American Signal Crayfish Invasion

[cannibalspinners]

Intresting stuff , Especially the Predator film bit , Me being such an Arnie fan too ,Oh well every day's a school day

[JV44]

Once they take hold in an area that suits them then goodbye to static bait fishing as Chris said ,This is one traps worth from the kennet

 

I know of 2 Lakes right next to the kennet that are deep hard bottomed and clear that they don`t seem to like,at least never been bothered deadbaiting one of them for the better part of 20 years and only ten yards from the river

[Amodoro]

Their burrowing activities have been blamed for increased turbidity in some of my local rivers, also causing increased bank erosion. They eat the eggs and fry of native fish causing a reduction in recruitment and leading to fewer, but bigger fish.

They do provide a food source for chub, perch, barbel, trout etc. but in my experience only the smaller ones (thumb-sized) are taken.

They are very easy to catch (a piece of bacon on a string is enough) but you need loads to make a meal as each one yields very little meat due to their having relatively small tails compared to other crayfish. There's more meat in the claws.

[JV44]

They are a lot of faffing around to cook and shell for sure but there is more meat in the tail than a claw... but having said that I prefer the claw meat ,Double edged sword I guess the fish get bigger feasting on them but they eat eggs /bank erosion issues .

Never going to get ridd of unless they poison the whole river methinks

[barbelbarmy]

Lovely looking dog!

[cannibalspinners]

There was talk if they ever got in to the Tweed system , that they would posion the whole catchment area ,But surely that can't be true ,can it ?

Then again Salmon fishing is all they care about on the Tweed ,

[Tigger]

Crayfish are a favourite food of Otters... maybe there should be a massive otter breeding programme... feed them on nothing but crayfish then release them into the areas badly infested with crayfish...

[philocalist]

Surprised that you say they are 'on your doorstep', that being the Tweed, which is quite a distance north of me - if they ARE up there (rather than a bit of simple scare-mongering), they must have done so by by-passing the rivers Tees, Wear and Tyne in the process, not to mention quite a large number of smaller, lesser known rivers! The only mention we've had locally was a little while back when their presence was suspected - possibly - in a very minor water north of the Tyne - so minor in fact that it was being mooted (by he EA, no less) whether 'treating' the stream in question, to kill them off, was a viable option, and for the greater good ... then no more was heard!

[lutra]

Surprised that you say they are 'on your doorstep', that being the Tweed, which is quite a distance north of me - if they ARE up there (rather than a bit of simple scare-mongering), they must have done so by by-passing the rivers Tees, Wear and Tyne in the process, not to mention quite a large number of smaller, lesser known rivers! The only mention we've had locally was a little while back when their presence was suspected - possibly - in a very minor water north of the Tyne - so minor in fact that it was being mooted (by he EA, no less) whether 'treating' the stream in question, to kill them off, was a viable option, and for the greater good ... then no more was heard!

Maybe its the westward doorstep thats under attack. I know Loch Ken in Dumfries Is/was full of them. Think they must have thumbed a lift up there, as they didn't walk passed this way either.

[Newt]

Actually, the best part of the signal cray is the goo in the head. After cooking, just pop the tail off and suck on the head. Yum.

 

For anyone fishing an area that has lots of crayfish, a soft plastic crayfish lure can be excellent for catching any fish (other than carp) that eat them and for fish other than Pike (that don't seem to operate much on smell) a bit of crayfish scent on the lure will increase your catch rate.