[Seldom Seen]

I like the idea of traps because I don't need to put in a lot of work to get a meal. Set the trap and let the critter do the work while I'm busy doing something else. I have a couple crawdad traps,but have found only one good bait. I've only really had luck with scrambled eggs,and they tend to disintegrate in fast moving creeks. Various meats didn't work too well for me. I've tried tuna fish,bits of spam and sausage. Bread didn't cut it at all nor did some extra dog food I tried once. Anyone know of anything else I could use?

[Kentigern]

I always used pieces of raw bacon - they seemed to love the stuff and it pretty much stays where you put it.

[Seldom Seen]

I'll give it a shot. What draws em in,bits of food escaping the trap or maybe the oils in the food make a scent in the water?

[sparkky]

seems like when I was a kid we used beef liver, but it's been "awhile" so I could be wrong.

[Crabapple Plum]

Hot dog chunks work pretty well.

The most crawdads I ever caught was sitting on a rock with my feet in the water wiggling my toes. I picked crawdads up with the weinie pinchers before they could pinch my toes.

[Libertarian]

I've used a semi-rotten chicken neck for crabs in the Chesapeke bay and estuaries. I would suspect that crayfish would be attrcted to it as well. It is a nice pungent piece of rot that drives the scavenger wild. I also caught a few catfish on my crab bait but since there was no hook, they slipped off before I could net them.

[Roger Thornhill]

Yup, anything dead and rotting will draw crawdads like flies at a picnic. I was hiking along a riverbank a few years ago, and saw a dead raccoon near the water's edge covered with crayfish. Must've been several hundred of them working on the carcass. One "good ole boy" at my rod and gun club picks up road kill and uses it for crawdad bait - toss that dead 'possum in the shallows and come back a day or two later.

The preceding explains why I won't eat crayfish/ crawdads/ mudbugs (whatever you want to call 'em) except in a survival situation -- they're carrion-eaters.

[Fartacus]

I thought crawdads were bait.







BTW, Roger Thornhill, "Brazil" is my favorite movie! "ereIamJH" :D

[Libertarian]

Roger, Chicken, shirmp, crabs and lobster all al carrion eaters. They are all delicious.

Brazil was a great movie, Fart. Not my favourite but very good.

[Fartacus]

Roger, Chicken, shirmp, crabs and lobster all al carrion eaters. They are all delicious.

"Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know 'cause I wouldn't eat the filthy motherf*cker."

Jules, "Pulp Fiction"

[blue gecko]

We've always used fish heads and trimmings...love them mudbugs! BG

[Seldom Seen]

Thanks for the advice guys. Hopefully I'll get more next time I set my traps. Crawdads are good eatin in my book. :)

[Mr_Larry]

I second the beef liver. It stays together and is easy to tie down to the trap. It also lasts forever.

[Libertarian]

I second the beef liver. It stays together and is easy to tie down to the trap. It also lasts forever.
Those are the exact reasons I went with chicken necks.

[MzJag]

We use melt. We call them crawfish, not crawdads here. We can literally go about a mile from my house and throw a cotton twine with a piece of melt on it into the water on the edge of the lake and catch crawfish all summer. :)

[blue gecko]

melt? Please forgive my ignorance but what is melt? I've used bacon in the same way with good success. Crawfish latch on and you slowly pull up the twine (fising line) when they get close to the surface you scoop under them with a net...if they get to the surface they'll let go.

[Seldom Seen]

Afraid I don't know what melt is either MzJag. Something you make?

[MzJag]

sorry it took me so long to check back on this thread. Melt is the spleen(Beef).

[GrayBear]

They will be a major and tasty protein source for me if TSHTF. You can remove and eat the tails and still use the heads and bodies for a great bait for trotlines.

Good advice above on solid meats, maybe a little ripe. Have had some luck with cheap cat food in cans punched in several places as a scent attractor plus liver, catfish bait, etc as a "holder." As for cleanliness, if you won't eat craws, I assume you won't dine on lobster or crab either? Catfish? Matter of fact, just about all aquatic life scavenges in part or as a major feeding activity.

GrayBear