Today at sportsmans Warehouse I was reading there reports board it said ROCKPORT has had good fishing for both bass and trout has anyone been out there fishing from Shore in the last week or so If so is there any truth to this? Also I would like to go get some crawdads sometime this year is there a particular season anyone would recomend being summer, fall, or spring And what would the closest place to the SL valley to go ahead and get them? Any help is appreciated thank you.
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Not sure about rock port but can give you some advise about crawdads. All summer and well into fall is the best time for crawdads. The best lake that is closest that I know of is strawberry. Just start after them right at dark and you can get about two full five gallon buckets in about 2 hours. If someone knows about somthing closer chim in.
Let me know if you need help with technic for fishing for crawdads.
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The berry is the best place to go, get a few minnow traps and put a piece of chicken in each one and put them about 100' apart and start fishing waite about 4 hours and pull them in...
Each trap should have about 75 to 100 in it if you get the right place, you can get them all day and night this way up there...
If you need to find the right place PM me...
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Even more fun is to get bag of the cheapest chicken (backs or Necks). and tie each one to a 20' piece of string. Poke a hole in the chicken with a knife and tie each piece of chicken securely to the string. Throw it out and repeat for 6 or so strings.
Slowly pull the 1st string in and see whats attached. I place a long handled, small mesh net in the water and king of steer the chicken over to it while holding the string high, then scoop up the whole bunch.
If you pull the chicken out of the water, they let go. If you drag them through the weeds and gravel, they let go.
Strawberry is he place to go. There is nothing like it. Find any rocky spot and throw out your bait.
I have heard East canyon has not as many or as big and Settelement Canyon near Toole.
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Not to sure about the crayfish but the trout fishing is so so we fished the shore near the 3rd bathroom stop a few weekends ago caught a few nice sized rainbows and even a few smaller bass. Dont know the exact size but the trout breaking our 4lb leaders as they were coming into shore. We used a good old texas rig with a worm but the water get a bit muddy around 10 or 11
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[font "Times New Roman"]I was up at the Berry last week on a crawdad hunt. We were scuba diving the Haws point area. You would not believe how many of those critters are on the bottom of that lake. I literally saw thousands of them while diving. We managed to catch a few pots full and had a great beach side lunch. All you need is chicken and a net and you will have your fill in no time. [/font]
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O.K. never tried it, How do you cook the little suckers and what do they taste like? (chicken) there so small any meat to them?[
] Is it worth the time?
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You cook em like any other crustacean. If you are bringing them home, you have to take the tails off and put them on ice at the lake. Grasp the critter behind the claws, grab the tail behind the legs, then twist to separate the tail and body. Fan the tail and grab the MIDDLE section, twist and pull to remove the "vein" ( intestine). Put on ice.
When ready to cook, have a large pot of water, about 1 gal per lb of tails. Season the water with salt, pepper ( red, black, etc), Crab boil is good, onions, garlic, lemon(s), what ever you would use for shrimp, crabs, etc. Bring the water to a rolling boil and add the tails, less the ice. Increase the heat to keep the water boiling when the tails go in and boil them for 5-7 minutes. Dump on a table covered with newpaper, drawn butter and go to it.
If you are doing this on the lake, you can add potatoes and corn on the cob to the boiling water, cook till almost done, then add the tails. Drain and dump, EAT !! You can also chunk some of your trout and add them to the mix for a fish boil. The trout will take a bit longer, 7-10 minutes, so be sure to add them before the tails.
A gas burner is ideal for this. Most Turkey Fryers have a basket with the pot for this type of cooking, so you can use your Turkey fryer for this.
REMEMBER, YOU CANNOT TRANSPORT LIVE, WHOLE CRAWDADS FROM THE LAKE. So if you want to do the whole critter and suck heads, you have to do that on site or put everything on ice. They are very perishable and delicate, so bring lots of ice if transporting home.
You can also take the tail meat out of the shell raw and saute in garlic butter like shrimp. Great in alfredo sauce on pasta.
Dad's tast like shrimp. Average tail will be the size of medium shrimp ( 40-60 size). Fun to catch, great to eat !!!
theripist is right but he left out the purging part. You need to purge the mud and the gunk out first or they might not taste as good. There are two ways to do this first is put the LIVE crawfish in a bucket of ice water and let them sit for about 10-15 minuts then dump the water and rinse (you can use lake water) you will be suprised at how much mud will be in the bottom of the bucket. Repete these steps until the water no longer gets muddy. The second way is salt water just use the same steps as above but instead of ice just pour some salt in the water.
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WOW Thanks guys[
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I think I will try this sport next time I go.and I love Shrimp!
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[pirate] dude you just made me hungry.
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Ooops, sorry about that !!! Thanks for catching that part !!
My daughter and I just had some crawdads that we caught last night for breakfast today. Perfect timing. I was fun to see her try and pick them up.
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Man, that brings back some great memories of living on the Gulf coast as a kid. Thanks for all the help guys. I think I'm going to try and have a crawdad boil soon.
by the way, for me, Zatarains Crab Boil is the best way to spice them up.
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Oh and the bass are small most are under 10"...
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