How to build a Fish/Crawfish trap!

[clarkshomestead]

Check out this trap i built. It works realy well. Build one and tell me what you think. Go to this link, then navigate to wild meat. http://www.freewebs.com/clarkshomestead/

[DV8]

pretty neat !! Also like the idea of rabbits for meat production !!!

[ol_hoot]

Nice website clarkshomestead
That fish trap should be on the how-to post here, that's useful info

[jjspirko]

Hey had to dig around to find the trap. Nice trap though you should link your post here strait to it though.

I can't improve it much but I do have a very low tech and easy way to set a lot of crayfish traps real fast. All you need is milk jugs, old small buckets or any thing like that and a shovel. You did a hole and bury the container flush to the base of the creek. Get some small rocks and put them around the container then put a big flat rock over the container. You can also bait the trap with some meat or fish which will serve to feed your crayfish until you return. I can set these in a about 10 minutes flat. They are nice for smaller creeks and streams, etc. With milk jugs of course you cut the top off them.

I got a pile of 1 gallon buckets for free one time so I use those and you can carry 10 inside themselves real easy. When the crayfish go under the rocks they just fall to the bottom and can't figure out how to escape, ain't much brains in that tiny head you know.

I like your site and I think cray/craw fish are a highly over looked food source in much of the country. When I was a teen we used to camp out fishing and we would just catch a few dozen and steam them in beer and water over the fire while we fished. None have ever tasted as good as those consumed on summer nights during the ignorant bliss of youth!

[clarkshomestead]

thanks guys and I will try the bucket idea JJ. Can you catch alot that way? I like to eat ten lbs. when I sit down. I spent a few years in southern Loisianna and fell in love with 40 lb. sacks and strawberry wine! Hard to find either here in Alabamy! But I made some strawberry wine that will be ready in September, maybe I can save a botle till the next march. lol

[jjspirko]

Well a lot is a relative term it really depends on two things

1. How many crawfish there are where you set the traps

2. How many traps you set

If there is a good population of them then yes this technique works very well. It is actually a survival technique I learned in the Army but I think plenty of kids in the country know it well. I don't really bother with it anymore met a new friend a few years back and he lives a bit east of me. Owns a few acres near a big lake in a swampy area. All I have to do is go out to his place from anytime spring to summer and take a flash light in the field at night and just pick em up.

The thing about what "works" is like any trapping/fishing/hunting technique it is more about the environment then anything else. The drop trap method I describe works best in very shallow streams were a box trap would not have many places to fully submerge or where leaving it will risk it being solen.

In deep water with a good population your trap will probably out fish even a half dozen of mine.

I used to run about 12 of these traps and over 24-48 hours I would get about 6 keepers in each or 6 x 12 = 72 keepers. That ain't 10 pounds but it ain't bad either.

I did some of my growing up in PA and no one thinks of Pennsylvania and crawfish in the same sentance but there are plenty up there. Most of the PA folks use them for smallmouth bass bate and they are DAMN good for it. This led me to a nice supply of them for eating though. There was this lake called Sweet Arrow Lake and the far side was rocky and had a big shallow flat.

At that lake to get crawfish (or crabs as they are called locally in central PA) there you just go anytime in the summer with a dip net and start flipping rocks. In an hour you can easily come up with 10-15 pound of them. Great fun too. When we when to get "bait" we could get 5-6 dozen with two guys in about 10 minutes.

So like I say it is like carpentry use the right tool for the right job. The key for you is find as many local sources as you can and try a variety of things. Another thing you could do is set up a "crawfish pond" if you have the space. Not for breeding just for say holding. A kiddie pool or any thing big enough with an aquarium pump would be all you need. I used to keep some around for bait in a big garbage can but if I wanted to keep a large amount I would get something with more floor space. If you did that you could "save up" fresh ones until you had enough for a good boil. Course you have to feed them, I used to just catch some creek chubs or what not on a pole and keep them in the freezer.

One last note if your stream/lake has some panfish, chubs, etc that will be your best bait for a trap. My grandad used to say the best bait comes from the same water you are fishing in. ;)