We have a 70 acre lake located in central Alabama and would like to stock crawfish this Spring. At the suggested rate of 50 to 100 lb per acre we could go broke in short notice. What might be a more practical rate and still be able to establish the bugs? Realizing there are many factors, what kind of a price are we looking at?
Thanks

Before you stock, make sure that there is plenty of habitat for them to hide in. If not, all you are doing is stocking fish food that will disappear in short order.

Kingfish, in a lake that large there are is no doubt at least one feeder creek which in my opinion is a ready made highway for native crayfish/mudbugs to find it by. If your lake had the proper habitat they would already be present if they aren't already and you just aren't see them. Have you walked the edge at night with a spotlight and shined it into shallow areas near rocks, legs etc? You may be surprised at what you see...

Esshup, I'm sure we have the forage for the bugs, rocks, mud banks, etc. CJBS, I'm sure we have some crawfish, but we have money to blow so why not stock the bugs and some Tilapia.

Can anyone help with the two original questions?

What is the current fish population in the lake like? Species, max size, average size? Is there rocky areas, vegetation?

Money to blow or money too waste, because that's what you'd be doing if you stocked crayfish, in my opinion there's alot better forage to stock..

I like to goto the local creek around the end of April when the crayfish females are full of eggs. I can get 200-300 in just a cpl of hours with a tickle stick and a minnow net.

Kingfish-sounds like you've got a unique place.

What are you trying to accomplish/remedy with your stocking? I don't mean to sound stupid, of course you want to grow more/bigger fish, but simply stocking forage to promote growth in such a large BOW might be impractical, even if your funds are indeed extensive. Also, if you've already got a population of crays at equilibrium with predators, just adding a bunch more isn't going to make a significant difference for anything but a few days-even if you add hundreds of pounds.

To actually answer your question, rather than give unsolicited advice:

I've seen "native" crawdads in our area from $4-6.00/lb.
Someone posted on the forum from Texas recently offering juvenile crawdads at $1/lb-with the qualification that they would burrow into any pond with a levee and make it leak. I'm not sure I'd go that direction.
Some fish sellers around here offer 50lb bags of craws at $2.00lb. These are the same craws people eat. There's a good chance that they won't establish in your pond [at least one forum member tried this, they just crawled out of the pond and died], but could give a brief bump in forage. At 2.00/lb, though, it makes Aquamax look cheap.

Tilapia in my area range from $6-10/lb depending on time of year, source, size, and species. They shouldn't overwinter in Birmingham.

kingfish...if you do decide to stock mud-bugs...from what I understand the "Paper Shell Crayfish" is less invasive and less likely to burrow into your dam and cause damage.

Last year I actually placed an order for mud-bugs, found out they were the "red swamp" variety and took the advice of some posters on this forum to stay away from the red swamp crawfish. I cancelled my order! (btw..i think red swamps are the most common available)

I may try a few paper shell crawfish this spring, but if I were you I'd be careful about dumping large numbers of red swamp mud bugs into your pond.

We never stocked craws, in order to build our water the developer damned a creek up creating our lake, so I'm guessing there should be a fair number of natives. Our F-1 Bass population was very low the past few years according to our evaluator so we added Northern Bass last Fall.
We thought the craws would give the 2lb Bass a kick start while giving them a chance to get established. They have plenty of places to hide.


Zep, I don't think we will have problems with burrowing because our dam is about 150' thick at its base (the water depth at the dam is 30')

We have the digging type of crayfish in our area, and they seem to find every body of water on their own. My new pond will hopefully be a SMB pond, so I am hoping to add a bunch of habitat away from the dam to support crayfish, but we will see how it works out. I have some shallow duck ponds with no rock, but all of the weeds harbor a lot of crayfish even though it has preditors. It grows nice warmouth and LMB, but the big LMB succum to low O2 every few years. When the water is open in early spring (before it becomes weed choked), it is a blast to fish. I think the limited fishing window actually works well for a body of water on a piece of private land since it cannot be fished all the time. I do have a larger old pond that is easy to fish any time, and we just built a second "deep" pond. I sure appreciate the abilty to live on such a nice property!

Hi Kingfish - wow, a 70 acre lake...most of us can only dream! Bill Cody is our expert mud bug man, imagine he'll be along shortly to set us all straight.

Few observations to help if possible: Many sources online for crayfish, offering live delivery, but these are the Rusty or Red Swamp crayfish which are larger and typically preferred for table fare. I believe the Red Swamp is an aggressive burrowing type, which is troubling for obvious reasons; and the Rusty is considered an invasive species which can extirpate native species due to their aggressive nature. Some states have laws restricting importing Rusty's [like NE] to prevent them for establishing a population and spreading throughout the watershed, which will likely occur.

With that in mind, I'd recommend steering away from either of those species and would focus on hatcheries who can provide native species for your area. A quick google search or call to NRCS should be able to provide your native species list. I agree with others' assessment that your lake probably already has a population of crays - minnow traps baited with beef liver will provide a glimpse of their presense/population. Might be good to assess that prior to making decisions on stocking them.

Cody and Willis have mentioned on multiple occasions that crays do not convert nearly as well to protein as fish. Not saying they're worthless, but aren't as effective a forage source as fish. If your goal is to improve your LMB WR, I'd consider investing in forage fish like Tilapia, Golden Shiners, or Threadfin Shad or impoving your BG population. I believe TFS can survive Alabama winters and many LMB fishery managers here are big advocates of them. Annual stocking of TP could get pricey - but it works and helps manage any FA issues you might experience. GSH are widely used with success, also, and aren't expensive. Lastly, a feeding program to help your BG population increase also will serve to improve your LMB forage base. A combination of GSH and TFS in addition to a BG feeding program if one is not in place currently is what I'd be focusing upon to improve the forage base for your LMB. Hope some of these ideas help!

100% agreed with TJ

Kingfish,

You are looking at $8000.00 + if you put enough of either crawfish or tilapia in a lake that big to make a difference. I can help you with either if you are interested.

-HH

Reduce your estimate to 50 to 100 pounds per acre of water less than 4-6 feet deep in the lake....craws will never inhabit much of the impounded water and be only where habitat exists...same goes for Tilapia if you decide to use the amazing forage production per dollar they could provide you.


Personally, I would all but chuck the mudbug idea in favor of a comprehensive fish forage/habitat base that lets LMB feed with ease.

Many thanks for you guys help, after reading these threads and and talking with a few folks we have decided to stock Tilapia rather than mudbugs because we are getting more bang for our buck. As someone pointed out we should have a pretty decent population of crawfish since our lake was formed by damming an existing creek.
I'll keep you posted.......

My biggest fear is dying and my wife selling all of my fishing tackle for what I told her I paid for it.

Ha-ha, been there done that.