Trapping Big Signal Crayfish in the Pacific Northwest

Cool video. Looks like some great eating. We subscribed to your channel! Keep up the good work. (Mike)

Years ago in the mid 70's I was trapping crawdads in the Sacramento river. I had 3 bait shops and 3 Cajun Restaurants I would sell my catch to.... All of the little ones would go to the bait shops, while all of the big ones (and I got some almost the size of rock lobsters with tails 4'' x 1'' and big meaty claws) and those inbetween were dinner..... I had 2 lines with 20 traps set 20 feet apart on anchor rope, and a short line with 10 traps set 10 feet apart on a rope for tight spots and I would check them every 2 or 3 days.... My traps were a bit bigger than yours and were home made out of 1/4'' fence wire.... Same design as yours but about 2 foot long by 10 inch diameter and I would fill up the 4 foot wash tub in my boat every day I went out..... My customers loved me that summer but I had to give it up when I went off to college and even I got sick of FW Lobsters for every meal after a while but I had a freezer full of freshly cooked & peeled tails and claws that cut the food bill for my first semester of college.

I also live in the PNW, the last time I went crayfish fishing the limit was 122 per person. Dad owned a sportings good store and he saved the styrofoam buckets that bobbers came in. We would take those and wade out into the river which was just a little deeper then knee deep where we went and pick them up off the bottom. When our buckets were full we took them back to the low water bridge and dump them into our big ice chest which we filled with water. When we were done we would sort them out by size and throw the smaller ones back. After getting them home, cooked and cleaned we would pack them into half pound containers then freeze them. Some we kept out. My favorite was a crayfish, chanterelle mushrooms and mixed cheese omelet. Littering does spoil the fishing, I went back in there a couple of years ago and found a couple of car batteries dumped in the river, there was not a crawdad in sight, nor were there any fish. Managed to get the batteries out and hauled away, but have not been back since, hopefully the river has recovered there and down stream.

I build my own traps and use the chicken guts and neck left over from whole roasting chickens that come in a bag. The kind you might Beer Can or Rotisserie. I use them in small portioned ziplocked frozen portions. These go in the inside top hung bait cage. (no cans of food to buy or pack out later.) Any remainders I toss like you do. I return females and juveniles and only keep large males. My typical trap is about 3ft long and of similar design to your purchased ones, except home made with 1/2 inch galvanized wire mesh and ziptied together. Trap doors are identical and simply ziptied on to fit by cutting an opening and reattaching with the same ties. TO keep the trap door and suspended bait cages closed I use bread clips. Typical haul averages about 45-60 per trap per 48hr soak. Total cost per trap is about $2 finished. Bait is free, bread clips are free, and so are the Crayfish. No limit, no permit, no record, and only a suggested season right here in the NW. The best part is because they are fresh cool water animals, and not from the "Swamp" they are clean and sweet don't need purging like the Louisiana crayfish do. To cook I coil or steam in plain tap water, shock in ice water to chill. Peel and serve with fresh squeezed lemon juice and clarified melted butter for dipping.

Never hurts to remind viewers of best practices - good to hear!

Excellent presentation. Good info and entertaining.

This video was GREAT! I live in Stanwood WA and I have never gone crayfishing and this helped me so much.

Thank you for the video ! Definitely on my bucket list .

Great haul. I agree with you 100% about leaving the area how you found it, too, clean up if someone else has left litter.

Great Video,not too loud,No screaming or rotten music and very informative..👍👍two thumbs up!!

Lovely video, and you've got a nice fishing spot too. I live in Sweden and i love our crayfish (kräftor). I really like to know how you cook yours. Here is how we do it in the Swedish countryside: 1 kg Fresh, living crayfish 5 l Water 0,5 l Bavarian Lager or Porter 5 bits Raw cane sugar Coarse salt Dill flowers Bring all ingredients but the crayfish to boil. Boil 5 minutes. Remove dill flowers. Rinse the crayfish and put them, a couple at a time, in the boil. Add more dill flowers. Simmer 4 minutes, then rapidly cool. Store at < 3 Celsius 2-3 days, then serve with bread, strong cheese, swedish Västerbotten Cheese-pie, swedish nubbe (snaps), aquavit and dark lager.

This is awesome! I appriciate your conservation efforts. Cool video

Whoaaaa! Beautiful. Thanks for the video!

I Live in PNW too and remember my dad taking us to Lake Washington where he would dive for crayfish. Yummy!

Cool video. I also am from the northwest; about 40 miles south of canada. When I was young, we used to hand scoop them out of the lakes edge at night.

Awesome!! Blown away by this ⭐⭐⭐💯

this was a nice video to watch. Thanks for posting it.

Never had a crayfish, but they do look so good. Enjoyed your video and will keep watching

Love to hear/see more. I'm an Oregon transplant living in Baltimore md... keep it commin

Cool, brother! A very satisfying, chill video, no politics, and smoking a kind spliff. ☝️💚