John, I'm not catching any crawdads either, but I think it is for a different reason.

Either I'm too early yet, or the severe winter took them out. The small seasonal stream that winds between my two ponds has had lots of crawdads in the recent past, and I suspect they will be there again. Either this year or later after a flood replenishes seed stock. If the severe winter got them, it will take a flood where the seed stock will come from fish and critters swimming up the back waters from the main creek.

That is my theory at least. That the fish and critters come and go depending on the droughts and severe winters, then get restocked with the floods that we have not annually, but one at least every few years.

We had lots of crawdads in this stream as recent as just a few years ago (the last time I got some for grandkids to watch in aquarium). None so far this year, but with the long winter it may just be too early. None out in our road ditch this year either, where last year it was loaded with them. But it was a dry, cold, hard winter this last year and we had a wet spring the year before.

Things seem to come and go. My brother was worried about a lack of rabbits one year and lamented about the lack of habitat. It wasn't but a year or two we were nearly over run with rabbits and had a lack of coyotes. Stuff runs in cycles. For a while we rarely saw squirrels. Now we have a half dozen running across our yard every morning. The stuff comes and goes with the seasons and cycles.

Not saying there are not or can not be man made problems, but stuff also runs in natural cycles brought about naturally long before man made a difference.

Last edited by snrub; 05/08/14 12:22 AM.
John

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