Any Crayfish Trappers Out There??

[protrapper]

Anyone out there trap these guys? I love making coon, otter, and mink bait out of these guys. We got lots up here. Got eating too. Care to share tips and tricks? What traps you like best?

[walleyefisher0990]

we trap crayfish all of the time on vermilion. it can be alot of fun, although we dont use them for bait, we eat em! The trap we used my grandpa made so im not sure how to describe it. its kind of like a minnow trap. normally we just fill it with any leftover meat from dinner. Bring it out to a spot normally 8-15 ft. and let it sit over night. if all went right when we pick it up in the morning the trap is full of the little buggers. hope this helps.

[protrapper]

I was looking at some new traps online, there sure is a variety. I didn't know it was so popular. I like fish heads and guts for bait, usally hang them from a stiff wire. Set my traps in about three to five feeet of water.

[Cheif Catchemall]

New reality show comming "Deadliest Catch Minnesota". i too trap and eat them on a lake north of Aitkin. We have always just boiled them. Anyone have any other ways they like to eat them?

[protrapper]

That show on the Discovery Channel is so cool. I have family in Alaska anda cousin of mine worked on a slamon boat one fall, said it was just a unreal experience.

[fishermann222]

when those guys fish for ophelio crabs you can see the island I live on, it is just to the southeast of where they fish. When they are fishing king crab my island is just to the north of them, right off the map. Seas out here get quite large. I may work on a commercial halibut boat this summer with some natives on the island, a 28ft aluminum boat, I will take pics so you guys can see the seas we are out in

[BLACKJACK]

So curious minds would like to know, how long do you boil them? Any prep before boiling(alive I presume)? Any additives like salt in the water? How many does it take to make a meal? Do you throw out the small ones? Do you just eat the tail, like on a lobster? Dipped in melted butter? I set my minnow trap last night, I usually end up with a few, I may try and boil some... If they're good, I may throw something dead in the trap and target some crayfish. Its one of those traps that the minnows swim in from both ends but can't get out.

Let me know how you cook and eat them.

[Bobb-o]

they are delicious, my uncle used to have a lot on mille lacs and we would go out at night with spotlights along the shorelines and you could fill a cooler in no time with them, we would just boil them whole, and when they were done (dont really remember how to tell when they were done) we would eat the muscle that was under the tail, have heard that some people also suck out what is in the heads, but that seemed a little gross for me to try.

[mfreeman451]

I use to trap for creek chubs and would end up getting a lot of them in my trap - just hard bread crust

[smg04]

blackjack, first thing u wanna do is put them in a bucket of cold saltwater and they will pass all there bowls, kinda gross but better than eating it, then u just toss'em in a pot of boiling water for 5-10 min dosnt take long, ull know there done when they turn a darkish red just like lobster, let them cool a bit then pull the tail off and dig the meat out of the tail with one of those tiny lobster forks, toothpicks will work as well, then dip them in melted butter, and enjoy, u could also batter and deepfry the meat kinda like popcorn chickin or shrimp,as far as how many to make a meal i guess that depends on how hungry u are, ive never really got full on them just kinda eat them when camping for a snack, but if u ever see them southern boys eat them down in new oleans and such, those boys dont screw around, if u order "crawdads" in a resterant down there u'll probly get a large platter with around 5- 10 lbs of those suckers, ive never been down there but sure looks yummy on tv!

[bigyooper]

does any body know of a spot in the duluth area where you can trap some good clean crawdads?

[caseymcq]

I don't know a spot in Duluth but if you guys want to trap them out of Vermillion (and keep trapping them out of Vermillion, walleyefisher0909) that would be great. There are enough of them to feed a small third-world country.

[treble]

A few years back we used to catch them with our fishing rods. We just put a small (1/2 in.) chunk of raw hot dog on our hook and it literally took seconds for one to grab on to it. Then just pulled them out of the water and dropped them in the bucket. Didnt hook them or anything they would just hold on to the hot dog usually long enough to get them into the bucket. We caught all of these in an extremely small pond so we could see all of them when we were fishing for them so I'm not sure if this will help you out any, but if you do have the opportunity to do this it makes for a fun afternoon of crawfishin. Have a good one

[ocf]

catching these boogers by hand is an experience, my friend got one that didnt let go so i had to get my pocket knife and cut it off gosh those thing can hurt