"Bob" wrote:

Well, I must admit that I just glossed over this originally as I have
forgotten the How To's of using crayfish. To try and answer your question, I
seem to remember when I was a much younger lad than I am now, that they were
hooked in the back, through the first jointed segment behind the "head/body"
section. This would allow a live crayfish the ability to move naturally.

Here in Wisconsin, none of my fishing bud's use crayfish, and it has been
about 30 years since I have used any as bait. The current reason, as shown
in the Wisconsin Fishing Regulations;
Page 6 - It is illegal to possess live crayfish while fishing or while
possessing angling equipment on any inland water, except the Mississippi
River.

I do not know how long they have had this in the regulations, but this is
the one of the reasons that I no longer think of crayfish as a bait to use.
Another being that I found them to be more of a hassle, when alive and
trying to keep them that way, than to deal with than minnows, crawlers, and
leeches. If I am going to use bait, I kinda like it to still be alive and
wiggling :-)

As a side note, Wisconsin does allow you to "hunt" them year round with no
size or bag limits, except on the Wisconsin/Minnesota boundary waters where
they close the season during March and April. There are also the (fairly)
standard laws about not introducing them to any waters without a permit to
do so.

I am wondering if these type of regulations are becoming more common around
the US. It may be that the lack of an answer is that the crayfish is falling
out of favor with many fishermen if this is so.

Cast far
Bob

Hi Bob,
I sell thousands of crayfish traps annually across the nation and a fairly
large percentage of these traps are sold to bass fisherman not only for bait
but many have bass ponds and like to give their bass a treat now and then.
Using crawfish for bait is not falling out of favor with fisherman but strict
regulations in the use of crawfish for bait is in effect in many states and
will be in effect in all states shortly. Fish and Game Departments are becoming
very concerned with a new species of crawfish to the USA, the Rusty. It is a
very aggressive and large crawfish which is destroying game fish lakes. Just in
the last 20 years this invasive species has made it's way from Arizona to the
Great Lakes creating huge populations eating everything in their path, plants,
eggs, fry, anything they can catch. Fisherman are blamed for the primary spread
of these nasty critters. This is the reason for the restrictions not the lack
of favor by fisherman, grin. I sell a lot of traps to Fish and Game Departments
in many states as well and the information I stated above comes from them not
me. Crawfish are a real problem to fisherman unless of course you like eating
freshwater lobsters. Anyhow, that is the real deal.

Terry
--
Crayfishing Made Easy!
http://www.terrybullard.com