I just purchased a crawdad trap so I can catch some for catfish bait. Is it too early to catch them at Strawberry, and what works well for bait? Also, I will show my ignorance (again), how does one quickly kill a crawdad (I know it is illegal to remove them alive from where they are caught)?
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Don't give them all to the catfish. They are really good eating.
To kill them, place a sharp knife point at the junction where the head meets the body. There is a line there. Quickly slice through, seperating the head from the body. Some people twist the tail off but this is not wise. If it is not done just right, the body will poison itself. Disconnecting the head from the body with a knife is the best way as it severs it's ability to poison itself.
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ive had luck for crawdads putting a chicken carcass in and keeping it on the bottom. ive also used dog food and had good success. i think anything meaty will work for the dads- i believe the key is to just leave it for a long time.
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[cool]Kent, I'm not a crawdad expert, but have been out for them a few times, and have done well, and have talked with lots of others who have also done well for them over the years. While right now may not be the VERY BEST time for them (July, August and Sept have been best for me), you certainly could go up there right now and do well. What I have found that works best is RAW chicken legs (drumsticks, whatever you want to call them). Don't go for that skinless boneless crap-it won't work as well. Do you have the long trap, or the shorter one? If you have the shorter one, then one chicken leg will work placed right in the center, but if you have the longer trap, then you'd want to use two chicken legs, with one near each end (but not at the very end). Tie some rope or cord to it, and chuck it out at about 10 feet off shore, and tie your rope/cord to something (like a rock, stake, etc). Let it sit for at least an hour or so, and then check the trap. You are aloud up to 5 lines/traps in the water at one time.
As far as the "do not remove crawdads alive from the lake" thing, all you have to do is take them up to the cleaning station and remove their tails from the bodies, and then there is a vain that you want to remove, and you do this by grabbing the 5 little fin thingies that make up the end of the tail and you twist and pull all at the same time, and that nasty little vain thing comes right out. Then put the tails on ice in your cooler and head home for an awesome feast!! I usually shore fish with bait or lures while in between checking the 5 traps. The Soldier Creek side seems to be the best (as it has lots of rocky areas that have a lot of weed beds as well for perfect crawdad habitat), but you could try anywhere I guess. If you need recipe's, I have a good one, as I'm sure many others on this board do as well.
Good luck up there, and let us know how you did!
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Kent,
I have routinely caught Dads with traps. Its fun for the kids no doubt. But if you want to catch alot...fast... Go at night. I go to the Soldier Creek boat ramp. I can get more in a half hour than multiple traps can get in a day. Take your bait of choice, mine is white bass or perch, but chicken works too. Put the pieces about 10 feet apart in 6 inches of water. I walk back and forth between the two docks with a landing net. The big ones get caught, the medium and small ones get out through the larger holes. If you want them for bait use a net with smaller diameter holes. Two summers ago my brother and I went out to get a bunch for a family party. We literally FILLED a 64Qt cooler in 1 1/2 hrs. Took longer to properly tail and de-vein them than to catch them. This early in the season they generally don't have enough meat in their tail to eat.
I imagine if you call the DWR and ask them how to legally remove crayfish without "tailing" them, I'm sure they would tell you. Whole ones work best for me, they have more natural flavoring. If you go on an overnighter they will suffocate in a bucket of water overnight if you fill it to just above the crayfish. The world record LMB was caught on a whole crawdad out of Lake Casitas Ca. I'm sure the claws help to attract attention. I don't see a lot of tail only crayfish imitations used at bass tournaments. lol...
Good Luck, Randy
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[size 1][#0000ff]"The world record LMB was caught on a whole crawdad out of Lake Casitas Ca."[/#0000ff] Have I missed something recently? I was not aware of the world record being broken for LMB. The record as I know it dates back to 1932 in Georgia. If it has been broken can you send me a pic or news brief, I'd like to read up on it, thanks.[/size]
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I too cry foul on the breaking of the Perry record.
But you have it right on for the Dads. I use chicken backs. Ask at the bucher counter, they usally throw them away so there cheap. If no backs get the next cheapest chicken.
When you tail them you don,t have to pull out all 5 fins, only the center 3. Most of the spinal cord is connected to the middle fin but you have to get all 3 to get the spine to come out. If you only want them for bait then just yank out the middle fin and leave the vein.
They come right into the shore at night for some reason. You can just scoop them up with a net.
At night in late July/Aug you can fill 5 gal buckets in short order at night.
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Thanks for all of the replies. I won't be able to fish them fresh, so of necessity I will be freezing them. Would it be wise to put them in layers of salt overnight before freezing them?
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Be careful using perch and white bass meat at Strawberry. Perch can be used in many places, but not Strawberry. White bass can only be used in Utah Lake. Although I highly doubt that you will be checked on what bait you are using for crawdads, if you do get checked, you can be ticketed. I just don't want anyone to get in trouble.[crazy]
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PDS is right about the bait--those two species are not allowed on Strawberry, not even for crawdads.
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[url "http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/fishing/crayfish.html"]http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/fishing/crayfish.html[/url]
We've always had much better luck catching them than trapping them. Even sented powergrubs work.
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Sorry, my bad. I mean't California record..
Randy
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I have had good luck using baccon as crawdad bait.
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Hey i always use the bones and skins from kfc after we eat.[sly] The greasier the chicken the more scent is released.At least thats what always works for us and you get to eat the chicken
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I take my grandkids to Soldiercreek catching Dads, and I also take and bunch of scouts every Sept. I save the skin off any chicken we cook through the year. I just put the skin in baggies and put them in the freezer. The chicken skins are great. The kids catch a ton. Many more than we can ever use. The kids just love to catch them. You don't need to use good chicken. I have traps also but if I take kids they do it for you. I've also caught then on the boat ramp in the night. Happy dadding. flashyfish2
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[red][size 3]Man, you folks are making me hungry. Good to hear there are crawdads at Strawberry. We've had a good deal at the boat-in campgrounds at the Gorge. Didn't know it was illegal at the time, [crazy] but we would place our fish entrails from the days catch along the shoreline in the evening when we would come in and by bedtime we had our fill of the lil' lobsters just sending the kids out every 30-40 minutes with the net. We were just boiling them alive and then de-vein and shell them after they were cooked. We told the kids that they would scream when you put them in the boiling water but they were a delicacy if you could stand all of the screaming. A few years later my boys said "Dad, they don't really scream do they. It was just you and Ivan pulling our leg." I about busted a gut laughing. The best part of the deal is we cohabitated with a large colony of "camping house cats" - skunks. We had an understanding. We would leave them our offerings of fish entrails after we were done "dadding" and they would clean up all of the evidence of the illegal scumming by morning and leave our coolers alone. The night we found out you wern't supposed to use fish parts for bait and didn't leave anything out, one domesticated skunk walked through our camp while we were sitting around the campfire late at night and took a salmon right off the grill over the fire while it was cooking - incredible - and then after we went to bed got into our stuff and shared the rest of our cookies with his friends. [/size][/red]
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Kent, Another place to find a load of dads is in Grantsville reservoir. Last time I chased them there, we got more than I cared to clean. We snorkeld for them. We were grabbing at least two or three at a time. I was amazed to see how many there were.
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