Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Crayfish for Forage ?

What are the latest thoughts on putting crayfish in a bass and bluegill pond for forage. I have planted them before and have had no muddy water issues. I have two small ponds that I raise mosquito fish in and have harvested crayfish out of those in the past................. so have a no cost source for them.

So should I continue ?

I like the idea. I’ve used them for bait quite a bit.

Both bluegill and bass eat respective sizes of crayfish. Good forage items.

If you can get crayfish right after they molted, that is the best bait I have ever used. Everything in the pond or lake will eat them!

Need proper habitat if you want some to survive.

Anybody have a good suggestion for the optimal stone type/size and depth for the best habitat?

I want to do a SMB pond with crayfish as additional forage. There are zero stones at my pond locations.

I was going to put down some ground fabric and cover it with a thin layer of sand. I would like to then cover that with "crayfish" stone from 1' about the 'normal pool' water level to about the deepest useful depth for crayfish. (This pond has an outside water supply and should have a relatively stable water level.)

I do have several aggregate/stone suppliers in reach with a wide array of product. I have no idea which product would be best. (I have always seen the most crayfish when overturning "platy" types of flat stones. However, my personal data sampling is too sparse to be useful.)

6-8" diameter minimum, but diversity in size is true of many things-this included.
A note from article Cody wrote: SMB YOY survival was noted to be much higher in rock-rip rap type habitat vs aquatic vegetation, so... not only needed for craws but maximizes SMB survival as well.

As Snipe noted above diversity in size is important for rocky habitat. I am currently working with a SMB -YP dominated pond where majority of the rock shoreline has 6"-12" rock to 5ft deep and several large areas have 18" to 30"+ rock material placed down to 6-7ft deep at full pool.

I built a jetty out of riprap and then raised the water 12" so it is completely submerged at full pool. My SMB and YP are doing very well years later. I built this for papershell crayfish but don't know how well the crayfish population is doing. In any case, the fish are fat. Perhaps the GSH and lake chubsuckers are what they are eating? Glad I built this jetty when I was younger!

Rock/rip rap is what works best in my experience for crawfish habitat.