american crayfish locations scotland

[forest_dweller]

hiya everyone,just signed up these great forums and wondering if anyone could tell me of any waters in west central scotland that have american signal crayfish that i could harvest.
no doubt our tastiest pest and i am desperate to catch some!
thanks folks!

 

[rorymax]

hiya everyone,just signed up these great forums and wondering if anyone could tell me of any waters in west central scotland that have american signal crayfish that i could harvest.
no doubt our tastiest pest and i am desperate to catch some!
thanks folks!

I hope that there are some replies to this post, I find it interesting to say the least.

Helping the environment by eating tasty things, I only assume they are tasty as I have not tried them yet.

Anyone tasted them, can you share a comment on cooking and taste?

rorymax

 

[Goatboy]

There are a few rivers about, but the authorities seem loath to give licenses at the moment! Go Figure. Though on the tastiness front, I'd personally vote for grey squirrel being a tastier invader! Just my opinion.

 

[santaman2000]

As someone who's eaten crawfish most of my life, I'd say taste depends on how you season them. Cooked alone, they're bland. Add the proper Cajun seasoning, and they're superb. They also have to be "purged" before cooking. You can accomplish this by placing them in clean, fresh, cool water deep enough to cover them and changing said water frequently for about a half hour before cooking.

For about 2 to 3 pounds of live crawdads, bring a couple of gallons of water to a rolling boil. Add 3 or for onions that have been halved, as well as about a cup to 3 cups of Cajun seasoning, a few lemons (halved) and several cloves of garlic. Next throw in 5 or six ears of corn on the cob, about a pound of potatoes (cut up with the peel still on) and let boil for about 20 minutes. Lastly add about a pound of smoked sausage (preferably Andouille, but any good smokes sausage will work) that has been sliced into bite sized pieces, and the crawdads themselves. Let boil for about five minutes, remove from the heat and pour in about a pound of ice, put the cover back on the pot and wait 20 minutes before serving.

This guy does it a little differently: http://youtu.be/rXb4qUoc1_M

He uses salt during the purge (it's unnecessary but that's the way some people do it) He also removes the potatoes, corn, etc. before cooking the crawfish; again this is unnecessary but it also works) Obviously he's cooking a much bigger batch (a sack of crawfish is about 36 pounds)

 

[redsalmon]

loch ken, dumfries

these things sound like bad news though, they might be strict on catching them becuase of possibility of spreading to other places ...

 

[mrostov]

I did a lookup and it seems they were imported in the 1970's for aquaculture and restaurants. One gets the impression that UK wildlife management is somewhat mental about them. What I found odd is that they are an admitted pest, doing ecological damage, but from what I saw they don't want people just harvesting them at will without licensing and regulation. In Texas for an invasive species like that the order of the day from wildlife management would be like, "Kill every single one that you can and don't stop."

They are tasty, you just need to catch several to make a meal.

Here on the Gulf Coast of Texas the newest invasive species that has some worried is the Asian tiger prawn. They escaped from aquaculture many years ago after a hurricane and have taken a while to make their way across the Gulf of Mexico to here. They are somewhat large for a shrimp, growing to a bit over 30cm in length. My opinion is that they won't become a problem if we eat all of them.

 

[Monikieman]

Was staying in a yurt in Glenshee the other weekend and the owner was speaking about catching them nearby. Said there were loads of them. Sorry can't be more specific.

 

[NS40]

Was staying in a yurt in Glenshee the other weekend and the owner was speaking about catching them nearby. Said there were loads of them. Sorry can't be more specific.

I know just the place you mean as I was there earlier this year. Great place to stay...hoping to head back later in the year.

 

[Toddy]

There are three problems with catching these beasties.

Firstly, they'll eat the eggs and young of our native crayfish, and traps will take them too.

Secondly, the incomers are also carriers for disease, a plague that kills our native crayfish, and that can be spread on uncleaned kit from watercourse to watercourse.

Thirdly, and this is important, they're cannibalistic with the older ones preying on the young. If you take out the big ones more of the young ones survive......so folks who harvest for the pot are actually encouraging the numbers of them.

That's why there's so much hassle about the licences, etc.,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_crayfish

If you do harvest please be aware of all of the above. The assorted environmental agencies really aren't out just to spoil your fun.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[mrostov]

From Wikipedia:

From 1907, crayfish plague, an infectious disease caused by the water mould Aphanomyces astaci, damaged stocks of the native European crayfish Astacus astacus. Since the signal crayfish occupied a similar ecological niche in its native range, it was imported in the 1960s to Sweden and Finland to allow recreational and commercial crayfish capture.[2] It was not realised at the time that the signal crayfish was a carrier of the crayfish plague.[2] All American species carry the infection, but it is only lethal to individuals that are already stressed; to European species, the infection is rapidly fatal.[9]

The signal crayfish is now the most widespread alien crayfish in Europe, occurring in 25 countries, from Finland to Great Britain and from Spain to Greece.[2] It was first introduced to Great Britain in 1976, and is now widespread across the British mainland as far north as the Moray Firth. It has also been observed on the Isle of Man, but not in Ireland.[9]

It looks like the signal crawfish is enroute to being the new native crawfish species in Britain, much of Europe, and Japan. One gets the definite impression that wildlife management is fighting a losing battle on the crawfish issue, and simply delaying the inevitable.

Transplanted species can sometimes be a good thing. However, all too often ecological horror stories result.

On a brighter note, the signal crawfish are very tasty, and because they breed like mad there is enough to go around. Its like the invasive species we have over here. People complain about them, however, most of them are very edible.

 

[Stevie777]

Crayfish Here...
M74 south from Hamilton..Take the turn off for Elvanfoot. once you get to Elvanfoot Church park up. The river Clyde is on your left hand side of the road. walk across the field, (take the path) Google earth it to give you a better idea of where you are going. and head mostly upstream from the weir.

look for lines running into the water, These are Crayfish Creels...pull them in and empty the crayfish into a bucket of river water. replace the creel back where you found them.

Ps, You will find lots of crushed Crayfish shells by the river that's a indication of where the creels are in the water, sometime the lines are hard to see if the river has been in spate and the lines are covered in weed.

Lower Clyde angling have been trying to eradicate them for years, they just stamp on them, ....Been a while since i was down so i'm not promising anything. I went here for 4 years and filled a small bucket on occasion....sometimes only 10 or so depending if whoever is in charge of emptying the creels had got there before i did.

Good Luck, let us know the outcome.

I had one female full of eggs in my fish tank. They hatched. I had over 50 tiny crayfish one day. place a turkey leg in the tank for them to feast on, got up the next day and they all had died bar one. ?

 

[Robbi]

don't think there's any of these critters here in NI yet.

 

[Unistat76]

As someone who's eaten crawfish most of my life, I'd say taste depends on how you season them. Cooked alone, they're bland. Add the proper Cajun seasoning, and they're superb. They also have to be "purged" before cooking. You can accomplish this by placing them in clean, fresh, cool water deep enough to cover them and changing said water frequently for about a half hour before cooking.

For about 2 to 3 pounds of live crawdads, bring a couple of gallons of water to a rolling boil. Add 3 or for onions that have been halved, as well as about a cup to 3 cups of Cajun seasoning, a few lemons (halved) and several cloves of garlic. Next throw in 5 or six ears of corn on the cob, about a pound of potatoes (cut up with the peel still on) and let boil for about 20 minutes. Lastly add about a pound of smoked sausage (preferably Andouille, but any good smokes sausage will work) that has been sliced into bite sized pieces, and the crawdads themselves. Let boil for about five minutes, remove from the heat and pour in about a pound of ice, put the cover back on the pot and wait 20 minutes before serving.

This guy does it a little differently: http://youtu.be/rXb4qUoc1_M

He uses salt during the purge (it's unnecessary but that's the way some people do it) He also removes the potatoes, corn, etc. before cooking the crawfish; again this is unnecessary but it also works) Obviously he's cooking a much bigger batch (a sack of crawfish is about 36 pounds)

Mmmm, low country boil. So good. I like a side of white rice as well.

 

[santaman2000]

Mmmm, low country boil. So good. I like a side of white rice as well.

Absolutely!

 

[ateallthepies]

I wonder if taking a basket of big uns would offset the small ones not being eaten cos of the taking of said big uns? Surely if it was encouraged for people to harvest them there would be fewer to actually breed?

Im also wondering if an area is infested with Signals will there even be any natives to worry about, I certainly have yet to see a native whereas Signals can be a real pest in some local fishing spots?

I had some from a local Canal a few years ago. I tried to purge for a couple of days in fresh water with Oats in but they still had the line of dark muck in the guts. I found Ray Mears method of removing the guts best plus no waiting! It's on YouTube if you don't know.

I found them a little bland but probably didn't season enough. After boiling I took the meat out and fried in Garlic Butter though for a wild edible not bad!

 

[Stevie777]

The Crayfish from the Clyde dont need to be purged as the water is very clean down Elvanfoot way. Just remove the dark vain from the tail meat before consumption. They are pretty sweet, like Lobster, if that's what you like.

I meant to add this to my original post, If you come across a creel with a Crawfish inside a small box in the middle of the creel, leave in there as it's a Female used to attract the male craws. also, if you plan on making the trip a regular occurrence, take some fish, (i used Mackerel) with you and re-bait the creels or you could make a few creels of your own (easy enough) and set them out. Trust me on this, if you leave them in the water baited up for a few weeks they will be full to bursting with the blighters. just make sure the bait cant be reached unless they enter the creel.

Yum Yum....Make a great Curry or nice straight out the shell.

 

[santaman2000]

The Crayfish from the Clyde dont need to be purged as the water is very clean down Elvanfoot way. Just remove the dark vain from the tail meat before consumption.....

Purging has nothing to do with the quality of the water they're from or any related contamination. The point is to make them void their bowels. Otherwise they'll do so in the cooking pot when you immerse them live into boiling water. They aren't so good when cooked in their own s***

 

[Stevie777]

Purging has nothing to do with the quality of the water they're from or any related contamination. The point is to make them void their bowels. Otherwise they'll do so in the cooking pot when you immerse them live into boiling water. They aren't so good when cooked in their own s***

I was referring more to the taste. Yip, the vain has to come out for safety reasons, but for me the process of purging would be to remove the earthy taste to the meat that you sometimes find in pond or dirty water Crawdads, Something you dont have to do in lower Clyde Crayfish as the water is very clean. No doubt they*** themselves when fired into a pot of boiling water though...just make sure you have a big pot with lots of water and the taste of **** will be at a minimum.

 

[Robson Valley]

The vain is not even a vein but the lower section of their digestive tract. aka bowel, for lack of a better word.

Lots of crayfish in most lakes in western Canada, but whatever the species, they go maybe 71/90 in size.
The larger problem is that mercury-based fungicide has been used as a planting treatment for wheat seed.
Given the crop size for the past century+, that has been a huge amount of fungicide.

Slowly but surely, runoff from agricultural land has contaminated most lakes to some measure.
Garbage-can scavengers for the most part, the crayfish are mostly inedible from mercury accumulation.

If you've got clean water, get out there and fill your face.
Sustained yield. Invasives or not, crop them off forever.

 

[santaman2000]

I was referring more to the taste......

So was I. You might be right about the defecation having little effect in a big pot, but purging would have no effect on taste from dirty water (it would be intrinsic through whatever fish's entire system)

The vain is not even a vein but the lower section of their digestive tract. aka bowel, for lack of a better word......

Yep. Same as with shrimp.