Crayfish ?

[Dennis Mapletoft]

I am confused, ye ye i know its not something new , can you catch signal crayfish ? i understand that our native crayfish are protected, but what about the Yank invaders? from what i understand, you can catch them but need a permit to do so, can anyone clear this up for me. Yours Den

 

[tomtom]

i remember hugh furnly-whatsitface did it in one of his programs, my be worth looking in his book if you have it or on his website.. i was under the impression the Yank invaders are a pest and there fore you can do what you want to them.. let us know what you find out!

 

[Buckshot]

Signal crayfish are OK to catch and really easy too - not sure about the license though...

They tast great. We were given some last year. Alittle fidley but very nice

Cheers

Mark

 

[scanker]

There's a lot of information here.
If you do a search, there are quite a few threads on the crayfish topic.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/regulat/forms/fish/cray2.pdf

Crayfish trapping advice packs are also available from the National Fisheries Laboratory 01480 483968.

 

[Dennis Mapletoft]

Thanks Scanker, just looked at the link and wow, what a mine field, you can do this but not that, you have to do this but if you do you have to do this and that, you can do it there but not there , i think ill sleep on it , by the way anyone brave enough to go for the little blighters, traps can be had from this link
http://www.askari-fishing.co.uk
Yours Den

 

[Povarian]

Traps? Who needs 'em? Last time me and mine went crayfish fishing, we used a crab line with a piece of bacon on the end, and a kiddies fishing net (the sort you see at the beach). Dangle the bait, wait for movement and scoop. Get loads that way.

 

[Kane]

From the link I see that I live in a no licence area (Cambs) my question to the fisherman out there is are there any health problems to eating things out of the waterways due to the chemicals used on the farming land?

Kane

 

[Fenlander]

From the link I see that I live in a no licence area (Cambs) my question to the fisherman out there is are there any health problems to eating things out of the waterways due to the chemicals used on the farming land?

Kane

I put them in a bucket of clean water for a few hours. This helps to clean them through and reduce the "earthy" taste. There is always the potential for health problems, the Environment Agency recently but a short term ban on catching them on a local river, due to a polution incident

I have not yet suffered ill effects though

 

[Kane]

Think I may give it a go there;s loads of little drains/ditches as well as the bigger ones (which are fitted out with fishing pegs so presumably require a licence) think it's worth trying the smaller drains? Or do you need a licence for them too?

Kane

 

[pumbaa]

I have checked out the link too , and my post code is a licence free zone .
So my questions are , how do i go about finding if these crayfish are in my local rivers ? How do i make sure that i am not catching the native species ? What would be the best method for catching them ? Is there a prefered season ?
I think the kids would enjoy trying to catch some with their old man
Cheers
Pumbaa

 

[scanker]

From what I've read, the EA consider all crayfish to be "fish", and so they require a rod licence.

 

[Paganwolf]

There's a guy on evil bay selling eel/cray traps at the mo, just search for net, there only a tenner and really good, just out of interest , ive caught them in lake Taho in the states using a large flat pebble with bacon tied to the top on the end of a bit of string gives them something to sit on and works well too..

 

[Kane]

http://www.uksafari.com/crayfish2.htm for ID info

Didn't the Bush Tucker Man catch crayfish using a bit of bait in a rotten log ?

Kane

 

[spoony]

so can we get these little suckers up north ??

 

[Kane]

Anyone wondering what Les Hiddins (Bush Tucker Man) is doing now have a look here, interesting interview :-

http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/people/Transcripts/s1096363.htm

Kane

 

[gregorach]

so can we get these little suckers up north ??

Apparenlty they've been moving into Scotland recently, so they must be up your way somewhere...

 

[elma]

I have checked out the link too , and my post code is a licence free zone .
So my questions are , how do i go about finding if these crayfish are in my local rivers ? How do i make sure that i am not catching the native species ? What would be the best method for catching them ? Is there a prefered season ?
I think the kids would enjoy trying to catch some with their old man
Cheers
Pumbaa

I catch them in a local pond, I put a trap down in the night and collect them in the morning, use something like an eel trap funneled so they can get in but can't get out, bait it with some old meat or fish bones, if they're there they will soon find it

 

[Beer Monster]

Apparenlty they've been moving into Scotland recently, so they must be up your way somewhere...

I think that in Scotland you get them in the River Dee (between Loch Ken and the estuary) and the Skyre Burn (more specifically the Lagganmullen Burn a tributary of the Skyre:- at grid NX568553) in Dumfries and Galloway. Here is an interesting SNH paper (PDF) on a possible eradication scheme, it gives more grid refs of abundant populations.

As yet I don't think it has made it as far across as Edinburgh? Has anyone seen any on the east coast?

 

[gregorach]

I've seen refs to them turning up in the Ettrick and the Tweed, so they're probably around here somewhere... The question is, would you want to eat a crayfish from the Water of Leith or the Almond?

 

[Beer Monster]

I've seen refs to them turning up in the Ettrick and the Tweed, so they're probably around here somewhere... The question is, would you want to eat a crayfish from the Water of Leith or the Almond?

Ha your right . Don't think I'd risk it. They are getting cleaner but I'm not sure I'd risk it just yet!