crayfish are driving me mad! help.

[Phone]

All,

 

American crawfish or crayfish "crawdads" moult about a dozen times to reach adult size (in two years).

 

They are THE primary food source for carp where available. And, over here, the primary food source for otters.

 

I don't know of a fish, at least predatory fish, that doesn't eat crayfish.

 

Phone

 

Jack,

 

You will probably have your best luck popping something up. Be aware, crays can stand on their tails.

Edit: found this on first try:

Edited February 10, 2013 by Phone

[scott bradley]

You can get these nets to wrap your baits in they only really work affectively with boilies though I think never used them but might be worth investigating

[Old geezer]

Keep them and eat them........ no horse meat to be found there

[ayjay]

I always find it amazing that perch and chub eat crayfish, they're big crustaceans and i'd imagine have a very hard shell.

That's what the pharyngeal teeth are for, crunching things like crayfish.

 

It makes a nonsense of the "fish feel pain" debate. Would you crunch up a crab/lobster (scaled up crayfish) in your mouth complete with shell? Of course not, cos it would probably hurt at some point, but it doesn't bother the fish.

[jack1432]

Cheers for the feedback fellers:)

I'm hoping to get out next weekend so if I do I shell report back.

Edited February 10, 2013 by jack1432

[scott bradley]

Found that net stuff I was on about earlier its by fox and its called arma mesh

[Newt]

The chitin shell is a rigid, fixed size so in order to grow, crays have to get rid of the shell and move up to a larger size. Its the same process that gives us peeler crabs and for the same reason.

 

Larger perch take lures. Crays usually don't. Chub, I really dunno if they take lures or not. Never even seen one to the best of my knowledge.

[Vagabond]

That's what the pharyngeal teeth are for, crunching things like crayfish.

 

It makes a nonsense of the "fish feel pain" debate. Would you crunch up a crab/lobster (scaled up crayfish) in your mouth complete with shell? Of course not, cos it would probably hurt at some point, but it doesn't bother the fish.

 

Maybe not, but Daniel Quilp ("Old Curiosity Shop" by Charles Dickens) used to eat both prawns and boiled eggs with the shells still on - I thought that was just author's license until when fishing out of Malindi the boat crew offered us curried mahi-mahi (which we caught every day) and veg cooked on the boat for lunch (delicious) - in return we offered them our hotel packed lunches, and they ate the hard-boiled eggs shells an' all.

 

Daniel Quilp is my favourite Dickens villian. Crunching up egg-shells and prawns' chitinous armour has what used to be called "Class"

 

Back to chub's pharyngeal teeth. In the 1960s (blimey, that's around 50 years ago) we used to fish for chub on the Upper Gt Ouse with whole white-clawed crayfish (that was in the days before signal crays took over, and our native crayfish were numerous, and it was quite legal to use them - bear in mind it is illegal to use crays of either species as bait nowadays)

 

One morning I watched (very clear water) a huge chub engulf my cray. It looked easily twice as big as a five-pounder. I struck, the fish ran for a bulrush bed, I stopped it, turned it and after a few minutes tussle the fish seemed to tire. Reached for the net, got the fish's head round, and on the way to the net.

 

Then the chub opened it's mouth, and a mangled crayfish popped out. During the fight my only contact with the fish had been the grip it had on the crayfish and my #4 hook with its pharyngeal teeth. The hook was not masked as I always hooked the crayfish through the end of its tail, and had had several 5 pounders that way. It seemed the essence of misfortune that the hook did not catch a lip on the way out.

 

Never seen a chub anywhere near that size before or since. Fifty years later that loss still rankles. .

[Anderoo]

I can't figure out how to post the video on my phone, but look at catching the impossible trailer 9 at about 3.30 in - even small perch have no problems with good size crays!

[kirisute]

I can't figure out how to post the video on my phone, but look at catching the impossible trailer 9 at about 3.30 in - even small perch have no problems with good size crays!

its not the one your after but a small bass isn't far removed from a perch: