Funny you should ask. We've caught lots of crawdads in the past with traps. So far the best bait we've found is cheap chunk albacore in a can and - believe it or not - corn - canned or on the cob. When we've used corn on the cob, it was actually after we had already eaten the corn off it. With the cans, you just poke a bunch of holes in them and put them in the traps.
This time however, we put out some traps right on the edge of the Truckee River but because the fishing was really slow, we took a little line and a treble hook and put a worm on it. It takes a while for crawdads to climb into a trap so rather than wait, we dropped the worm in front of the things as they crawled up. There was a virtual crawdad parade coming toward the traps.
About half the time, when they latch on to it, they don't let go until you have them on the bank. It was pretty fun really. A couple times, I got double hookers when the things were fighting over the worm and wouldn't let go. Sometimes, they were little pussies and would let go every time you tried to lift so we'd let them concentrate on the worm while we just reached in and grabbed them.
Most of the time though, we drop tube style traps in about 20 feet of water in a lake and retrieve them just before dark. We redrop them overnight if we are camping.
This was more fun.
Damn... that sounds like fun.
Punching holes in a can of tuna is a bait that I see in lobster traps sometimes. Believe it or not... Florida lobsters are able to chew open those cans completely, and remember, they don't have claws. Surprised to hear about the corn as bait.
The best bait down here for blue crabs is raw chicken... I usually use chicken necks. The crabs will pinch on to the chicken and not let go like what you described with the crawdads.
We don't have good sized crawdads down here... at least that I am aware of. We have a crawdad trap that we've thrown out in our old lake and caught very few ever... and they were small. Back in The 808 though... Holy Fucking Shit Man the crawdads were gigantic. They were like small Maine lobsters with huge claws.
I've got this thing called a Can Cooker. It looks like an old aluminum milk container. It basically steams whatever you cook in it. I use it on the stove but you can even put it directly on a camp fire. That's what I use for my Low Country Boils. Look up Can Cooker and you'll see it.
I'm gonna have to do one now thanks to you posting this. It's been too long since my last one. I like to put clams, shrimp, crab, sausage, potatoes, onions, and corn in mine as the main ingredients... but I add other stuff sometimes too. I can find live crawdads at my local Seafood Market sometimes. So maybe I'll be able to throw some of those in too.
