Crayfish

Here's how my friend made our crawdad trap. He took a rectangular length of chicken wire, and attached the ends to make a cylinder. He used bailing wire, but in a pinch you could use strong fishing line. Now, with another length of chicken wire, you need to cut triangles large enough to shape into cones that will fit on each end of the wire cylinder, wide end out, narrow end pointing into the cylinder. Cut the pointed tip of the cone to make an opening approx. the size of a Quarter/half dollar, or 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches diameter. Now attach your cones to the ends of the cylinder, both narrow ends of the cones pointing to the center of the trap. Now, lay your trap on it's side,(so it could roll), on the top of the rounded surface, cut a large square opening. Save the piece you cut out! Re-attach it on one side at each corner with wire. these are your hinges. on the opposite side, use a piece of wire for a "latch".

You now have a "trap door" to remove all the crawdads you've caught. To bait the trap, use fishing line, twine, or whatever you have to hang the bait to about the inside center of the trap. You can place leftover meat/grease scraps in a makeshift bag, or even hang it from a hook. The idea is for the Crawdads to "Smell" the bait, not grab it and eat it. It's an attractant only. Attach rope to each top end of the cylinder, and lower the trap into the water. For swift water, attach the other end of the rope to a tree or rock, etc. In calm water, you can attach the other end of the rope to a plastic jug, with lid on for a marker buoy. The crawdads will be attracted to the scent of the bait, crawl down the cones into the cylinder, and be trapped. We let the traps sit for about 3-4 hours before we checked them. On our trip, we averaged about 50 a night, and boy were they tasty!

You have to cook crawdads like lobster - you drop them into boiling water while still alive. This has something to do with toxins being released in their bodies after they die. I not sure of the specifics. I didn't want to test the theory, so any of the ones I found dead in the trap, I discarded. To keep them alive while we were getting the Dutch Oven of water to boil, we simply filled one of our coolers with lake water and dumped them in. Once the water boils, we would put seasoning in the water. They sell a packet of spices called "Cajun Crab Boil" that we would dump in, but we figured out its just garlic, onion, and cayenne pepper. So, once the seasonings get mixed in, keep the water at a slow rolling boil.

Grab 10 or 20 crawdads from your storage container, either with gloved hands or a colander (watch those pinchers!) Toss them into the water, let boil about 5 minutes or until they change color. Cooking time is approximate because they vary in size, but when they’re done, they will get lighter and pinker in color. When they’re done, lay them out on some cloth to dry and cool down a little. When their cool enough to handle, grab the 'dad by the middle, and break in half. Scoop out the meat from the tail (like lobster), and if the pinchers are big enough, snap them in half, and scoop out the meat. They're also great dipped in melted butter, or any number of sauces that you would use for shrimp or fish, although post pole shift, I’m sure just plain will be a treat!

Offered by Brent.