Crayfish

[viney]

These irritating nasty little things are reeeeeaaaally getting on my nerves now! Every time i fish im plagued by them, i had to recast both my rods 5 times on a recent night fish before giving up! i also fished the brimpton stretch of the kennet this week and every time i cast i had a cray within minutes!

how do you avoid them? also do you think enough is being done to combat them?

i have another trip to said venue planned for next week so any tips for avoiding crays would be appreciated :-)

 

matt

[Steve Walker]

The only way to eradicate them would be to poison everything in the river - not going to happen!

 

Fishing in the winter avoids them to some extent. They are much less of a nuisance float fishing than legering. I've been wondering whether fake baits would deter them.

 

I would just chuck the buggers in a bucket and take them home for tea - won't make the tiniest dent in their populations, but a little compensation for the nuisance!

[Anderoo]

Ah, that evocative sound of fishing the rivers - the crunch of crayfish underfoot

 

There's nothing you can do to get rid of them, they're here to stay now. On my local rivers it's impossible to leger in the warmer months, the buggers are everywhere. They slow right down after the first frosts. Until then I would follow Steve's advice and float fish.

 

They're quite handy when fishing for chub and perch in the colder months. If they are a real menace, odds on it's going to be a grueller. If they are mostly leaving you alone, it's likely they on edge because the big old warriors are mooching about...

[John S]

you could apply for a licence from the EA, get a few traps and eat the buggers - I'm sure a few of us (me included) will help with recipes should you need them

[Rusty]

Trapping will provide you with a nice dinner but won't help get rid of them. Brimpton and other NAA stretches of the Kennet are trapped commercially and have been for a while (all with the club’s consent). It’s having no impact on numbers. All you can do is use hard baits and brass it out or trot during the warmer months. In winter it’ll be less of a problem.

 

Recently though I’ve experienced both extremes when fishing lobs in slack water. On one occasion it was impossible to fish because of the signals, the next day in the same swim they weren’t there.

[davedave]

How do you know it is crayfish and not, say small roach or eels? Do you actually strike and they are on your bait or do you just assume?? I dont know because i have never had this problem that i am aware of, but i rarely fish rivers and stick more to canals, ponds and lakes. Cheers

[Steve Walker]

How do you know it is crayfish and not, say small roach or eels?

 

Ever fished for crabs with a crab line? Like that!

[Bigfishy]

The only way to eradicate them would be to poison everything in the river - not going to happen!

 

Fishing in the winter avoids them to some extent. They are much less of a nuisance float fishing than legering. I've been wondering whether fake baits would deter them.

 

I would just chuck the buggers in a bucket and take them home for tea - won't make the tiniest dent in their populations, but a little compensation for the nuisance!

 

Well given that I have caught Cray's on Pike plugs I very much doubt it!

[Steve Walker]

That's not promising - maybe wouldn't take a static fake bait, though (or at least, couldn't steal it).

[jack1432]

I sometimes fish a small stretch of the river blythe in coleshill there is 4ft of water and 3ft of crayfish. when the baliff came round he said that he put out 15 traps in a 1 mile stretch of the blythe(the small stretch is 2 and a half miles long) and he caught 550 crayfish in 1 day.