The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Dave Burr wrote:
I cast one of those rubber crays across the Bristol Avon then twitched it to some passing chub ..... I didn't se them again as they shot off downstream

That's really funny! I think I'll save my money on that then!

I have some very small ones - about 1in - and have caught on them!

Edit -- Rubber ones I hasten to add!

I believe that it's not the just the possibility of eggs which is the problem ... but if crayfish were allowed as bait people may catch them and carry meat infected by the dreaded crayfish plague, Aphanomyces astaci, to waters not already infected.

In the good old,bad old days I often used white claw crayfish as bait. The chub's reaction was either total indifference or the most vicious take imaginable . Bite offs were the problem as they bolt them down to crush them with their pharyngeal teeth .

I was looking just the other day at some very convincing signal cray lures with wavy claws and thinking I must try them on the drop shot rod - some of my local waters are wick with signals, thanks to idiot farmers trying to breed a few and not ensuring they didn't escape. Don't some of them ever learn ?

The soft bodied crayfish lures work really well, especially for chub. The takes are vicious.

A place I used to fish was wick with signal crays and the owner used to trap them and freeze them, then sell them as bait. I suppose the freezing process would kill any eggs but not sure about the plague they carry.

Wal.

Another reason is to protect the White Clawed Crayfish --- (if any are left!) --- from inadvertently being used!

I have a leaflet on Alien crayfish in the UK where several different species are shown apart from the American Red Signal Crayfish.
They are trapped on the Kennet, amongst other places/rivers, and end up as zoo food!

you can buy crayfish tails from Sainsburys... would they be allowed as a bait...., cockles and prawns are allowed so why not Cray tails...?

Here's one on a size 16 for Perch

If anyone has links to to the crayfish lures can you possibly post them here, I'd like to give them a try. Thanks.