish of Missouri, from the MO Conservation Department. It has good color photos of all the MO species, and all you'd have to do would be to look at the descriptions of the range and habitat of each species, and pick the ones that appear to live where you fish.

[Predator1]

You got the right idea.....I moved up from Louisiana a few years ago to Springfield, Mo......I still enjoy crawfishing when I go back home to visit....Man.. Bass sure do love crawfish. We used to take the limb clippings and tied them up in a big bundle about 8 feet long and about 4 foot in diameter with some bricks tied to them and sink them off piers....Later we would catch a bunch of crawfish in traps, tripod nets and saines...we would then take a ice chest full of crawfish and dump them in the water over the brush pile...we would then go back 2 days later and catch the mess out of catfish and bass on plastic crawfish jigs around the brushpiles.

The best bait other than crawfish bait from Purina is none other than raw-bloody chicken wings.....

Call some bait stores in louisiana and they will more than likely ship you the tripod nets by the dozen....just tie the chicken wing to the center of the net....wait an hour or so come back with a 15 to 20 foot pole and lift the tripod net up and you should have some crawfish. The tripod nets work best in calm water.

Should you decide to build a crawfish trap... I recommend rabbit wire...same wire you use on the bottom of rabbit cages.

Build a 4' x 4' box about 1' tall. make sure only two ends are open. The two open ends are where you will build a ramp funneling in....the concept is so the crawfish can get in but can not get out...same principal as a whoop net for catfishing commercialy.

These traps can also be built in the round fashion with either one or each end with a funnel pointed inwards.....make sure you also have a bait bag in the center of the trap to hold the chicken wings in.

You can also GOOGLE..CRAWFISH TRAPS.......BASS PRO AND CABELAS now sells them for a reasonable price..plus they our vinyl coated to keep them from rusting..

I too use mostly crawfish jigs when bass fishing...they have never failed me once.....KEEP CATCHN THE BIG ONES

Charles E. Jackson

[taxidermist]

As for matching the hatch, when you start looking at bugs you will see like bass or trout they are in different colors, each one is individual, they will have somethings in common but close inspection really shows lots of color variation.

The best match I have found is to paint like a soft shelled bug.

If fishing creeks wear some white tennis shoes in the creek some reason??? Soft shells dads love them and will come to them.

[Trav]

I always found that the "Hands on" approach is better. Walk creeks and start turning over rocks. Then catch them by hand. Plus it is alot more fun. If you can get the kids involved, you will be surprised at how fast you can fill a 5 gallon bucket.

[WebFreeman]

I posted some plans for traps Pred1 describes on here a couple years ago. Still haven't built one, but do a search and you'll find them. I've read that fishy-flavor cat food is good bait. Poke some holes in the top of the can and set the can in middle of the trap. I think some traps even have some kind of holder to keep it from tipping.