CrayFish

[tonymac]

to my knowledge there is no licence required to fish for the "american" or "signal" crayfish and in some areas I have been told that it is illegal to put them back into the water if caught, if using a cage it is easy to return our natives to the water, as the signal has bright red claws this should be simple, so if there is some law infringing on your personal freedoms to hunt shoot and fish again ignore it and use a little personal responsabilty instead.
Let the natives go and eat all the ones with red claws.
enjoy they are delicious

just checked with environment agency, and there is a licence required, so keep it subtle, you will be doing our natives a huge favour although it is way to late for most places

 

[Nautilus21]

There definitely is a requiremnt for a licence for any trapping or netting of fish (and for this dfefinition crayfish come under it) - it is easy to obtain - there will be no problem or cost (as I remember) just ring the environment agency - there is no point getting caught for doing something without a liccence if you can get one - its just not worth it...

I believe that fishing for them either comes under your general rod licence for those who fish - or if you are using crab lines I think you are OK without - but I would get a licence anyway..

 

[weekender]

Is the way Ray killed them the best way or are there other ways of dispatching them??
Also i looked on the enviroment website, what heading do i need to look under for the license to trap.

 

[mayfly]

I recently enquired with a local EA ranger that I know about a trapping license and was told to forget it because there are native crayfish in my area (East Yorkshire) and they are paranoid about depleting native stocks (quite rightly). Nautilus 21 could well be right about rod license, etc., but I was also told the EA regard any intentional capture of crayfish by any method as trapping and you need a license to trap - because the risk is that physically moving signal crayfish can cause inadvertent population spread (however futile that might appear). I was also told that when applying for a license, you have to specify where you will go by OS Grid Reference and are advised to then seek confirmation from the land owner before actually fishing/trapping. I don't know if any of this is true, but it came from a reliable source and everything I've seen on the EA web site supports it.

There is critical mass of these non-natives in some areas and it is in these places that licenses are given out freely - because removing them helps the invasion problem. But the further north you go on mainland UK, the harder it is. I believe it is very hard to get a license much north of Manchester/Leeds. EA are targeting illegal trapping in Yorkshire at present.

The reason I was interested in the first place was because I tried them in Hampshire last summer and they really are very tasty wild food. So if they are in abundance in your area, go for it!

Chris

 

[mayfly]

Try this amusing/interesting video about their invasion! And some tips about where to find them in your local river system.

Chris

 

[billycan]

The accepted technique for dispatching them is to put the bag of them into the freezer for 1/2 an hour or so which makes them torpid and slow enough not to wriggle around or be aggessive, then just stick them into a large pan of water at a rollong boil so that they are completely submerged. There done in about 3mins.

 

[hanzo]

The crayfish in our streams here tend to be small, at least the ones that I have seen and I have just grabbed them or scooped them with a net.

The prawns however tend to be pretty darn big. A bone from a piece of fried chicken has worked great for me in a trap. But the most fun is spearing them, especially at night. Their eyes glow when you shine a light on them, so there is the target and you can also gauge their size that way too. I suspect you could do the same with crayfish.

 

[bushtank]

The crayfish in our streams here tend to be small, at least the ones that I have seen and I have just grabbed them or scooped them with a net.

The prawns however tend to be pretty darn big. A bone from a piece of fried chicken has worked great for me in a trap. But the most fun is spearing them, especially at night. Their eyes glow when you shine a light on them, so there is the target and you can also gauge their size that way too. I suspect you could do the same with crayfish.

i would love to be getting the prawns like you do as for the crayfish they are not good with bright lights and will b8gger off soon as they see it due to their colour thay can be quite hard to see

 

[hanzo]

i would love to be getting the prawns like you do as for the crayfish they are not good with bright lights and will b8gger off soon as they see it due to their colour thay can be quite hard to see

When not in a survival situation, and I hope it is always not in a survival situation, it is great fun to set some traps and catch some with the spear. You will get wet that way though. Awesome when it is pitch black in a valley, stream full of prawns with guavas hanging over the pool and wild dogs baying deeper in the valley. The prawns are already hiding, but the orange eyes in the light give em away.

Do the crayfish eyes glow orange in the light like the prawns?

 

[bushtank]

When not in a survival situation, and I hope it is always not in a survival situation, it is great fun to set some traps and catch some with the spear. You will get wet that way though. Awesome when it is pitch black in a valley, stream full of prawns with guavas hanging over the pool and wild dogs baying deeper in the valley. The prawns are already hiding, but the orange eyes in the light give em away.

Do the crayfish eyes glow orange in the light like the prawns?

crayfish eyes do glow when light is shone on them but they do have smaller eyes than a prawn

 

[ady05]

in the next few days i will be recieving my consent form from the EA to trap crayfish this time they have given me 12 months instead of 6 and allowed me more traps and a longer stretch of the river i trap (5 miles)

 

[tonymac]

The accepted technique for dispatching them is to put the bag of them into the freezer for 1/2 an hour or so which makes them torpid and slow enough not to wriggle around or be aggessive, then just stick them into a large pan of water at a rollong boil so that they are completely submerged. There done in about 3mins.

I normally find that sticking them strait into boiling water tends to make them less aggressive far quicker than taking them home to freeze first.

 

[billycan]

Clearly you wouldn't take them home and put them in your freezer if you were about to cook them in the woods!

 

[ady05]

have many of you actually tried fresh crayfish they are tops i advise not to try the so called pre-pack (crayfish tails) stuff from supermarkets no taste at all

 

[ady05]

for those that are interested its worth looking here http://www.efishbusiness.com/formsandguides/ you can find out about crayfish and downlosd the fr2 aplication form

 

[Wavey Davey]

Thanks Ady. That's a useful link.
Cheers, David.

 

[scottishwolf]

John

Loch Ken in Galloway is absolutely over-run with them. please come up here, bring yer mates and take as many as you want. They are doing real harm to the salmonid fish stocks ( although the Perch are thriving on them )

Last summer we filled a 50 gallon drum in under 4 hours, with the little b8ggers. They are a good bit smaller than their cousins down south, so getting the meat out is a wee bit more time consuming.......but they are tasty all the same.

I don't beleive a licence is required to trrap them in Scotland, but that might be worth checking out.

best area is the West end of the loch. oily fish like mackeral/herring do well, although I hav personally caught them on a worm, being fished for perch

I'm thinking of heading down to Loch Ken for a few days and want to catch some crayfish. Can anybody tell me the best places and ways to do this?

 

[elrond]

Mr scottishwolf,

the top end (west) is best (known to the pike anglers as crayfish alley - a deadbait fished on the bottom resembles a korky the cat skeleton in less than 30 mins ).

As to technique - knock yerslef up a wee creel with chicken wire or the like( there are design on t'interweecher), stick a bit o oily fish in it and chuck it oot as far as ye can.

Don't forget to to attatch a long enough lanyard ( the loch is bleeding freezing at this time of year - so you dont want to be swimming to retreive it.) I find if I don't get anything in 30 mins, move it a few yards.

have a good feast - but mind and pull the gut out of them before you chow down. Mind and check the licence situation, although if you are chapping them and eating them I can't see anyone getting to bent out of shape.

 

[Gailainne]

but mind and pull the gut out of them before you chow down

 

[w00dsmoke]

There are Crayfish in the upper Clyde and in parts of the Tay, and we now know about Galloway what about the rest of Scotland?

Does anyone know?