How to beat the Crayfish ?

[BREAMAGAIN]

My local river is full of Crayfish , bread,corn,maggot,worm are all fair game , without resorting to boilies can anyone think of a bait to beat this menace ?

[Guest Ferret1959]

If you are fishing hard on the bottom try a floating bait.

It might just stay out of the crays reach.

[BREAMAGAIN]

Good call , but it whips thru a bit smartish , hence nailing it down in the first place ! Maybe a crayfish as bait ?????

[teejay]

Good call , but it whips thru a bit smartish , hence nailing it down in the first place ! Maybe a crayfish as bait ?????

 

 

Unfortunately using crayfish as bait will result in you catching bigger crayfish - the big uns eat the little uns!

 

I seem to remember Keith Arthur saying that, to beat the crayfish in the Grand Union, he ties a cat food tin to a piece of rope, punctures the tin in various places, and slings it in far enough from the part of the swim he is fishing to attract the crays away. If your local river is whipping through smartish that probably won't work though..

[corydoras]

Catch and eat all the crayfish?

[Newt]

I think Gaffer posted a review several years ago about a boilie-like bait made by Berkley that was really rubbery so that crays could not ruin it but other fish could easily take it. It occurs that maybe cutting those into pieces might give you baits that would survive the attentions of a cray.

 

I don't remember details but you can probably locate the review.

[BREAMAGAIN]

Trouble with these Crayfish (and I'm sure they're all the same!) is a tough bait they'll just sit on knawing away at it for ages and if you try coming up in the water they seem to have sussed that out as well , twice I've seen them climb on to pads on the surface !!!!!

[Newt]

This particular bait appears to be almost completely resistant to their attentions. Gaffer said that after a few hours on the bottom in high cray population water, the little boilie showed almost no signs of damage whereas every other thing he tried other than a plastic cage was destroyed in a fairly short time.

[medwaygreen]

Try and glug your bait with rosehip this may help.

 

[Steve Burke]

I've only once fished such a venue so can't give advice backed by any real experience. I did catch crayfish early that trip, but then baited up a different swim with maggots and chopped worm. I returned quite a bit later and immediately caught a big perch. Of course it might already have been there, but if it wasn't I'm sure the crayfish would have made themselves scarce on its arrival!

 

You could in fact perhaps bait up several swims and fish them in rotation. If crayfish aren't present it could well mean that fish are.

 

Depending on the species you're after, lures (including plastic worms) might be a good bet. Alternatively something like rubber corn could be a winner.