Forgive me if I�m posting in the wrong section. Don�t know where else to post haha. Anyways, I�m very new on crawfish trapping and of course I buy a trap when the weather starts to get colder instead of the preferable warmer months. I�ve tried one big ol� creek, and two ponds with no luck. I�ve been using canned cat food and tuna and just recently put a few strips of bacon today and put out the trap in a new creek that I�m feeling good about. Anybody have any recommendations for trapping these tasty little things in the winter months or am I just wasting my time?

You may be a little early. Having lived in South Louisiana for over 10 years, the mud bugs normally don't come out to play till mid December. I am referring to Natchitoches south. A chicken neck works as well. Good luck, we enjoy eating them here in Weatherford TX.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong, please keep us posted on your success,...

This time of year in North Texas the only place I find live crawfish is at the Asian markets. With the recent flooding you might be in luck and with the upcoming sunny day may bring them out. Once we get a good cold front they will be gone till Spring.

Find some beef "melt" and try using that.

This^^^^^ and/or large shad (6+").

I have no idea how one trap will produce for a crawfish boil; maybe over time, enough for an etoufee or stew. Back in the day in jr. high/HS/and LSU, Dad and I were running 500+ traps a trip in the Atchafalaya Basin.

Good luck.

I set my traps year round to learn the size and colors of the Crayfish in the areas that I was going to fish tournaments. I mimicked the Crays with jigs and chatter baits. I baited all my traps with raw fish. No problem catching what I needed to tell me the baits to build.

The spawn in Texas begins in Nov.; but the rain and new water will start it now. Large males will be out looking and fearless, like a buck in rut. These big males are a very hard meal for Bass and they will pass those up many times. As time goes on toward Jan. you will begin to catch the smaller Crayfish and in March the baby's will be leaving the mothers. As they molt and shed the outer shell the colors change often. This is the season the bass really feed on the molting Crays with thin to soft shells.

Piece of thick bacon works well!

Works on vegetarians too LOL

Appreciate the information y�all!

My sons and I trapped crawfish a lot in Oregon. Two or three times a year we�d go up to Timothy Lake for a long weekend, work three or four traps all weekend, and have a big boil on Sunday night. Great fun.

Since moving to Fort Worth in 2015, I�ve been wanting to trap crawfish. However, I�ve been worried about public access, vague regulations and local culture�s attitude to set traps. I�m scared to �mess with Texas� and accidentally violate one of those things. My research suggest it should be easy. Here is a great video where a guy�s trapping around DFW.


https://youtu.be/UPgHKvo_TBs

Where can I do this? I have not been very successful at finding places of public access in Texas. Could I throw out some traps around Shady Grove Park in Azle, for example. Or from the shore into Eagle Mountain Lake?

Second, are the traps likely to be stolen?

Great video, thanks for the intel. That person is a mudbug catching machine !

Welcome aboard Michael...

One thing I would be concerned with about setting traps from the bank is other people seeing you do it and then helping themselves to your traps. If you have a boat...
Great first post...

Indeed! folks love to take one's traps.