With this years low water
conditions I just have not had the enthusiasm to go out for shad. My
interest has turned almost completely turned towards crawdads. I usually
dive for them, but it's a lot of work and sometimes I'm not always up
for that so I've been trying to get more into trapping for them. I have a
couple of traps I made last summer and I defiantly need to make more.
Only problem I have with them is the American river is a very popular hangout area for all crowds and leaving traps out there to soak I run a very high risk
of people tampering with my traps or just taking off with them and me
never seeing them again. First attempt I took my traps out trying to
take them to an area that has less traffic.
Gave the traps a full 24 hour soak from noon-noon the next day. Walked down to the river and could not have more perfect timing. Right as I saw the water I saw a man in his raft and his two kids with my trap in hand andpaddling their way down the river.
I walked right up to the shoreline and said "Hey you think you guys
could give me my trap back please?" I'm not here to start a fight with
anyone, I just want my trap back. The man kept quiet being caught red
handed and guilty, they gave me my trap back and we went on our separate
ways. Great to see parents teaching their kids how to steal, but as much as I wanted to say something to him again I'm not here for a fight.
When I got that trap back there was only one crawdad in it. Don't know if they dumped it or if someone else came along before them and emptied my trap on me but I lost some somewhere in the process cause most of my bait in there was gone. Next trap when I was pulling it in it got stuck under a rock and my line snapped from it. Sucks, but nothing I can't fix. I was half planning on this happening so I suited up in mydiving gear and swam out there to retrieve it. Got it out of there with 20+ crawdads inside.
Second attempt Deni and I went to a new area with hopefully less traffic. This time instead of leaving my lines tied to a tree along the shoreline for people to see I tied my lines to a rock and sunk them in the water so they are less viable and a little bit more challenging to retrieve. Sucks for me when I have to come and get them back, but I'm used to swimming in the river for hours to catch these guys so jumping in for 5 seconds to grab a line isn't too big of a deal.
Got both of my traps out after an overnight soak and got 30 between the two.
Pretty sweet getting lunch for myself with fairly minimal work. I'll have to make a lot more traps to get enough for a boil for friends if I want to keep doing this method, but its a lot of fun seeing your trap come up with it full of crawdads. Using shad as bait I got from my friends who are still trying for shad with the rough conditions.
Till Next Time Guys
Mark
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Gave the traps a full 24 hour soak from noon-noon the next day. Walked down to the river and could not have more perfect timing. Right as I saw the water I saw a man in his raft and his two kids with my trap in hand and
When I got that trap back there was only one crawdad in it. Don't know if they dumped it or if someone else came along before them and emptied my trap on me but I lost some somewhere in the process cause most of my bait in there was gone. Next trap when I was pulling it in it got stuck under a rock and my line snapped from it. Sucks, but nothing I can't fix. I was half planning on this happening so I suited up in my
Second attempt Deni and I went to a new area with hopefully less traffic. This time instead of leaving my lines tied to a tree along the shoreline for people to see I tied my lines to a rock and sunk them in the water so they are less viable and a little bit more challenging to retrieve. Sucks for me when I have to come and get them back, but I'm used to swimming in the river for hours to catch these guys so jumping in for 5 seconds to grab a line isn't too big of a deal.
Got both of my traps out after an over
| This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768. |
| This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768. |
Pretty sweet getting lunch for myself with fairly minimal work. I'll have to make a lot more traps to get enough for a boil for friends if I want to keep doing this method, but its a lot of fun seeing your trap come up with it full of crawdads. Using shad as bait I got from my friends who are still trying for shad with the rough conditions.
Till Next Time Guys
Mark
| This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768. |
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