Hey Guys and Gals,

I finally have the right habitat in place for crawfish but I need your advice. Stock the paper shell craws now as the water is cooling (if I can get them) or wait till next summer?

Bill D.

My opinion would be to stock them now so you can get a spawn next spring. If you wait until next year, it will probably be June before they ship and will be YOY. Not a big deal but you will not get your first spawn until Spring 2017.

Thanks for the input Ben. Second question is how many to stock for a 1/3 to 1/2 acre pond (water table pond so level fluctuates)?

I ordered 200 (3/4 acre pond) and they got big quick. If you have nothing large to feed on them I would probably do 100. Shipping was as much as the crayfish so I would order enough to where you are comfortable you are not going to have to re-order. I got mine through Smith Creek Farms.

Thanks Ben. I was going to go thru Smith Creek as well. I was thinking 200 as you mentioned shipping is expensive. I have bass that I am sure will welcome them with open mouth! Also stocking a few WE this fall.

Bill, if you already have bass id stock atleast 500 or so and Id agree to go ahead and stock now.

Thanks for the input Jamie. I don't have many bass so I think I will go with 200 if I can get them this week.

You have lots of places for them to hide?

They will multiply quite fast if they are not getting eaten. We stocked about 100 but the perch were not able to eat the big guys and with 12 feet of 4" medium rip rap all around the 1 acre pond they have lots of good hiding.

Found they will move up and down with the water quite well. Great great feed. I underestimated how fast the multiply. New young for me will be 1.5"-2" right now from this springs spawn.

Cheers Don.

LMB can wipe out a lot of craws. Cool water will slow that down some. I would do all I could to get them in good cover asap. Put them directly in the rocks or thick brush. I will find some info.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=25597&page=1

There is an entire section in this link on transporting live crawfish pg. 5-6 .

http://srac.tamu.edu/tmppdfs/8989590-SRAC2402.pdf

Add this to your considerations.

Abstract.—We attempted to control a population of papershell crayfish (Orconectes immunis) in an 11-hectare fish-rearing impoundment in Jackson County, Wisconsin, by using traps and by stocking largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). Crayfish were harvested with traps during the summer of 1985, and the pond was stocked with 386 largemouth bass (mean weight, 1.1 kg) in spring 1986. The pond was drained in the fall of 1985 and 1986, and crayfish burrow counts were made to estimate the population. In 1985, we trapped more than 18,000 crayfish, of which 72% were adult males. Trapping had minor effect on the young-of-the-year crayfish. In 1986, the crayfish population was reduced by 98%, predation by largemouth bass being the probable major cause of the reduction.

my lake house in WI has Rusty Crayfish in it, I know the Small Mouth are totally Keyed in on them as a food source. I do not harvest the Small Mouth but in the last decade the Large Mouth seem to be more and mroe abundant so I started harvesting some of them. I always check the contents and I would say 90-95 % have crayfish and 5-10% fish of some sort in the stomachs.

Just closing the loop - I was unable to get crawfish for fall stocking. I checked Smith Creek for papershells, but they only ship them June thru September so I will hit them with an order late May 2016. Also, if anyone is considering ordering fish from Smith Creek, they only ship those in New York. Crawfish laws are apparently less stringent so they ship those across state lines.

Wow - Glad we ordered ours Sept 30!

Dang! Snooze you lose! Should have ordered a month ago!

I am curious, how big were they? I am now hoping a very early spring order will get me larger craws, maybe some with berry.