Trapping How-To

Crawfish are not hard to locate. The first thing you need to do is find a body of water, the second thing you need to look for are crawfish skeletons. Just walk along the shoreline and look both several feet into the water and along the bank for the remains of crawfish. Since their life span is short, if there are crawfish in the area you will most likely see parts of a claw, tale or head that may have washed up along the shore banks.

While you’re walking along make sure you look at rocks, vegetation, movement in the water, generally speaking crawfish won’t move or flee until you are close enough to see them. Even if the only crawfish you see are small babies remember, they have big crawdads and crawmom’s lurking in the water nearby.

In Arizona,

Before we dive into this section let me just make it clear that no matter what type of trap you have, if there are crawfish in the water and you have a good supply of bait, it doesn’t matter what type of trap you use, you will catch crawfish.

However, there are many types of waters, such as rivers, lakes and streams and there are also many types of crawfish traps such as pillow, collapsible, funnel, box and more. What you need to identify before you start trapping crawfish is what type(s) of water you will be trapping in to determine which types of trap(s) you will need to harvest the maximum amount of crawfish in the shortest amount of time. Because let’s face it, you need a mess of crawfish to make a proper, filling meal.

Before we get to bait, let’s break down the types of crawfish traps and which bodies of water they are most effective in so we can better help you prepare for your next crawfish adventure.

This type of crawfish trap got its name from its look, a pillow. One of the great advantages of pillow traps is it has three separate entrances for crawfish to navigate their way into the trap. They are long, collapsible, and very durable. One could load up a crawfish pillow trap with an ample amount of bait and not have to check the trap for up to 24 hours without worry. What you have to be careful about with crawfish pillow traps is how you expand them. Since this type of trap does not have a self-memory design, every time you form the trap to set it, it will take on a different character. From our experience how you shape these traps can be directly tied to the amount of crawfish you catch. Of course you could always expand them once but then you reduce the number of traps you can carry by 80% or more. When forming your pillow trap take into account all the items listed above about basic crawfish traps, supply a good amount of bait, place in a location you have seen crawfish (or caught them in the past), secured to the bank, an overhanging tree limb or a stake into the ground and you are set to go.

Ideal Waters:     Four Stars

Little to no vegetation and rocks preferred

Effectiveness:  Three Stars

Because the shape is subject to human error 

Overall Rating:  Three Stars

More commonly known as a minnow or shrimp traps, we have found collapsible mesh crawfish traps to be highly effective and the best producers for crawfish trapping in Arizona.  These are by far our favorite types of crawfish traps for many reasons including the following. They are designed and built with a self memory size and shape, all you have to do is unhook the clips, place the bait in the traps built in bait holder, place in the water, secure your string-line, and let the crawfish do the rest. What you have to be careful for in collapsible mesh crawfish traps is the fact that they are made out of mesh or nylon type materials. If left unattended for long lengths of time the crawfish will eventually claw through the mesh cage that holds the bait. You won’t have to worry about losing crawfish out of your trap as long as you have enough date to keep them occupied until you can check it again…and of course they don’t claw through the mesh frame. It’s important to note that if baited properly, this is not a need for concern; and from our experience we have never seen crawfish break through the trap itself, just simply the bait container from time to time. So if you can live with a broken bait container, or the fact that you half to mend and repair it as needed, these traps are hard to beat for our money.

Ideal Waters:     Five Stars

Any body of water deeper than seven inches

Effectiveness:  Four Stars

When the bait container is broken, you can loose some of your bait out the crawfish entry points.

Overall Rating:  Four and One-Half Stars

 At no fault of their own, these are probably our least favorite traps. Not because we haven’t caught crawfish in them and not because they haven’t produced a good catch for us; but because they require a lot of checking and maintaining to acquire enough crawfish for a meal. Where we find this trap most effective is if you have young ones you are trying to teach how to fish this is a great trap to keep them occupied and interested aquatic life and conservation between the sometimes endless periods of time between getting a bite on the ole’ fishing line. From our observation the reason these traps produce low results over long periods of time are because they don’t have a location for the bait nor is the trap itself big enough to contain and keep the crawfish occupied long enough for you to return several hours later, if not overnight, to it checked, empty and re-bait them.

Ideal Waters:     Five Stars

Any body of water deeper than seven inches

Effectiveness:  Three Stars

Four if you purchase extensions for the middle, but for that money simply purchasing better traps is more cost effective.

Overall Rating:  Two Stars

The bigger the better if numbers is what you are after! Although we prefer contained traps with coned entrances for the crawfish, the ramp entrances of box shaped traps are still effective at leading crawfish to the bait. Fairly versatile when it comes to placement options in the water and ideal for streams where you can find a place to set the trap with the top protruding out of the water. You then set the ramp an inch or so below the surface. Once the crawfish enter the trap, even if they eat all the of bait out of trap between the time you are able to check the trap, they won’t craw back out of the trap because they would rather remain in the water than risk breaking the surface of the water...unless that it, someone places a trap with twice the bait right next to yours.

Ideal Waters:     Four Stars

Any body of water deeper than seven inches

with a flat bottom.

Effectiveness:  Three Stars

If placed incorrectly or not even on the bottom, it’s easy for the crawfish navigate their way out once they have consumed the bait.

Overall Rating:  Three Stars

These traps are perfect and ideal for children and a fast catch in a short period of time. But as a user of these traps you must understand this is the only thing that can focus on, otherwise you might as well just feed the crawfish the bait and forget trapping. The ideal placement for wire ring traps are a flat surface with little to no vegetation underneath the trap as the flatter you can get these traps under the surface of the water, the better trapping results you will have. So why does this trap score higher in our ratings than the steel cylinder traps? Because as soon as the crawfish steps on the trap you can capture them; whereas the steel cylinder traps you must wait for the crawfish to navigate their way into the trap.

Ideal Waters:     Five Stars ++++

Any body of water deeper than two inches

Effectiveness:  Three Stars

Overall Rating:  Three Stars

 If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times! If there is crawfish in the water it doesn’t matter what you use for bait, but how you bait your trap. Chicken, fish flavored cat food, bacon, blood bait, as long as it’s stinky it will catch crawfish!