Is it legal to use store bought live crawfish as bait?

crawfish isnt a gamefish so no....

Are you sure? I see online where some bait shops actually sell live crawfish.

it is legal not illegal
Johnny

should be legal according to a GW i spoke to a few years ago. its only a bug.

Legal and highly effective on white bass during the runs...peel the tail, cast out, and hold on.

Sweet!

So how do you hook them with the peeled tail?

Thread it on just like a worm

So you thread it thru the tail such that the hook sticks out under the bottom of the crawfish?

After the tail is peeled, just thread the hook through the middle of the meat, hook will be exposed

They seem to work best when the water is very cold. They can make a huge difference. I've used them effectively on the Sabine River and at Caddo. Just tip your jig with the tail or use the tail on a drop shot rig.

Ohhhhh...it just the tail that is being used and not the whole crawfish. Got it! Thanks guy's for sharing that tip. Sorry I am a bit slow. LOL

Caught some nice Hybrids in Rowlett Creek back in '08 using live crawdads. Pull the pinchers off, lift the body shell to expose some guts, toss out let sink to bottom and hold on. Tarpon Fly was leading the way that day. Never heard of using crawdad for Hybrids until he showed us.

We used to use bought crawfish but usually you can sein a few crawfish from roadside ditches or wet areas in pastures during the whitebass spawn. Crawfish that area an inch to a little larger will work fine. Just hook through the tail with a small hook. In the bottom side out the top. Similar to hooking a minnow. Throw it out and crawl it back across the bottom of the river. It works great. We used to use them all the time until we realized catching the crawfish was too much work.

I use to catchM in the creek behind my house in OR and soldM to bait shops in town. King Salmon luvM. We never took pincher off, just bounced them along the river bottom! Took the tails off for trout!

I hear people EatM too??

Catch em in a ditch and use em! Ive seen it where nothing else worked but that. Seining works. Ive also tied a rope to the handle of a five gallon bucket and threw it in the edge of a ditch, retrieve the bucket and dump it out on an area clear of debris. Pick out the crawfish and put em in a diff bucket. FREE BAIT!!!

Where can you buy a couple dozen ? The stores that sell crawdads want you to buy 25 lbs or more.

I used to use crawdads in California at Castaic. 15 years ago caught many bass, mostly large ones. My best was 11 lbs, but probably 30 fish between 9 and 11 lbs in two years of fishing once a week. use a small drop shot hook. Theres a widows peak, or horn, of shell right between his eyes. Slip the hook right underneath and work it through the horn and out the top. It won't hurt him. flyline or splitshot him and crawl him across the bottom. When he flips his tail, he's about to get ate. when your line begins to move away, set the hook. The eleven pounder was caught on a big red 8 incher, use them whole, claws and all. Every one I ever hooked through the tail, or shell, was crippled or died very quickly. probably because I don't know how. Anyway I want him alive because I want him to react when a fish messes with him. I've been looking for a place that sells live ones since I lived in texas. Cant find one. An old timer told me where to find them in a bar ditch near my house. I put a trap there last night and caught 2. I'll go back with the trap tonight and get some more. I'm also taking a rake to drag around in there. Going to try them tomorrow in grapevine.

Jack try the bucket routine. it works

Fiesta sells them when they are in season. Cheap.

They have not worked since 2007. It was the magic bait for Rowlett Creek that year. But I have yet to catch one the following years on Crawdads.

All fish Love Crawdads (ALL OF THEM).

It's like the saying goes for salt water - everything eats shrimp (and they do).

Well it's also true - in fresh water everything eats Crawdads (except for maybe the Jews - But they want too),

A lot of people do not realize that H.E.B. sells them in season they have them in the back,you have to ask for them,and take in a bucket.They are real cheap,and alive.

Live crawdads tightlined on the bottom like you would a catfish bait is the BEST live bait i have ever used for sandies! I used to buy them at Jimmy's when Jimmy's was owned by other than Asians, and walk across the street to WRC below the stairstep spillway, and SLAUGHTER THE MAGNUM SANDIES every time i used them! Of course, much later jimmy's was bought out by the asians, and now they too have shuttered the windows and doors, so that tells you how long ago that was, lol!

Rudy

Thanks for the bucket routine, Arkansas Traveler ! I went back to the bar ditch this afternoon. caught about 30 with the rake. all were small 1 to 2 inches. Maybe its too early in the year for the larger ones. I should have brought a shovel. Them little ones didn't dig them 2 inch in diameter holes. I hear the mamas bury up with their eggs under their tail and brood them. Ditch is about 4 feet deep. Couldn't get rake that deep. Maybe the bigger ones are deeper. I bet that bucket will get them. Point is Waco Kid 10, If you can get them, use them, everybody eats them

Never heard of the 'bucket strategy' Also, where are guys talking about when y'all say 'ditch'. Could y'all elaborate?

Welcome aboard dixiony,,, ditch= bar ditch

Thanks for both

You can buy eating size crawfish. Break off the tail, cut it in half. Do not peel. Stick hook thru peel from one side and out the other side thru the meat. Take the head and crush it over the water and drop it. It will help scent up your hole. Cast it out, reel it slow, and hold on. It is very legal and deadly. Good luck.

You can buy eating size crawfish. Break off the tail. cut it into 2 pieces. Leave on shell. Put hook thru shell and meat and out the other side of shell. Use the head as chum. Crush and drop into water. Cast out and reel slowly. Hang on. It is legal and deadly. Sometimes it takes a rise in the water level to wash mudbugs out of sloughs to kick the whites into craving them. On low water years they dont work as well early. Have used them for years also as a tip on a roadrunner. Deadly.

Had a dozen of these:

http://www.basspro.com/Frabill-Crawfish-Trap/product/37119/125790

Filled them with dead salmon and setM on creeks! They work great in lakes too. In OR the crayfish liked rocks, not sandy bottom?

I have found small ones under rocks at Grapevine. Not many, and not large ones like I like to use. So they do like rocks. They also have another nickname. Mudbugs. In the bar ditch, I raked them out of the mud. I hope they'll get larger as the weather gets better.

Thanks All!

Captn Daves seafood market in Plano has live 'uns for 4.25/lb.... Just went thru a sack on Sunday!

When I was kid we would catch 'em out of a ditch. Nice ones, 3-5 inches long. We would go to a pond, hang 'em under corks, let them cross the water. Big LMB and Channels Cats just killed 'em.

Look at bridges over creeks where the water may not always run. Pools form right under the bridges concrete edge. That water is clear and full of stuff crawdads like to eat, thats where you can find some, fish them live if you can.

To keep crawfish alive do not put a hook through them instead use a rubber band and wrap the hook to its back.

I've always hooked them through the back end of the tail......they live a long time

i rather eat them myself lol

Growing up my brothers and I used them alot for trotlines very successfully for catfish, a truly excellent river bait. I have never fished with them for whites, but last summer I caught several that had crawfish in them.

My brothers and I used them for bait because we liked catching them too. Use a piece of bacon (it doesnt come apart, like using a chicken neck for crabs) on a string on a short to medium stick. You can slowly bring the crawfish up once you see the line, bacon, or crawfish moving/pulling, but you need a net to slide under them before you pull them out of the water because most will let go when you get them out of the water. We mostly used an old basket from a frydaddy to scoop under them. Those were good days. Some of the other methods here are much more efficient but you guys with kids might find enterainment this way.

They are excellent eating boiled, fried, etouffee, and etc... I would not suck the heads, tried that once and was nasty. We did manage to talk the dumb cousin into trying to suck the head twice...convinced him the first one being nasty was just a fluke.

I know they're a costly but has anyone ever used water dogs for striper or Hybrids? I know they work great for Lg mouth.

Thats exactly right! On regular/higher water level seasons, they work awesome on sandies and hybrids (2 & 4 years ago). When water level is lower (last year), they dont work as good.

i knew lmb love crawdads, and knew drum would tear em up, and have heard of ppl using crawdads for catfish bait. but nvr realized all fish liked them

iluvfishin, you must be a cajun. I heard they don't throw nothin back. Yer not supposed to eat the fish bait !

I bought 4 pounds of them live at fiesta in garland for $8. Put them in my pond out back and scoop them out when I need them. Some died and I just froze them to use the tail and then will hook the live ones behind the head. No clue how well they work. Just got them from reading on here about them.

I need to go get some of those to eat myself.

Reggie