Catching Crawfish?

any creek or river look for them in the rocks.  They come out of hiding right before dark.  They are easy to spot with a flashlight after dark.  The small ones make better bait than the big ones.  If you use the bigger ones, rip the claws off of them first.  Give me a more specific location of where you are at and I might have some more specific details of where to go.  I know there are tons of them below the Jamestown Res Dam.

Thanks.
I live in Bismarck

spiritwood lake north of jamestown go to sandy beach after dark flashlight and a five gallon bucket just walk around and shine in the water i used to catch hundreds of them there

I'll have to keep those places in mind.  I live in Jamestown.

get a little net and a flashlight and at night go out to the lake's shore by some rocks ; because at night they like to move shallower under some cover(under a rock), but what you want to do is move the rock slowly and they will just be sitting under the rock. when you go to net them out it behind them because they will shoot themselves backwards. it tough.

I use a minnow trap, square or tube type. Chicken livers or any spoiled meat works for bait, toss it out around rocks or other habitat., give it a couple days and check it. You can also look for signs of them in the mud along the shoreline, they leave those dirt mounds similar to earthworms or crawlers when the burrow into the mud.

I use to catch them to eat.  A place that we always went was Lake Van Oosting near Hensler.  Very large crayfish there.  Arroda Lakes near there also has a bunch.  The best way to catch them is to tie a smelt to a line with a weight so that it sits on the bottom.  Keep it out there for awhile and slowly real back in.  They usually stay attached so that you can pick them up out of the water and dump into a bucket.  Dark hours work best but you can catch them during the day at both of these lakes.  Trying to catch by hand is very difficult, even with a net.  I haven't found a place close to Bismarck to catch them but I'm sure they are around.  You need areas with rocks and vegitation.  You may find them in shallow areas of the Heart River and possibly that new dam north of Mandan.  One other place you may find them is in the upper, shallow stretch of Burnt Creek.  I don't know about access but you could launch a canoe at the boat landing.

Good luck.

Sportsman Said:
.  The small ones make better bait than the big ones.  If you use the bigger ones, rip the claws off of them first.

  Sportsman , Do  you  catch many  Walleyes on crawfish ?    I have never tried them but I cleaned  a couple Northerns from  metigoshe last summer that were full of them.   

rhino76 Said:
I'll have to keep those places in mind.  I live in Jamestown.

Why, you and bckhntr planning on expanding your culinary expertise?  I can see it now, the new Jamestown turf and surf.  Porcupine and crawdads. 

Allen Said:

Why, you and bckhntr planning on expanding your culinary expertise?  I can see it now, the new Jamestown turf and surf.  Porcupine and crawdads. 

Both are excellent eating.

Few years ago I was down at Tahoe and we caught a bunch and boiled them up. Good stuff, mini lobster! Not sure if i would eat them out of ND mudholes tho, maybe Sak. Heres my tip Ill share with you. Get some string or a fishing pole, attach a chunk of beef liver to it. Get a 5 gallon pail and put some rocks in the bottom, sink it near structure, wherever there are crayfish you want to catch. Clear water helps a lot, drop the liver to the bottom near the bucket. They crayfish will come out and grab it and start muching. lift them up slowly, move over the bucket and lower them in, then shake the liver and they will let go and fall into the bucket, they are not able to get out. This works much better than trying to lift them out of the water, which you CAN do but many will let go before you get them out.

I used to catch a lot in Hay Creek near Century Avenue...by hand, no net. distract them with the left hand and sneak up behind them and grab their midbody with the right hand...tricky but it can be done. a net is easier. The new riprap up Burnt Creek from the Hoge park boat ramp should hold some as well...

StevePike Said:

Allen Said:

Why, you and bckhntr planning on expanding your culinary expertise?  I can see it now, the new Jamestown turf and surf.  Porcupine and crawdads. 

Both are excellent eating.

Yes they are -- had the Louisana cajun style crawdads (or something like that) - weren't too bad. Out of all the people there, there were only a couple of us eating them. Should have called Rhino over to partake in them. He still  lived in Bismarck at the time.

Allen - never know what you'll get when we start cooking stuff up!

An interesting note:

Crawfish Daily and Possession limits are both 48. Not sure when this was implemented.

	Daily Limit	Possession Limit
Walleye, Sauger , Saugeye, or Combination*	5	10
Northern Pike	3	6
Trout	3	3
Salmon	5	10
Yellow Perch	20	80
Bluegill	20	80
Crappie	20	80
White Bass	20	80
Burbot (Ling)	10	20
Channel Catfish - East of ND Highway 1**	5	5
Channel Catfish - West of ND Highway 1	no limit	no limit
Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, or Combination	3	6
Muskellunge (pure or hybrid)	1	1
Paddlefish	See Paddlefish Snagging
Non-game Fish	no limit	no limit
Legal Live Baitfish	150	150
Smelt	5 gallons	5 gallons
Frogs	24	24
Salamanders	24	24
Crayfish	48	48

Wow, no limit on catfish and you can only have 150 minnows? Why do they give a rats azz how many minnows people have?

Salamanders 24 ??     why a limit on them ?   

People need to question the NDGF on some of these limits.  Public opinion drives many of their regulations.   Give them a call or drop them an email....let em know what you think.

go to heskett and lift the rocks that are barely under the water or even on shore next to the water. i was there fishin last week and seen bout 6 or 8 of them in like an hour

Gotta admit, I've never tried crawdads.  Fairly shocking given all the weird things I have eaten over the years. 

bckhntr, Waved at you the Friday before Easter as you were cruising east on 94.  Twice actually as we had to briefly pull off to arrange the kids and then sped by you again.  Kinda figured you didn't recognize my new set of wheels.

So that's who that was. I wondering who was waving at me. I spent a while trying to figure out who that could have been.   Gave me something to do, only had about a 8 hour drive ahead of me that day.

For some reason I thought someone would post on FBO about it.

Well here's me waving back at ya!