Craws were horrible on plant growth in my mostly bare pond, but I had overstocked the craws, too soon compared to fish stocking & plant establishment. And, my pond is pretty muddy, so the plants had a hard way to go to begin with. I used a small trap made specifically for craws to use in the wet weather creek on my place. It was cylindrical with to funnel shaped inlets, one on each end. The inlet holes were about 1-1/2" diameter. Big enough for craws and minnows, but small enough to not allow a 4" fish in. My creek was not heavy with craws, but you could kick some rocks around and see some within a 5-minute outing. I used fish food put in a short sock and tied to the inside with a wire tie. Dog food worked, but fish food worked better. I'd watch the weather so as not to put the trap in before a big rain and risk losing it to the creek coming up. Otherwise, I'd leave it in 24/7 and check it daily...changing the food sock out when it started to go rancid, every few days. Man, did it get to stinking and that lessened the catch. My creek would dry up to ground water pools most of the time, and I would move the trap from pool to pool as the catch weakened. I caught several hundred per year for two years in a row to add to my pond. They were scarcely ever over 2" long, but grew up to 5 or 6 inches long in the pond. Eventually, I stocked CC in the pond and the overabundance of large craws was over. That was about 3 years ago, but the craws are still there, but rarely seen. The plants are doing much better! I do miss trapping the craws out of the pond and having boils, but it was more of a chore, most of the time, as I was trying to get plants started and the craws really liked to uproot them.
