Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Crayfish Dealer in Georgia?

Does anyone know of a crayfish dealer in Georgia or one in the Southeast that ships to Georgia?

Thanks

Wesley

I don't see any listed in my Aquaculture Magazine
Buyer's Guide in Georgia, but here are some in South Carolina, Mississippi and Florida:

Noel Alon
2045 Cheltenham Lane
Columbia, SC 29223
803-738-0372
Fax: 803-738-0372
Email: nca7@email.com

Merigold Crawfish
P.O. Box 149
123 Golf Street
Merigold, MS 38759
601-748-2353

Stick-Fins Catfish Farms
3800 CR-13 South
Elkton, FL 32033
904-692-1252
Fax: 904-692-4744
Email: sfins1248@aol.com

I believe you can ship crawfish quite far, as unlike most fish, they can breath out of water as long as they are kept moist.

Wes, I was wondering the same thing. I know a cleint who stocked his pond from some he bought at the Dekalb Farmers Market. I believe they are only seasonal there, and a little pricey. Let me know if you find a good source and we may be able to ship in a larger quantity for cheaper dollars. BTW I went a little west of Dallas yesterday (Draketown), and we shot a truck load of Canada's. The pondowner was happy to see them gone. With the limit of 5/p/p you can get some serious Goose action out your way.
Greg Grimes

Greg, I did the same thing last spring, bought about 100 crawfish twice at the DeKalb Market and put them in my pond. My question is since putting them in I have seen no evidence of the crawfish. How do I know if they survived?
Do you think this is a waste of money to do each spring?

Duggan, put out a minnow trap baited with any type meat (hot dogs work well)and you will catch crawfish if they are there. My expereince shows that either they takeoff from a stocking or they are a one time expensive bass meal. Lots of characteristics must exist for them to prosper. I would rather someone spend their money on a good fertilization program if the pond is a fertilizer canidate.

I just bought a crayfish trap and was wondering what is the best thing to use for bait? I am going to stock bass in June, so I figured this would be the best time to try and get a crayfish population going.

Wesley
Dallas, GA

I have used died fish, but most anything works well in the traps. I know I used to catch them when trout fishing as they held on to my salmon eggs. Wes what bass are you stocking the F1's I hope?

75 F1's and 25 Florida.

I just put 20 lbs (average length of 4") of crawdads in my 1 1/2 acre pond. I bought them from http://www.lacrawfish.com/bulk.html

Wesley, Did they all get delivered alive?

There were roughly 400 crayfish and about 30 died. I don't know if they were already dead or if the cold water shocked them. They all looked good.

Wesley,
If you don't mind telling what was the price for 400?

$95. $4.75/lb @ 20lbs. They toke me there were roughly 17-19 crawdads per pound. May have been more like 350 crawdads.

Excuse the stupid question but... The web site looks like a supplier for crawfish dinners. (I know they are shipped alive) Will these crawfish be capable of survival and reproduction in NC? Is now a good time to introduce them?

Thanks Wesley for the info. Keep us posted on how survivial is going.

Wes,here in so. La. we begin eating crayfish in Nov. They are small and pricie. As water warms up they grow larger and supply increases. Therefore price comes down.Have friends in the business. If you can wait till supplies increase I may be able to help you out. Once you eat them you might not want to feed your fish with them!!

Gerard,
Please keep me informed I may have a few orders if the price is right. Greg Grimes 770-735-3523

Greg, do you know how much crayfish you might want? My email is gpontiff@hotmail.com. Keep in touch,Gerard.

Okay here's a thread I can't resist posting to...
Gerard, I see you're in Houma, I grew up in Thibodaux!

Greg, I'm not far from you now, up in Duluth, and I can't go very long without having a crawfish boil here at my house. Luckily I don't have to buy mine locally, because the quality of the crawfish you get here is quite poor. What I do is have my parents drive up from the Pensacola area, prior to leaving they get some from over in Gulfport, Mississippi. In another month or so as the season hits full stride, they should get down to around $1/LB live, give or take. Now that I'm on a lake, I've thought about bringing in a couple of extra sacks... sack for me, sack for the fish.. another for me, another for the fish...
They make the drive fine from there to here, it's only about 6 hrs, so if you're really serious it's worth your time to just take a quick trip (it'll be cheaper in the long run compared to paying $4.25 a pound!)

Wesley-whats the diff. between F1's & Florida Bass---am also looking for crawfish in the Dallas Tx. or East Tx. area. Harvey

TopH20... let me know when their coming in and I will take all your parents want to mess with. I'll pay them extra for their time. Just give me some time so I can let clients know their coming. Email direct if you wish lakeservices@mindspring.com
Harvey... A F1 is a cross between a pure Florida and pure northern subspecies of largemouth bass. Florida is well a Florida subspecies. SOme folks like to mix since the Floridas may have the potential to grow a little larger. The northern subspecies is known to be more agressive thus more catchable. The F1 are an excellent choice for both catcahablility and growth rates.

Received my 20lbs last week, resisted the glares of my wife and kids and added them to the forage base of the lake and not the pot....Now a quick question, Can I expect to see any trace of them and if so where would they most likely be? Water temps are in the 40's.

Greg,
Couple options to present to you here. First is to just let my parents bring up a couple extra sacks, they drive a jeep cherokee so after you take out space for the 2 sacks I plan to eat and the 2 sacks I plan to put in my lake, there's probably not a whole ton of room.
Second option would involve my little brother, who drives a big Ford F350 and lives in Gulfport, Mississippi. He estimates he could easily fit 75-100 sacks in his truck bed, but the problem is he only gets 9 mpg so it would potentially be an expensive trip (about $150 in gas round trip). Also, he wouldn't be available to make a run until late March. If you can give me a better estimate as to how many sacks (40 lb per sack) you'd be interested in, I can have him start pricing, if we get enough there may be a bulk discount of sorts from the dealers.

Additional info: Option 3 would be my parents driving up with a small trailer (motorcycle trailer), but all the sacks would have to travel in ice chests. Feel free to email me at toph2o@bellsouth.net if you'd like to talk further.