Crawfish Trapping

[bluebasser86]

We used to trap them with gallon milk jugs. Bury the jug up to the opening in the bottom with bait inside and a short piece of rope tied to the handle. They crawl into the jug to get the bait and can't get back out because of the smooth sides and inward sloping top of the jug. If they really try hard I'm sure they could swim up and out, but it would take some work. Used to catch lots of them that way and the "traps" were easy to come by. 

[bobby b.]

I trap them in the summer months below my slip tn 15 - 20 ft of water using a large trap that I bought from a local bait store. I use cheap can dog food with ice pick holes in it.  I found that the traps I bought from Walmart do not work but I don't know why (they are a bit smaller).  I have caught some huge ones and at times the trap is loaded.  Very tasty.

[bfishn]

I used to trap a lot of 'dads. The first really successful trap I had was a homemade one of 1/4" hardware cloth, tubular shape about 3ft long x 1ft diameter with entry cones in both ends. It had a sizable, hinged trap door about midway on the side for baiting and unloading. Found it at a flea market for $5. The builder had finished it nicely with galvanized sheet metal trim at all the raw edges and joints. After it got stolen I made more like it, with each successive one getting stolen at the rate of about two a year. Marked or not, if there's a telltale string or anything else visible it will get stolen.

1-1/2" round entries work well, and placement location is way more important than the type of bait. Run it at least daily, because if you get a mess they'll start eating each other after a few days.

[Smalls21]

a dead snake works really well too

[abkeenan]

Family has been trapping crawdads under our dock and in our slips for decades. For the longest time we used the round ones that broken down into two halves to open. They did a decent job. We currently have one that is larger and rectangular that my grandfather bought locally. Not sure where he got it but it does a better job at not only retaining the crawdads but also has a hanging bait holder in the center of the trap that does great. The crawdads seem to live longer in the trap as it doesn't get as overcrowded. The bait hanger also makes bait last 20x longer than when we used to just throw chicken bones, fish parts or other bait into the round traps. We actually use round unsliced bologna as it fits perfectly into the round bait hanger and it lasts FOREVER. Usually set out traps in 12-18 feet of water or so and you will get 95% of your crawdads at during the night. Good luck.

[abkeenan]

3 minutes ago, Smalls21 said:

a dead snake works really well too

These get caught in our traps with regularity. 

[Bushbeater]

I've seen the catches of huge craws from Table Rock but are there really enough large craws in LOZ to make it worthwhile to set traps?

[timinmo]

Paul, we have traps normally.  Don't know if we have any right now and do not work on Wednesdays. 

[vernon]

1 hour ago, Smalls21 said:

a dead snake works really well too

Noooooooooo!  That would mean you have to TOUCH it!

[vernon]

1 hour ago, abkeenan said:

These get caught in our traps with regularity. 

Again.  Noooooooooo!

This was sounding like a pretty cool deal up until the snake part.