Fresh water crayfish

[fishyfrost]

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if anyone can share techniques to catch fresh water crays. Fishing round northern nsw creeks and am new to the scene went out the other night and set two crab traps baited with steak left them for an half hour or so and came back and the bait was completely gone and no crays. Just wondering if this is bad technique or if something else might have got in the trap and got out. Or if different traps should be used any advice would be great cheers

Fishyfrost

[Noelm]

don't know about Northern NSW, but in the Southern regions, if there is crayfish/yabbies there, you will catch them in almost any sort of trap, nothing too tricky about it, those "opera house" traps work OK. Who knows what took the bait, was it secured in the trap firmly?

[fishyfrost]

yeh i tied it in with some rope... maybe i'll pay a lil more attention to it maybe use wire next time

[jimbamb]

not sure on rules these days. but we used to use a scoop and drag the edges of dams. never had trouble getting enough..
jim

[Sheik]

quite possibly "bobbies" (spangled perch) got in and flogged your bait. It's not very common I've noticed, and I may be wrong about this, for bobbies and yabbies to share the same dam. Usually it's one or the other.

Opera house traps work, or put meat on a string and tie it to a stick stuuck into the mud , and when the string straightens, use the sieve off a rainwater tank to get under the bait and scoop your yabbie out.

If it fllicks around, you've probably got bobbies. We used to get 5 or 6 50mm yabbies like this in one go twenty or so years ago but for some reason the dams on our place don't have them anymore.

[Sheik]

I should clarify that by saying the neighbours dams have gone from having none to being chockers over that time too. There're still plenty around.

[banshee]

Get caught with crab traps (or any trap barring the little consatina type) in a creek in NSW,or anywhere where there is or could even remotely be platypuss,ie east of the Newell highway,and you will be hung drawn and quatered.The only way I've caught the big spiny crays was with a torch in their face and a fast firm grab to the carrapace.Our favourite spot used to be down the hill behind the drive in at Alstoneville.

[fishyfrost]

ahhh okies yeh cheers... 2nd attempted found two good size turtles which were released safely... might have to change my tactics cheers

[ferral]

Hi you can bye yabby pots at most fishing stores.best bait is carp or bullocks liver tye a piece about closed fist size tied in the middle at the bottom of the net.about 6ft twine and a float on top. you can drop these in the dam about 4ft out from the bank, Use stick with a fork on the end just under the float to lift the pot up and down. check pots every 5-10min because a yabby is full in a few moments. hope this helps.