crayfish (again)

[david t]

i see leon has brought up a interesting article on crayfish.

 

what do you all think about the impact of crayfish? i mean they have been in my local rivers for nearly a decade i think, i know they have produced bigger chub, and some hefty perch, but i dont see (in my area) that they have too much to the population of smaller fish, ie i still catch a fair number of small fish.

 

i notice old boys on the river bank, often seem to blame a crap day on the presence of crayfish, when i personally think it is there fishing that is at fault, i personally havent really had many situations where crayfish have ruined my fishing directly, i mean you get them in eddies etc in summer, but when i fish streamy water, i see no problems with them.

 

so what do you think of them, apart from tasting nice!

[Anderoo]

i see leon has brought up a interesting article on crayfish.

 

what do you all think about the impact of crayfish? i mean they have been in my local rivers for nearly a decade i think, i know they have produced bigger chub, and some hefty perch, but i dont see (in my area) that they have too much to the population of smaller fish, ie i still catch a fair number of small fish.

 

i notice old boys on the river bank, often seem to blame a crap day on the presence of crayfish, when i personally think it is there fishing that is at fault, i personally havent really had many situations where crayfish have ruined my fishing directly, i mean you get them in eddies etc in summer, but when i fish streamy water, i see no problems with them.

 

so what do you think of them, apart from tasting nice!

 

Talking to old boys on the Thames all I hear is tales of woe about crayfish - but, as you say, the story nearly always ends up with '...but there are some bloody great perch and chub around now.' I'll reserve judgement until the summer months, when they're apparently at their worst, but I am excited about the size of the fish in my local stretch. Quivertipping with maggots last autumn I was catching small roach, dace and chub one a chuck, so there are clearly loads of smaller stuff around too. Plus pike. It seems pretty healthy to me.

[Puzzled]

what do you all think about the impact of crayfish?

It has to be quite forceful to finish them off!

[Newt]

If you want to fish bottom baits, they can be an annoyance but that's about it. Some fish certainly do eat them and benefit from it.

 

The US signals have certainly done some major damage to local populations of the white claws but otherwise, I think it's about like many species in that a water will attain a balance after a time.

[Ken L]

No idea.

 

I keep on hearing tales of woe but despite reports of forigners in unidentified streams in the Wyre Forrest, I've get to see a Signal (or any other cray) in the Severn or any of it's tributaries.

 

Funny thing is that we used to catch loads of white claws in Sutton Park (Birmingham) when we were kids (30 years ago) and despite tickling more than a few trout out of the streams that run through the Wyre Forrest, we never came accross any crays of any species.

Maybe there is something about the water in the Severn and it's tributaries (Sheep dip ?) that doesn't suit the little perrishers.

[Vagabond]

30 to 40 years ago Dick Walker's stretch of the Gt Ouse was stuffed with (white-claw) crayfish.

 

Chevin and I had many a crayfish omlette from the river, and also used them (that's the crays themselves, not the omlettes ) as bait. There were big chub and perch there in those days too!

 

Competent anglers caught big fish there, but it was never an "easy" water, and lots of visitors blanked. Never heard anyone complain their lack of success was due to crayfish though - how Dick would have laughed at such a notion!

 

Certainly, these days signal crays can be a baitpinching nuisance, but my view FWIW is that if you start getting crayfish bites, then you are fishing in the wrong place !

Edited June 5, 2006 by Vagabond

[zenith10]

dont think theres any around here, never heard anyone talking of them, but dave will be able to tell you if there is or not

[david t]

i think the balance has been found, or it is near to that point in some rivers.

 

the same cant be said for cormorants, but thats another story, for another day!

[Newt]

Crays have lots of natural predators in UK waters.

 

Cormorants have very few (no?) predators in UK skies.

[Ken L]

I heared that lead hawks were taking a fair few - oftn accompanied by a loud bang or two.