Great article to read about crayfish

I found a pretty good overview on crayfish and wanted to share.

If you go down to page 10-25 you get a detailed review of different style traps and how they work. Good pictures. Also a modification to a crayfish trap adding a 'T' to it to prevent fish going in but selecting the crayfish. Highly recommended.

They also discussed what baits worked best (funny that they chose GSF as the best bait!)

Also a good discussion about 'biocides' for chemical control and which fish predators worked best.

Good Crayfish research summary paper

good read. Thanks!

A lot in that paper. Thanks

Thanks CC! IMHO A very good read for anyone either fighting crayfish or thinking of stocking them.

CC, Thanks for posting this information. A lot to read. After introducing the native Red swamps, last year, ( 1/4" to 2" to the pond ), I now see a few of them in the 5" range. I wonder where the numbers are now. I wanted them for feeding the RES and the Lone Star Legacy lmb. All the information I can get on keeping good numbers of them in the pond is helpful. I restocked another 600+-, in the 1/2 to 1" size again this year

Tracy

Originally Posted By: TGW1

All the information I can get on keeping good numbers of them in the pond is helpful. I restocked another 600+- again this year Tracy

Tracy I love my craw-daddys and so do my bass!

Habitat is an absolute key for maintaining crawfish populations.

Anyone have recommendations of how many lbs per acre of crawfish to stock in my pond? I started last spring with adding 1200+- small 1/4" to 2" craws and monitored the numbers by sight as the craws grew to 5" by last summer. This spring I only saw one crawfish in the 4 to 5" size and his pincher claws were gone. But I do see some crawfish burrows, with out chimney's around the pond. So, last month I seined up another 600+- of the 1//2 to 2" craws and added them to the pond. But I was concerned they would not make it to full size so I added 70 lbs of 4 to 5" Red Swamps(Louisiana crawfish) this week. The 70 lbs figures out to be approximately 10 to 15 crawfish per lmb. Lmb count is approximately 25 per acre in the 12 to 14" range. What few have been caught measured and weighed were @ a RW of 145%. And yes I am really happy about the growth of these Lone Star Legacy Bass @ 12 months

Tracy

Tracy,

Bill C. recommended I stock 2500 papershell craws (PSC)to get an established population in my half acre as there are predators already present. I have rip rap and concrete slab for habitat. So for your 3.5 acre, that comes to 17500 to establish a population.

Originally Posted By: Bill D.

Tracy,

Bill C. recommended I stock 2500 papershell craws (PSC)to get an established population in my half acre as there are predators already present. I have rip rap and concrete slab for habitat. So for your 3.5 acre, that comes to 17500 to establish a population.

Hey, Bill D. Where were you able to get papershells? There are tons of craws for sale now here in Louisiana, but I don't think they are PSC.

Originally Posted By: anthropic

Originally Posted By: Bill D.

Tracy,

Bill C. recommended I stock 2500 papershell craws (PSC)to get an established population in my half acre as there are predators already present. I have rip rap and concrete slab for habitat. So for your 3.5 acre, that comes to 17500 to establish a population.

Hey, Bill D. Where were you able to get papershells? There are tons of craws for sale now here in Louisiana, but I don't think they are PSC.

Smith Creek Fish Farm out of NY is where I am getting mine. Only place I was able to find them. They start shipping June 1st so I expect mine will be here in the next week or two.

Originally Posted By: Bill D.

Tracy,

Bill C. recommended I stock 2500 papershell craws (PSC)to get an established population in my half acre as there are predators already present. I have rip rap and concrete slab for habitat. So for your 3.5 acre, that comes to 17500 to establish a population.

WOWOWOW!!

Just for clarity on what Bill C. told me...

Originally Posted By: Bill Cody

You have quite a few predators (SMB,LMB,WE,CC, & YP) for placing only 250 papershells in your pond. I catch YP with adult papershell in them. Every small fish in your pond will eat crayfish less than 1" long. IMO Survival will be dependent on how much cover you have available and how many you stock. For an existing pond with those predators capable of reproducing, I would have stocked closer to 2500 not 250. I stocked 300 PSC in a 1/3 acre minnow only pond and had good reproduction and recruitment. If you are really interested in providing crayfish as a constant forage food try growing them in a small 0.1 ac pond or pool with minnows as polyculture. Then transfer the surplus.

For readers here is a link to the page with some of BillD's shoreline see: West Waterway 1.jpg
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=443300&page=6

Your rock lined shoreline with large concrete pieces may be enough cover for the crayfish to maintain broodstock, although with those crayfish loving predators (bass &CC) I would not expect numerous crayfish to always be present to serve as a good food source. With reproducing bass present it is very difficult to maintain minnows and small forage foods without a weedy pond. I think your predator types will eat crayfish more readily than small fish depending on abundance and encounter rate.

Bill D, when I did last years stocking of 1200+- baby craws,(smaller than an inch) I knew the RES would eat some of them and I figured the CNBG would do the same and I had no lmb in the pond, but did have some soon after. But after watching the pond, I saw some of them grow to 5" within a few months. So I added 1/2 that number this year because I had some non chimney holes around the pond. And so I knew some were still there. But it did not seam to me that I had enough so I added the 70 lbs or about 800 grown ones to the pond and if I figure my bass count its not very man per fish, but we will watch and see what happens.
If the 2500 papershells are small I would expect a good number will survive.

Tracy

Frank, I am no expert so I called my little craws native because I was not able to determine the type until they matured. They are Red Swamp also known as Louisiana crawfish. Introduced here in the 1800's. They are very invasive and from all I have learned they will eliminate any papershells in time from a pond here. They are most likely already in your new pond @ Hallsville. They worst thing I have seen is the coons will dig up the craws, making some crawfish holes larger. I also understand the red swamps will usually dig shallow burrows around the ponds as long as water is close by.

Tracy

Originally Posted By: Bill D.

Originally Posted By: anthropic

Originally Posted By: Bill D.

Tracy,

Bill C. recommended I stock 2500 papershell craws (PSC)to get an established population in my half acre as there are predators already present. I have rip rap and concrete slab for habitat. So for your 3.5 acre, that comes to 17500 to establish a population.

Hey, Bill D. Where were you able to get papershells? There are tons of craws for sale now here in Louisiana, but I don't think they are PSC.

Smith Creek Fish Farm out of NY is where I am getting mine. Only place I was able to find them. They start shipping June 1st so I expect mine will be here in the next week or two.

Thanks! I'll check them out.