Where to Catch Crawdads in Southern California?

Hey everybody,

I lived in Northern California as a kid and used to catch crawdads in
the American River. I've really had the urge lately to catch some
crawdads again, so I'm wondering if anybody knows a good place to do so
in the Southern California area.

Thanks for any advice!!

Gavin

Any place you can get in the water. So Cal and SW Az have a zillion of them
and a whole bunch of different varieties too.

Around here the kids will catch by hand in some of the dirt and rock bottom
irrigation canals and waste water ditches. I have caught them in minnow
traps baited with meat, and also in a dip net dragged through the edges of
weed beds.
--
Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com

Bob La Londe wrote:

Any place you can get in the water. So Cal and SW Az have a zillion of them
and a whole bunch of different varieties too.

Around here the kids will catch by hand in some of the dirt and rock bottom
irrigation canals and waste water ditches. I have caught them in minnow
traps baited with meat, and also in a dip net dragged through the edges of
weed beds.


Flip over rocks, as this is where they hide during the day.

Another neat trick, is taking a burlap sack,, mash a tub of chicken
livers into the material, weight down the sack, in the weeds along the
shore. (don't put your rocks on the area you put the liver), the
crawfish hang their legs in the material as they go for the liver, leave
it over night, in the morning you have a huge number of crawdads stuck
to the burlap.

Of course you can buy or make crawdad traps, many are sold on the
internet. You can modify a minnow trap (increase the hole size, but then
it is not legal to use the trap for minnows in many states) to work, if
you don't increase the hole size all you catch are little ones. Bait the
trap with meat or better yet, cut up fish. You don't want the meat to be
on the bottom of the trap, or you won't catch many, as the first few
will eat all your bait, it is better to wire the bait so it is in the
center of the trap, off the bottom, where the mud bugs can't reach it
easily, once they are in the trap.

Mud bugs are not just for bait, the big ones are better for eating



--
Rodney Long,
Inventor of the Mojo SpecTastic "WIGGLE" rig, SpecTastic Thread,
Boomerang Fishing Pro. ,Stand Out Hooks ,Stand Out Lures,
Mojo's Rock Hopper & Rig Saver weights, and the EZKnot
http://www.ezknot.com