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How to trap crayfish


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Right then, lets start at the beginning:     It sounds obvious, but you will need somewhere where there is actually a population of foreign crayfish, not english ones as they are heavily protecte

Had a go on a pond today to see if there was any about.Used some sprats for bait from Tesco, £1 worth was more than enough.I used 2 drop nets and caught every 10 mins.I will have them with some Pasta

Nothing doing on the crayfish front, but catching loads of eels and some reasonable sizes as well plenty of 2 and 3lb ers 

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Not sure about the white meat for bait thing. My brother-in-law is a registered fisherman in Scotland, fishes creels for lobsters and crab. It is ILLEGAL to use chicken or rabbit for bait as it makes the lobsters poisonous to eat (or at least that is the reason he told me he can't use them) - stinky salted mackerel are his bait and he relies on catching lobbies for their living.

 

It might be worth asking about the suitability of animal flesh for bait if you intend to eat them....fish bait would be fine I am sure. Tin of pilchards/ Although you are probably just as well using a fish caught in the river for bait - be a waste using a tin of pilchards!

 

I think we have them creeping in around here, but we still have the white claws, one of the last strongholds for them.

 

Who put those pictures up from the Mole, set at lunchtime? I can't remember - anyway, those green ones in your nets look like white claws to me. So be careful.

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I believe the reason that meat is/was illegal in creels dates back to ww2, to stop boats using human consumption meat . I don't know if it still applies.

Every fisherman has a different idea as to bait for lobsters and crabs, crabs are much fussier than lobsters and fresh bait is a must for them and we prefer fresh for lobster too, salted really is a last resort for us.

Incidentally, we caught a marine crayfish while tanglenetting this autumn, the first ever in our area, i will try and put a pic up.

This would be a welcome invader for us as we were offered £50.00 per kilo fot it, however we donted it to blue reef aquarium at tynemouth.

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Shamus, that is interesting and I can quite belive it. iain is a crofter - 5th generation on this holding - on Skye and bait is collected in summer and salted to last the winter when there is none to be caught. The winter gales means they often can't get out of the bay in the small boats they use (he is making a living from a 16-footer). We used to get crays off the south coast of Cornwall, that one you you caught has crawled a long way - with luck they have followed the water temperature. I have a very good friend in Seahouses, used to fish and was cox of the lifeboat. I get up there a couple of times a year......seatrout forays with Lord James, as an invite! I don't normally move in those circles. :victory:

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  • 4 weeks later...

we get a shopping basket like you get in tesco,tie a cooked chicken in the bottom and lower it in near a jetty or something.leave it a few hours then its barby time.

A cooked chicken ! sod that eat the cooked chicken and put in some road kill, I just shoot a pigeon or rabbit they work fantastic.
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Not sure about the white meat for bait thing. My brother-in-law is a registered fisherman in Scotland, fishes creels for lobsters and crab. It is ILLEGAL to use chicken or rabbit for bait as it makes the lobsters poisonous to eat (or at least that is the reason he told me he can't use them) - stinky salted mackerel are his bait and he relies on catching lobbies for their living.

 

It might be worth asking about the suitability of animal flesh for bait if you intend to eat them...

 

this was a talked about post over on the WSF, just to put everyones mind at rest, phoned and chatted with EA officials and its perfectly legal to use fowl or rabbit meat as a bait for crays or lobsters

did'nt ask about scotland, they are a weird lot up there :boogy:

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can anyone confirm that there are non native crayfish in northern ireland? I bought one of those traps off e bay mad notion had to have watched river cottage and went a bit mental. Its never been wet in five years. I have considered setting it for eels just for one for the pot.

 

its still a bit cold, but why not wait for it to warm up, then go on a walkabout, bit of rabbit as bait, long bit of rope on your net, and do some test drops, in different rivers/ponds/lakes etc

the trouble you'll find with hoping that someone will direct you to a spot, is a lot of people class "the spots" as a highly guarded secret,

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can anyone confirm that there are non native crayfish in northern ireland? I bought one of those traps off e bay mad notion had to have watched river cottage and went a bit mental. Its never been wet in five years. I have considered setting it for eels just for one for the pot.

 

ive done abit of googling on this and the answer was no there are no 'known' signals just the native ones which are protected!in one way im glad we dont have them here causing damage but they look delicious evenmore so when you look at the price of prawn/longuistines in the supermarket!

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