Using live crawfish as bait

[buckmastertexas]

I've tried them but never catch much on them. I use circle hooks for everything. Just hook them through the tail. They'll stay alive for a while.

When I was growing up I use to dip up a lot of crawfish for trotlining in the sabine river. I have to say that caught almost nothing on them. But what did catch the channel cats on was the ditch minnows I caught, string 2-3 on a #2 hook.

I know bass eat the crawfish because they regurgitate them up in the livewell, but how to use on the rod n reel I don't know.

[deadeye]

What the best way to catch crawfish?

[JonBoy]

I've slayed bass on crawfish. When I go visit family up north we always run through creeks turning over rocks catching crawfish and just have a field day catching fish.

To use, just run a hook through their tail and most of the time never make it to the bottom before being hit. It they do make it to the bottom they sometimes have a nasty habit of running under structure snagging you up.

[panhandlehunter]

What the best way to catch crawfish?

They sell them at all the grocery stores down here. Maybe I'm messing up using farm raised. I don't bass fish or really freshwater fish at all. I run jug lines and trot lines and was trying to find an easy bait, and they're readily available down here. We usually cast net shad and then cut them up. Very time consuming sometimes. But, never had luck with crawfish.

[nimrodajh]

EVERYTHING eats crawfish. In my experience however, "ditch bugs" the little blue ones in road ditches or making mounds in your yard, seem to work much better as live bait for some reason. I've tried the big red ones like we eat but haven't had much luck with them.

[JonBoy]

EVERYTHING eats crawfish. In my experience however, "ditch bugs" the little blue ones in road ditches or making mounds in your yard, seem to work much better as live bait for some reason. I've tried the big red ones like we eat but haven't had much luck with them.

I've had the same experience...the "wild caught" ones from creeks and rivers always work great but the one time I tried store bought crawfish nothing would touch 'em.

[GarGuy]

They are great blue cat and flat head bait. Big drum cant resist them either. Break the pinchers and hook him through the horn, right behind the eyes. Fish LOVE that head. If you tail hook them, lots of fish will jerk the head off and you will miss him.

[Landrover]

Best bait on earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[txnitro]

I use them a lot. I prefer to use a worm hook and attach them with a rubber band. They stay alive forever and I don't seem to miss as many hook sets that way. Also if you remove the large pincers that seems to help.

x2

[jetlee]

I had best success with the ones in the 1" to 2" range. Easier to handle too.

[steve corn]

We used to sein them from bar ditches on the sid of the road. Made great bait.

[SaltwaterSlick]

When I was a kid growin' up, we always kept an eye out for a good crawfish pond or road ditch. We'd seine 'em up and only keep the little white crawfish about an inch or two long. Never had any luck fishing with bigguns. We used them for drum fishing in the river or if we could get the real small ones, we'd go fishing for goggleye perch (rock bass), but really any fish will eat a little white crawfish. The big ol' red ones, not so much.

[double lung]

When I was a kid growin' up, we always kept an eye out for a good crawfish pond or road ditch. We'd seine 'em up and only keep the little white crawfish about an inch or two long. Never had any luck fishing with bigguns. We used them for drum fishing in the river or if we could get the real small ones, we'd go fishing for goggleye perch (rock bass), but really any fish will eat a little white crawfish. The big ol' red ones, not so much.

So would you pick a weekend to go fish if I was able to find some little white crawfish?

[SaltwaterSlick]

So would you pick a weekend to go fish if I was able to find some little white crawfish?

Mostly I just get to post to fishin' threads and think about how it was back when....

I always thought those little white crawfish would make good redfish and flounder bait tho.

[Grizz83]

I've never cut the claws. I dont think the fish really care.