Catching crawdads in Cowichan Lake

[Sea Ranger]

I'm going to be up at Cowichan Lake in November and was going to try catching crawdads in a prawn trap. Has anyone else ever tried that? I was thinking about using chicken or should I use some herring that I caught this year? I was going to put the trap in about 20 feet of water close to shore, probably near a creek mouth. I have never tried this before and don't know if its the right thing to do. And if I do catch some should I cut the tails off when they are fresh and then just boil the tails like they were crabs? Just how tasty are crwdads?..... little bit of butter, little bit of garlic..... sounds good to me but I don't know for sure.... anybody got any ideas?..... Steve.

 

[alley cat]

Better luck looking for them in the creeks themselves , and you are going to have to catch a pile they are not that big , used catch in the upper reaches of the Koksilah as a kid , never looked for them in the Cowichan though .

AL

 

[nitnat_junkie]

used fish heads in the past to attract them, but herring will work just as well, you could drop your trape anywhere and catch them, that lake is loaded with them, but most are really small, you get the odd big one, alotta work for a little meat, but damn they are good

 

[Last Chance]

quote:Originally posted by alley cat

Better luck looking for them in the creeks themselves , and you are going to have to catch a pile they are not that big , used catch in the upper reaches of the Koksilah as a kid , never looked for them in the Cowichan though .

AL

I used to dive for them in the Cow, there are lots of them.

 

[alley cat]

Hey LC ; we used to go up to Burnt Bridge and dive in those deep holes up there for them , God that water was cold though !!
Where did you do your duck diving lower or upper Cowichan ?

Regards

AL

 

[yo mama]

This used to be my specialty in Glen Lake as a kid. I used hot dogs and they went crazy for them. Definitly like creeks/river more than the lake though.

 

[Last Chance]

quote:Originally posted by alley cat

Hey LC ; we used to go up to Burnt Bridge and dive in those deep holes up there for them , God that water was cold though !!
Where did you do your duck diving lower or upper Cowichan ?

Regards

AL

Used to dive for 'em at Paradise, and under the black bridge just upstream from the silver bridges. Pretty much anywhere deep and rocky, we jused to look for them poking out from under big rocks, and just bang on the bigger rock with a small one and out they would come. That's back when I could hold my breath LOL! Reeve's pool and marble falls on the Koksilah were also good, but Marble Falls pool was very deep. And just upstream from Skutz on one of the outer corners there was a little pool that had them. If you could trap them, it sounds a hell of a lot easier.

Was watching Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe went out with a commercial crawdad fisherman, they just threw a chicken mesh bag full of bait in the water, tied it to a tree, and checked it every day. No trap with doors and mesh as we would think of it, the mesh looked like it would let them in and out slowly, but when you pulled it quick, they would be stuck there. Pretty much just standard chicken wire. Guess someone needs to stick some bait in a trap and see how well it works.

 

[Lipripper]

At a trout farm work at we hang one of the 12ft square, 1/2inch net pen covers off one of the pens an a dead trout or 2 and they climb all over it. we just pull it and they are everywhere. would probably beat a traps as they seem to be pretty solitary or territorial critters