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Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Ice Fishing Live Baits and Plastics => Topic started by: adipose on Mar 02, 2006, 11:06 AM

Title: trapping crayfish?
Post by: adipose on Mar 02, 2006, 11:06 AM
does anyone know how to trap crayfish to use as bait?
Title: Re: trapping crayfish?
Post by: BillP on Mar 02, 2006, 05:30 PM
probably use a minnow trap
Title: Re: trapping crayfish?
Post by: ice yeti on Mar 15, 2006, 09:12 PM
try a minnow trap and bait it with some kind of meat or try taking some coffee cans, pinch them almost closed, and leave them on the bottom over night check em in the morning
Title: Re: trapping crayfish?
Post by: fishingking on Mar 17, 2006, 10:37 PM
Use a wire minnow trap (Do not buy or use a plastic coated trap, they are junk and do not trap squat)
bait the trap with chicken,
fish heads ( keep the heads from touching the sides, forces the crayfish to find a way inside or they will sit on the outside of trap and eat the food),
Tunafish can (stab holes in it),
cheap dogfood ( I know Dads works well, some other brands dont work at all),
catfood cans (stab small holes in the top so the smell leaks out)

Cabela's sells a square wire trap I have had minimal luck with it.

Frabill makes a black thread type saltwater Crab trap that works real well for the bigger crayfish. I have yet to find an online dealer who has them. I bought one while visiting Florida one year and havent been back since.


Make sure you leave the trap out overnight Crayfish love feeding at night.

or if you have kids send them down to the creek to flip over rocks and catch crayfish. :)
Title: Re: trapping crayfish?
Post by: pinche on Jun 30, 2006, 09:44 AM
If you have acess to a lake and a regular garden rake your in buisness. just rake the weeds up by the shore and sift through it with your hands you could get 5-6 a scoop
Title: Re: trapping crayfish?
Post by: bluecaddisfly on Sep 10, 2006, 05:21 AM
 if you have a couple minnow traps, try several brooks ordifferent sections of a brook. once you find a spot that has crays you should catch them consistently. i just use bread in an onion bag for bait. also, check small ponds near fields, look around the edges turning a few rocks over. if you see a few exscaping, tossin atrap.
Title: Re: trapping crayfish?
Post by: rob-s on Oct 14, 2006, 11:29 AM
i use chicken bones leftover from dinner inside a minnow trap. works great, cheep too
Title: Re: trapping crayfish?
Post by: Flash_King on Oct 16, 2006, 04:27 PM
Ditto on the chicken bones