Anyone know about fishing for Crayfish?

[Kermit power]

Evening All,

Turns out that the Wey Navigation in Guildford is chock full of Signal Crayfish. I took the kids down there on Saturday to see if we could catch any with bits of bacon on string. We managed a grand total of one!

Having bought that one home and boiled him up though, it turns out that they are absolutely bloody gorgeous, so now I want more.

Does anyone know much about catching them in greater quantities? Traps only cost a fiver or so on Ebay, but I've a feeling you need licences and landowner permission and stuff? Anyone know where you get all of this from?

[FasterFreddy]

http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/fisheries/freshwa...

[neilsfishing]

A trap is the way to go

[Simpo Two]

This bit: www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/fisheries/freshwater/cra...

[JulesV]

My uncle, a keen fisherman, bought a crayfish trap and catches hundreds of them. As you say they are delicious. He has found that the best way of catching them is to get up early and find some suitable roadkill (he lives on a busy road). This is then placed in the trap and within a few hours he has caught dozens of the little critters.

[Cheese Mechanic]

Any taste comparisons?

Is their taste reliant on the type of river caught on?

I used to catch native species years ago, for bait. But have never eaten them.

Edited by Cheese Mechanic on Monday 21st June 22:31

[broadhat]

Great thread, thanks - hadn't thought of this before. I've scouted a couple of other forums and come up with this:

Register for 'live fish movements' license here
eta: I think that's right and once the account is 'activated' is an electronic version of this.


Pick a site off here and ask the landowner nicely for permission

Buy a trap from here

Whilst waiting for it all to arrive, possibly be responsible and read this

and fire up the BBQ!

Edited by broadhat on Monday 21st June 22:12

[kiteless]

broadhat said:

Great thread, thanks - hadn't thought of this before. I've scouted a couple of other forums and come up with this:

Register for 'live fish movements' license here
eta: I think that's right and once the account is 'activated' is an electronic version of this.


Pick a site off here and ask the landowner nicely for permission

Buy a trap from here

Whilst waiting for it all to arrive, possibly be responsible and read this

and fire up the BBQ!

Edited by broadhat on Monday 21st June 22:12

Nice one!

[Kermit power]

Good man, Broadhat!

[Mobile Chicane]

'In theory' you need a licence from Defra. This is a pain in the arse to obtain since you need to state the exact location and dates of intended trapping, however the reasons for licensing are very valid:

a. to confirm that the endangered native crayfish is not present in the watercourse you're planning on trapping in;
b. that otters are not present either.

None of the traps linked to in the above posts are otter-proof: a compliant crayfish trap will cost around £30 from eg. www.thetrapman.co.uk (no relation).

This has a broad enough mesh that native crayfish can escape, plus a hole that's narrow enough that otters can't get in.

Happy trapping.

[Kermit power]

Looking at the licence application though, it seems you can apply for a licence for anything from a day to a number of months, so I suppose you just stick down the whole season for the location of your choice.

Interesting to see there's places even closer to me than Guildford.

[Mobile Chicane]

There's also another consideration as to why a licence may not be granted (therefore you shouldn't ask for one) namely differing opinions in the scientific community as to whether or not trapping adult signals actually increases the numbers of signals overall, since juveniles have no other predators. I haven't heard if this has been resolved or not.

If anyone has applied for (and been granted) a licence recently, please post.

[Cheese Mechanic]

Is there a good source to show where the incomers are endemic?

Which rivers, and which areas?

OOps! see its already been done

Edited by Cheese Mechanic on Tuesday 22 June 10:30

[Kermit power]

Mobile Chicane said:

There's also another consideration as to why a licence may not be granted (therefore you shouldn't ask for one) namely differing opinions in the scientific community as to whether or not trapping adult signals actually increases the numbers of signals overall, since juveniles have no other predators. I haven't heard if this has been resolved or not.

If anyone has applied for (and been granted) a licence recently, please post.

From what I could see digging around on the web, we're in the surrender zone. The Signals won years ago, and the white claws have all long since vanished in the South. You no longer need a licence to keep live signals in KT and GU, for example, such is the impossibility of them doing any more damage to native species than they've already done.

[bomb]

This is a cracking thread.

I've been thinking about trapping some of the little critters for a while, but had not yet investigated the formal paperwork side of things yet.

I'm keen to find out how its done and see who has a valid licence.

What about some methods of cooking too.............?? Boil and peel ??

[Kermit power]

bomb said:

What about some methods of cooking too.............?? Boil and peel ??

That's what I did with the one we caught on Saturday. Left it in clean water overnight to get the mud out of it, although apparently you can also just dump them into iced water, and the crayfish equivalent of the buttock clench just pushed all the gunk out.

Then just get the pan boiling and drop them right in. Easy!

[Davey S2]

They featured this on Total Fishing and used a trap with a roast chicken carcass in it and caught loads of them.

[otolith]

To find out whether you are in an area where signal crayfish infestation is so bad that licensing has been abandoned ("surrender zone" ) there's a list of postcodes at the end of this document:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/docs/forms/fish/...

The upper Thames is absolutely crawling with the bloody things, which chew your bait off in no time when you're fishing for other things. I've heard of landowners semi-commercially trapping hundreds of kg of them from relatively short stretches of river week after week with no apparent effect on populations. On the plus side, the perch and chub seem to be growing well on them.

[Kermit power]

otolith said:

To find out whether you are in an area where signal crayfish infestation is so bad that licensing has been abandoned ("surrender zone" ) there's a list of postcodes at the end of this document:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/docs/forms/fish/...

The upper Thames is absolutely crawling with the bloody things, which chew your bait off in no time when you're fishing for other things. I've heard of landowners semi-commercially trapping hundreds of kg of them from relatively short stretches of river week after week with no apparent effect on populations. On the plus side, the perch and chub seem to be growing well on them.

As I understand it, that's a different sort of licence? I think you need one to get them out of the water, and another to then keep them live. It is the latter of the two which has been waived in Surrey, not the former.

[otolith]

Yes - but I think technically those other licensing requirements apply to traps ("fixed engines"), which need to have an EA tag attached to them and must meet requirements relating to otter safety. Whether they apply to catching them on a handline or even in an attended dropnet I don't know. Worth contacting your local environment agency office for clarification.