Shrimping and Crawfishing

Warwalk · #1 02/14/12, 10:33 AM

I just recently moved to Southeast Texas (Houston area) and hear that alot of folks go shrimping and crawfishing. I've seen some of the videos on youtube, and wondered what kind of personal experiences any of y'all might have had with this? For shrimp, I've seen people throwing out cast nets left and right, and some seem to pull in ten to fifteen at a time, others hardly anything. Same thing with crawfishing... anyone familiar with any good areas for doing this along the Texas coast or any information about what a day doing this would be like? Fishing is fun, in that you're never exactly sure what you're going to hook... but shrimping and crawfishing sound like a good change of pace in that you more or less know ~exactly~ what you're going to get, and it's just a question of how much.

Any stories or insights are appreciated =) (and they don't have to be Texas specific...)

ninny · #2 02/14/12, 11:19 AM

Push net works better than a cast net for shrimp. Don't know about crawfish.

.

Simpler Times · #3 02/14/12, 11:27 AM

Well, you never really know "exactly what you are going to get" lol. Commercially they use trawls off of fishing boats for the shrimp. Most use traps to catch large quantities of crayfish (or crawdads as most call them). You see people pushing the wire scoops in ditches along the road for crayfish too. You can also wade with a net and light to spot shrimp at night. Their eyes shine and you can dip them pretty easily that way. Don't overlook blue crabs for a fun fishing experience. They are great eating too. I use to run a line of about 50 "pots" (traps made of coated chicken wire) of my own a hundred or so that belonged to a friend. Another fish had a softshell crab setup. He would buy my little ones and even big ones if they were near molt. He held them till molt then sold them to high dollar restaurants. He built the whole setup himself, basically large making plywood holding trays for the different stage crabs.

Warwalk · #4 02/14/12, 12:09 PM

This is some good information yall. I know at least with shrimp that the location, method, and time of year is of extreme importance here in Tx, and that if you're caught with any of those three out of whack you can wind up with a pretty hefty fine.

For me, this is for fun as much as anything, although the prospect of sitting around all day to pick up a half pound wouldn't be so much fun. I'm hopeful (I suppose like everyone) to have hauls big enough to actually have a decent meal and then some off of such an adventure.

Ninny, what were your experiences with the push-net like compared to cast net? Like, would you go out for a few hours and come back with a half pound or so? Or five pounds?

Simpler Times, were your pots for the crayfish or for the crabs? I've seen some videos where a guy paddles along a canal dropping these open top mesh "baskets"... like the collapsible kind that hang in some people's kitchens. He drops about 30 or so as he paddles along, and then basically heads back to the start and proceeds to yanking them up. He seemed to do pretty well with this method, filling a half basket or so in what was probably about an hour's time.

If it were up to me (and if it were legal), I'd love to just catch the shrimp coming in or out of the bays with a big ol' eight foot butterfly net kind of contraption... just dipping it in the water and pullin' em out.

ninny · #5 02/14/12, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warwalk

This is some good information yall. I know at least with shrimp that the location, method, and time of year is of extreme importance here in Tx, and that if you're caught with any of those three out of whack you can wind up with a pretty hefty fine.

For me, this is for fun as much as anything, although the prospect of sitting around all day to pick up a half pound wouldn't be so much fun. I'm hopeful (I suppose like everyone) to have hauls big enough to actually have a decent meal and then some off of such an adventure.

Ninny, what were your experiences with the push-net like compared to cast net? Like, would you go out for a few hours and come back with a half pound or so? Or five pounds?

Simpler Times, were your pots for the crayfish or for the crabs? I've seen some videos where a guy paddles along a canal dropping these open top mesh "baskets"... like the collapsible kind that hang in some people's kitchens. He drops about 30 or so as he paddles along, and then basically heads back to the start and proceeds to yanking them up. He seemed to do pretty well with this method, filling a half basket or so in what was probably about an hour's time.

If it were up to me (and if it were legal), I'd love to just catch the shrimp coming in or out of the bays with a big ol' eight foot butterfly net kind of contraption... just dipping it in the water and pullin' em out.

We use castnet for catching small fish for bait. Holes in the net are generally too large for shrimp, they get out. With a pushnet, you can scoop the shrimp off the bottom and cover a lot more area with less effort. Buy a minnow sein and make you a pushnet. Depending on the area, you can pick up some good shrimp. Here's a good youtube video of a pushnet. Read the comments below the video. The pushnet we used was quite a bit bigger but you can make it any size that you want. Just don't make it too big or it gets too hard to handle. With a pushnet you can stop and pick the net up and check/remove what shrimp you have. With a castnet you generally have to go back to shore to check your catch.
Here's the youtube video:

Good luck...

.

Kmac15 · #6 02/14/12, 02:17 PM

When my dad goes shrimping he uses a cast net. He also buys a permit to bait them. Not sure what goes in it, but it stinks and is mixed with clay. He drops the bait then comes back a little bit later and pulls net after net of shrimp up.
I love to crab, man them things are good.

suzyhomemaker09 · #7 02/14/12, 03:10 PM

We've crawfished with nothing more elaborate than a stick piece of fishing line and a cup of chicken livers...liver on line and dip in the water near a tree root that hangs over....crawfish just cover it up..lift and drop em in a bucket...rinse repeat

Also have caught them in minnow traps that had the hole made a bit larger...drop liver in a baby food jar that has a couple of holes punched in the top, place inside trap put in the water late afternoon and pick it up the next morning. They are good eating...round here you only need a fishing permit...you have to have your name affixed to the trap..but that's simple.

Warwalk · #8 02/14/12, 05:23 PM

Holy shnikees, really? That's awesome! I'd read that things like chicken didn't work, but if chicken livers will do the trick so much for the better. I'd read about various types of "oily fish"... but honestly it probably to an extent depends on the climate, and what's available to the crawfish on a regular basis... or something like that. That's some very good news Suzy, and it's amazing how far afield crawfish will travel (I mean, I know we had them in Georgia, but not to any significant numbers in the northern part of the state). I guess, for me, a good mix would be: One full day = One full basket (basket size depending on how optimistic or pessimistic one might be, lol

I'm reading through my Tx Hunting and Fishing Reg's right now, and it seems pretty open with crawfish.

nobrabbit · #9 02/14/12, 05:36 PM

I second the chicken bait for crawdads.

Here in KY we don't have the eating type of crawdad but we do have small ones in creeks that make great fishing bait. Friday dinner is usually buffalo wings and afterwards husband baits the trap with the wing bones and skins. I don't know if it's the chicken or the wing sauce but boy are those traps full the next morning!

stamphappy · #10 02/14/12, 07:07 PM

Some people use canned cat food for crab here in Washington. Would probably work for crawdads.

When my brother took my kids crawdad'ing in Montana, they didn't do it for quantity; they did it for fun. It was sure a great time watching them catching by hand all those tasty morsels.

sunflower-n-ks · #11 02/14/12, 07:31 PM

Here, on the prairie, we would use the fishing line and chicken liver, but would cover the liver with some old nylon hose or something to keep the liver on the hook. The crawdads would grab it and hold on long enough to pull them from the water, then it would go out again. The rocks on the dam of a large lake was one real good spot. Just drop the bait down between the rocks.

They weren't very big, but each one would make a bite of "lobster".

Oldcountryboy · #12 02/14/12, 08:22 PM

I do crawfishing right up here in N.E. Oklahoma. But, things are different compared to S.E. Texas and Lousyanna. Here we have clear streams and we bait up round basket type traps and drop them in the water for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Speaking of crawdads, we had a panfull just this last weekend. I usually catch quit a few and freeze them so I can periodically have some to eat on once in a while. So this last Saturday we put on a pot of red beans with all the good spices and sausage and then served it over rice with a side plate of crawfish. Just almost thought we was cajuns!

Warwalk · #13 02/14/12, 09:15 PM

Oldcountryboy, If I understand you correctly, that's a very similar arrangement to what I've seen on some of the youtube videos. Basically it's kind of like the basket that some people have hanging in their kitchen... like, the kind they put potatoes and onions and miscellaneous stuff in. You snag the bait in the middle, drop it from a canoe or flat-bottom boat, and the buouy floats to the top... let the crawdads do their business, and then before they get full snatch those nets up (and quick!). At least, I think this is what you're talking about (?)... What were your experiences with this? How many would you net off of such a venture? Was it worth your while, or more like a snack? Lordy I wish I could find the style of trap you're talking about, as so much of what's online is more like a box, and that's not what I'm looking for. Red beans sounds danged good too!

starlady · #14 02/14/12, 09:24 PM

Shrimp around where my parents live (southern Alabama) like rabbit food. My dad tosses a handful in the water where they have their boat slip, goes and does a couple of things like fill the cooler with ice, get the picnic out of the truck, etc. and then comes back and tosses the bait net in. He usually gets a double handful or so which we use for fishing bait - unless they're large, in which case we put them in the cooler for later

KMA1 · #15 02/15/12, 07:56 AM

I always used a pocket sein with flapper boards pulled behind a boat for shrimp. Usually went out in lower Mobile Bay when we lived down there. Just a smaller version of what the gulf boats used. Very effective, and tons of fun identifying the incidental catch. On a good day, you can catch maybe 25-40 pounds in an hour. For crawfish, modified minnow traps worked best. Set several out and check them later, relax or fish in between. Or just leave them out overnight.

NoClue · #16 02/15/12, 10:32 AM

I grew up in that part of Texas. My dad used cast nets for shrimp, and he and another guy had a special net they made and they would wade through the ditches, with one on each side of the net for crawfish. Lots of men had these nets, but I never knew they had a name, and it never occurred to me to ask - they were just something people had. Whenever there was a heavy flooding rain, there was tough competition for a ditch to go crawdadding, and practically every ditch would have people in it with their nets.

I moved away from the area a long time ago, but my dad's favorite place for cast net fishing was in the estuary along the Galveston causway, a couple miles before the bridge if you're headed down from Houston (We lived in Galveston, so it was the other way around for us). I don't know the state of the estuary or fishing anymore, but as recently as a few years ago, my brother-in-law was fishining in that area. We also caught all of our own bait there in the estuary.

DAVID In Wisconsin · #17 02/15/12, 10:52 AM

Yall have made me hungry for crawfish. It'll be crawfish etoufee for lunch today. I grew up in the rice fields of south Louisiana. Crawfish are easy to catch with a flat crawfish net, some bait and a long pole. You should be able to buy crawfish nets cheap. They'll bite on most any meat. We use hunt different critters to use as bait. My mother almost had a stroke when she opened her freezer years ago and discovered a huge nutria rat I stuck in there whole to use as bait.

Txrider · #18 02/15/12, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warwalk

Oldcountryboy, If I understand you correctly, that's a very similar arrangement to what I've seen on some of the youtube videos. Basically it's kind of like the basket that some people have hanging in their kitchen... like, the kind they put potatoes and onions and miscellaneous stuff in. You snag the bait in the middle, drop it from a canoe or flat-bottom boat, and the buouy floats to the top... let the crawdads do their business, and then before they get full snatch those nets up (and quick!). At least, I think this is what you're talking about (?)... What were your experiences with this? How many would you net off of such a venture? Was it worth your while, or more like a snack? Lordy I wish I could find the style of trap you're talking about, as so much of what's online is more like a box, and that's not what I'm looking for. Red beans sounds danged good too!

I grew up in coastal Texas down in Galveston and Brazoria counties, and some time over in Port Arthur..

That kind of bucket trap will work in about any fresh water for crawdads, any bayou, lake pond, whatever. You can make one with some wire and hardware cloth. Or you can just put a little meat on a string and drop it in for a few minutes and then slowly pull it up slow enough that the crawdads won't let go and get em one by one. I build something like this.. http://www.basspro.com/Deluxe-Crawfi...SSSELL_PRODUCT

And I build it out of hardware cloth. Bait it, toss it in from the bank, come back and clean it out later.

Same for blue crabs, but a box type trap works better, you can make one from chicken wire in a few minutes easily enough, wire it together with baling wire. You can catch a ice chest full on bays and such with a few traps overnight. Or just toss meat on a string into salt water anywhere, and pull em in one by one. I build crab traps like this.. http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/...showimage.html and again you can toss em in from the bank, come back and check em at intervals.

Shrimp are a bit harder, I have filled 5 gallon buckets with them from a cast net, but there's an art to cast netting. You really have to know where the shrimp are and when. Easy enough in shallow bays when the tide is coming in you just watch where the birds are eating them, usually when the current is washing them up from a deep spot and over a shallow sand bar. Usually need a boat to get out to em though. The only time I have gotten a lot of shrimp from the bank cast netting was in a power station cooling pond right on the coast...

You can do all this without a boat, but a little flat bottom john boat with a small outboard can get you access to a lot more places.

Then there is flounder gigging, a whole nother sport..

JuliaAnn · #19 02/15/12, 11:39 AM

About crabbing... when I was little, we would go crabbing down by the monument somewhere, or down off 146 by the power plant. Us kids would use a chicken neck tied to some strong twine, and dip nets. It was a lot of fun to lure the crabs in and my brother was the dip net artist. Once we ended up with a cooler full of crabs just using chicken necks on string and dip nets, crabbing off the rocky shallows.

Blackbear · #20 02/15/12, 09:11 PM

I crawfish with a trap in the creek behind the house, have not caught many big ones.