[Closed] Crayfish trapping

A guy near me does it, I think he purges them in clean water for a couple of days before freezing them. The ones he catches are the signal crayfish which are the American pest species. He says they are good eating but I can't help you with any recipes.
Edit: he catches them in pots baited with meat or fish.

The American ones,are they the blue coloured ones? Saw lots of blue shell & remains on the river bank around Kettlewell.

Yeah, they have a sort of blu/grey shell. Till cooked then they go bright red!

Might be of some help [url= https://www.gov.uk/guidance/permission-to-trap-crayfish-eels-elvers-salmon-and-sea-trout ]Gov.uk[/url]

Some of the water courses I work in are full of the bloody things, very aggressive as well. I was told rotten banana is a good bait for them.

I know the bits of the law etc and the tickets I need.... Just wanted some real world advice....

Used to live in Australia and knew a few people that would catch yabbies. They used to use traps like a small wire cage to catch them. For bait they would use any type of meat to attract the yabbies, even knew one guy that used a small tin of cat food in the trap!
Cooking was easy, de-shell the yabby, clean them, marinade for a few hours and bbq.

I thought signals were red...?

Always wanted to do some trapping but they've not been recorded in the nearby river.

We were catching crayfish this week in Wharfedale, they are mostly signals and are red with a blue/white spot near the pincers but believe they can be blue/grey as well. I've seen them from Kettlewell to Burnsall and Linton/Grassington.

Not for eating though, we popped them in a bucket then released.

Check out MCQ Bushcraft YouTube channel - Mike is awesome at all things Bushcraft - afair bit of crayfish content including trapping the legality and cooking .. Just subscribe anyway if your interested in anything Bushcraft related ..

I know of the McQ channel... Keep meaning to email him and see if he will review one of my knives....

You can make a good trap out of an old bike wheel from what I recall

Edit: Grauniad's Eco George shows you how

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/gallery/2009/sep/30/george-monbiot-crayfish

A drop net then....

Just dont catch the wrong ones
http://www.fishnewseu.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3255:crayfish-confusion-costs-conservationist-p4k&catid=44:uk&Itemid=162

Matt Brazier, Fisheries Team Leader at the Environment Agency said: “We need to protect our native crayfish populations, and managing trapping is a vital way to achieve this.

“The media have raised the profile of signal crayfish as ‘food for free’, and highlighted the need to protect native white clawed crayfish from signal crayfish. However, as this case demonstrates this can do more harm than good. The public perception is often that trapping of signal crayfish is benefiting the environment. In reality the risks this activity brings can outweigh the benefits. Legal trapping is permitted in some areas, but it is not a sustainable means of addressing the problems caused by non-native crayfish.”

“Signal crayfish have spread so rapidly as a direct result of deliberate and accidental introductions by man. Promotion of signal crayfish as a food source can lead to an increase in this activity. Unregulated trapping also increases the risks of spread of crayfish plague, risks to otters and other wildlife through the use of inappropriate traps, in which they can drown, and as we see here, accidental trapping of our native crayfish species.”

I would encourage anyone considering trapping crayfish to contact our National Fisheries Permitting Team for advice on 01480 483968.?

Tons of the bloody things in the river at the bottom of the OH's garden.
Wire mesh rolled into a tube, "entrance" of an inverted cone, gate in the side.
Bucket with a slow running hose for 24hrs after (with a mesh lid)

Not for eating though, we popped them in a bucket then released.

We used to just catch them in the river. Bit of bacon or similar on string/hook and a simple net on a stick to get them out, bucket. Leave them in fresh water for a few hours to clean themselves out. BBQ, bit of butter/lemon.

As above horrible invasive species released by muppets which have killed all the local species and are destabilising river banks.

The last thing you should be doing is putting the bloody things back into the water!

Was about to say just this...

Also their reaction to being caught is to release eggs so you must dispose of any water you keep them in... Err, I don't know how actually. Probably best down the loo so it goes to treatment.

Also their reaction to being caught is to release eggs so you must dispose of any water you keep them in...

Hencecwhy catching them at all is daft. You just risk spreading them more.

we use bacon on a string ... they love that stuff..

+1 for bacon on a string, they live for it and won't let go!

Pierced cat food tin is what we used when I worked for a river restoration company (when not digging them out the river bank). If selling them to pubs was legit, we would probably have filled 2 bins per week easily. If we did that.

🙂

Ummm, it seems I might have put STW.com on the authorities' radar. I can't get a link to the doc, but if you do this search and open the pdf, go to page 22...

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Can't offer any advice on how to catch them but I've thought for years the way to control Signal Crays is to put them on the menu. We've been quite successful at eating other species into extinction.