some questions about Mudbugs!

[Thudpucker]

[cool] I watched my wife put down 5Lbs of Mudbugs! [shocked]I've been married to her for 17 years. [laugh]I'd never seen such behavior before.[sly] I ate one or two. I was careful to keep my fingers back when she was going for another one.[]
It made me think I'd better put out some Mudbug traps. We paid $15 for the Five pounds.[mad]

I've found traps. Pretty simple devices.
The big question is the Placing of the traps. Prospecting for mudbugs? Well I never thought I'd be doing that.

Our lake is shallow. 1 Foot to three feet deep. The old creek bed is much deeper, and wanders throught the lake.
So the questions:
Do the traps go in the current?
Traps in the Shallows?
In the weeds?
In the creek bed?
On the edge of the creek bed?

Tell me all you know about prospecting for these tasty little critters.[blush]
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[cat_man]

Hey Thudpucker, I assume that mudbugs means crayfish or crawdads. They can be really fun to catch with a hand line as well! Here in Utah you can have multiple lines out for them, as long as only 1 has a hook on it. All you have to do to bring in 1 after another in many lakes is to tie on a chicken bone -- that's right just tie it to the bone, and dip it into the water. The best time is at night, especially near rocky areas or areas with vegetation that offers cover to the crawdads. You can use a flashlight so you can watch them grab hold with their claws. Then just slowly pull them up and they won't let go until you have them out of the water, so just quickly swing them over above ground and drop them into your bucket. I've caught hundreds in just an hour or two doing this!

If you want to use the trap for them, just put a drumstick in the trap, and again it's best at night when they come out from their hiding places. The best place would be rocky areas like your stream bed, or shallow areas that border the deeper water, especially if the deeper water is rocky. They try to hide from hungry fishies during the day under rocks and in vegetation, then come out to feed at night. If there are few or no predator fish in your pond, then they may be much more active during the day as well. You can usually catch them any time, it's just better at night. I once caught one with my fishing pole in the middle of the day fishing a worm on the bottom for perch on a sandy bottom area! They really are lots of fun. Good luck in your prospecting!!
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[JapanRon]

Hey there cat_man,

Ya.... in Oklahoma them thar mudbugs are plains lobster! Before I could handle a fishing pole, I was the official crawdad catcher (50 yards from the house). Every fish caught by 'my' catch was MY fish! It was a muddy, dirty job but I didn't want to ruin the trip for my daddy! Besides, one-eyed 'Tommy John' was in the bunch! He really had one too!

JapanRon
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[lonehunter]

SET THEM IN THE ROCKY BOTTOM OF THE CREEK , THAT'S WERE YOU'LL GET THE MOST OF THEM . GOT A DAM IN THE AREA ? THATS A HOT SPOT FOR SOME BIG UN'S !![] AND , PUT YOUR TRAPS TO THE SIDE OF THE LAKE THE WIND IS BLOWING TO, NOT FROM , TO ! EVERY THING THAT FLOATS THAT THEY CAN EAT WILL END UP ON THAT SIDE FROM THE WIND .

TRY THEM IN SOME GUMBO , YEEE HAAA , NOW THAT'S EATING !!!
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[tubeN2]

We do have some good recipes on the recipe board. There are even some there for mudbugs, crawdads, crayfish.
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[Thudpucker]

[cool] Well, it's good to be back. We had lightening for a few days, so the PC gets unplugged, and I go into withdrawl's.

About the Mudbugs and the "Rocky stream beds" I am sorry to inform y'all that there aint a rock in the whole state of Louisiana!

I have found from several sources that Mudbugs are Vegetarians! Wow!
Why do they eat meat then?
It's because they eat anything! (Vegetarians?, I thought that was omnivours.)

The commercial guys use any kind of stuff for bait that gives off fluid and Odor. Making up the bait is part of the 'work load' . Wading the pond is the hard part of the work load. Dumping the traps is the hard part of the work load. Then there is the sorting, and storing.
They will store for days in a Burlap bag if you keep them cold and water them once in awhile.

The Commercial ponds are 18-24" Deep. The depth keeps the Wading birds from getting into your product. The chief marauders are Raccoons, Lampry eels and Water Moccasins. (Where the heck to lampry eels come from? Can they walk?)
The Commercial ponds are drained off slowly in the Hot months. Slowly so the Egg toters can burrow into the ground beneath the pond.
Then slowly refilled again in October. The young hatch as soon as the Egg toters get back up into the water.
The pickers start harvesting in November or December.
The Mesh size of the traps willallow the smaller ones to escape.

One pond owner told me of the Bull Dozer building a fish pond, near the mudbug ponds. The Dozer began plowing into Bugs down at the 4 foot level and on down to nearly 6 feet. Those bugs had burrowed thirty feet from the bottom of the Mudbug pond.

I bought a pillow case trap yesterday. I'll be trying it out sometime this week. If the Temp ever gets up a little. I'm guessing we will be using BBQ Chicken leftovers for bait this first try.

I'll let you know, if anything interesting comes up! By the way, thanks for the note on the Recipes. I'll see what my wife says to that.
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