How to catch crawfish?

What is the best area of a waterbody to catch crawfish in, and technique? My primary use for the crawfish would be for white bass/crappie bait with smaller crawfish, and bass/ catfish bait for larger ones.

areas with soft dirt/mud and plenty of vegetation.

shallow protected areas with lots of organic matter. I have found the shallow, silted ends of riprap choked with willows and buckbrush will fill a trap pretty well

Using a small hole dip net like used by the bait houses that sell minnows,walk along the bank where cattails grow until you see a water moccasin sunning on the bank,then turn towards the water and dip net any open pockets scraping the dirt lightly. I wouldn't go past knee deep because of the snakes and I find the dip net works best on water knee deep or less. Snakes love to eat the crawfish,and anytime you're going to find crawfish,they will be near by. As long as you don't rush or corner the snakes,they normally swim away with no problems. Goodluck

Also another option is to find a shallow drainage near a lake or pond and seine it. I've seined deep flooded Bermuda grass near a stream before. got a bunch of silver dollar side bluegill and crawfish that got trapped when the water went down. Also caught 2-3 snakes. I don't care who you are,when you tilt the seine up and a couple snakes fast wiggle to get traction to get out,I'll drop the net by instinct and back away.

Depending on where you are located. All the tips above are good, but in the DFW area the crawdads are gone right now. Water is too cold. I catch all mine at night with a head lamp and a small dip net. Most of the ones I get prefer soft dirt for homes, but I catch mine on the harder dirt, rocks or tree roots. Sometimes I will find them on top of grass mats.

In DFW, you can go to a local Chinese market and buy them live. I picked up 13 crawdads for $3.00 this last weekend. I think they had them priced at $4.99 per pound. They were also selling whole buffalo for about the same price per pound.

Go to Asian market and get them for under $3/lb now. I saw them selling in 5 to 7 ppunts bag. It's crawfish season right now. Fiesta has them too.

Thank you for all of the responses

$3 lb. or getting in the water with snakes; I would be headed to the market.

In DFW area when it warmer, go to any bar ditch along a road or highway and seine them. We used to work the 114 area near DFW airport pretty good.

When Grapevine would flood I would put out a bunch of trotlines and bait them with crawdads.

Technique piece of bacon and a string. I used to do it this way as a kid and it worked!!

+1 for the bacon and string technique. We also added a metal hex nut for weight.

bacon and string and a little peas size rock.. Used to come home with bucketful's from the drainage creek in front of trinity high school.

BS! I swear this is a trick to make kids look stupid... i've tried and tried it and never caught a dang thing...

wacky or texas rig senko --NO WAIT-- Carolina rigged blue ribbon bacon THATS THE TICKET !

Catslayer Ive caught hundreds of craw dads w that simple technique. Get about 6'-8' of string, and a pea sized rock. Wrap a quarter sized piece of bacon maybe a little strip hanging off to entice them more. Ok so again wrap the small piece of bacon around the little rock, then tie ur string around the rock. Its SO SO simple. they don't latch on and u boat flip them out of the water like fish.. lol. You let them trap it and slowly pull them to you and try not to let them see you. They DART! Something I will never forget doing w m,y brother when we were kids. Again we caught HUGE craw dads right on the side of 157 in front of trinity high school in that big drainage ditch that ran along side of road. I don't think its there now. I couldn't believe how many craw dads there were when u be still and start looking around.

It works. rock, nut, bolt, whatever, but its not hard to do, I can tell you that. You must be like me trying to bass fish, can't figure it out and probably make it about 15 times harder than it is. lol

We even pulled them out of their holes with this.

Yep it's real. And never fails. The trick is grabbing them before they let go.

Crawfish net with a chicken neck or leg quarter. You can buy nets out of La for less than $10. Just drop it down and let it soak for a couple of hours. I'd drop it in a swampy area if there are any around. http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/tournament-choice-19-x-19-crawfish-fishing-nets-12-pack

fiesta sells them

$3/lb! Wow. Better than paying $7-$8/pound in restaurants around here. Boil'em with some cajun seasoning, corn on the cob and potatoes.

My granny told me how to crawfish when I was just a kid and she always filled any container full we had including multiple 30 gal garbage cans and 48 qt coolers. We would go to this creek that fed into the marsh and set up about 6 lines tied off to a stick on the bank. The we tied off a piece of bait to the other end and tossed it into the creek. Wait a few minutes, pull up the line and scoop the ball of crawfish at the end with a small holed dip net. Some of the 'balled' up crawfish on the bait will be larger than a basketball sometimes. The action is fast paced if you are on them. Watch for snakes.

The secret bait that beats ALL other baits is called 'pork melt'. This is the spleen of pigs. Many supermarkets carry it. Ask a butcher if you cannot find it.

UPDATE: I have tried several times to catch crawfish with my crawfish trap, and have used a myriad of baits such as bread, tortillas, cut sunfish, chicken, and shrimp, and have only managed to catch a small bullhead and many sunfish. I have also tried 2 different creeks, placing the trap in rocky, muddy, stillwater,water with slight current, and have let it sit anywhere from 45 minutes to 24 hours.