Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking a new pond with RES, YP and SMB

I wondered about this also. I was not sure with the crawdad trap if it was supposed to be used in shallow water with the ramp just submerged, or if it could also be used in deeper water. Like I said, where I used it in two different places, only caught a few, so maybe this particular design is not very good.

Crab and lobster pots (as well as fish) all use the idea of a small cone shaped hole so the bugs can not find their way back out.

I used to think that my minnow trap did not work very well as I usually only caught a hand full at a time. Then a couple weeks ago I baited it with some floating fish food and threw it out while I was feeding the FHM's in shallow water around the pond. Holy cow! Came back in about an hour and the trap was jam packed with FHM's about half full. Some had to be running back out of the hole because the trap was filled up to the hole when I drug it out of the water. That day I used that trap to catch probably around 5 pounds of minnows to move to my son's newly renovated pond to stock it. The FHM's had to be pushing each other out of the way trying to get in as I rarely had to leave it in the water over a half hour to have it 1/4 to 1/3 full. They were in a feeding frenzy I guess after a long winter.

Point is, maybe I just did not have the crawdad trap in the right location or at the right time to catch large numbers of crayfish. Might try it again this spring just for kicks. My guess is the bugs crawl in but can not crawl back out. I think the only time they really "swim" is when they are feeling threatened or attacked and they swim backwards by propelling themselves with their tails. At least that is what they do when trying to catch them by hand. I think either using the crayfish specific trap or a fish trap it is going to need to sit on the bottom for the bugs to crawl up into the hole. I could be wrong, but any I have ever seen while scuba diving at night will be crawling around on the bottom of the lake. Same thing with lobsters diving in the ocean (they are just really big salt water crayfish). Only timne you see them swimming is very fast backward when threatened.