Cajun Crawfish Pie
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How To Catch Crawfish
Before we get serious and explain how to catch crawfish, I want to tell you a little story from my childhood. My best friend when I was about 6 years old (Justin) was our neighbor. Justin and I used to spend every day exploring the woods and waters around our homes. You didn't have to walk more than 100 feet to be in the true wilderness, so this was a real paradise for a couple of young minds. Jutsin and I would go "hunting" every day with our little pellet gun, and we always carried a cane pole to try and get lucky in the creeks. Cutting to the chase, our favorite bait to bring for the poles was hot dogs. We would always get nibbles on the hot dogs, but we never could catch the fish for some reason. One day we tried the hot dogs again, and when I got a bite I gently reeled it in instead of yanking back. To both of our surprise, what came out of the water wasn't any kind of a fish. It was a huge crawfish! We suddenly realized that we had found the secret to catching giant crawfish that live in the "deep" waters. needless to say, we went through every hot dog in both of our homes over the next few days. I still wonder how much each of those "giants" cost our parents. For us, those days were priceless. We were the crawfish catching masters!
If you don't want to use a cane pole and a hot dog (good idea, even though it is really fun), here is another way to catch crawfish. The first thing you need to do is find a good spot for catching them. You may have to test a few traps, but it won't take long to figure out if the water you are searching has plenty of crawfish. Just remember that crawfish need plenty of cover, and a lot of food (decomposing grass primarily). This means that you want to set traps around water with a lot of grass sticking up from it. If your water is deeper, look for areas that have a lot of rocks for algae to grow on, and these help to break the currents to give the little crawfish an easy hunting ground.
Secondly, you need to get the right kind of bait. You can put anything into a trap and probably catch a few, but the right kind of bait can make all the difference in the world. you can literally catch 13 more pounds per trap with the right bait set up. Everyone swears to different kinds of bait (chicken, cat food, etc.), but I swear that you can't beat fresh fish. You want a really oily fish, if possible. You should chop it up (guts, skin, and all) and freeze it before using it. You can use either a bait box or bait jar, but most people swear to a bait box. Simply take out your fresh chopped up fish that has been frozen and insert it into your trap.
Where does the bait go? In a crawfish trap! I will tell you that there are at least 100 different kinds of crawfish traps, and all of them work well for different situations. I'm tempted to tell you my favorite one, but that would ruin all of your fun. The basic idea is to set the bait into the trap so that it thaws out over a period of time. the oil in the fish will spread the scent over a large area, which will make the crawfish hunt the source down. the crawfish slide into the trap for the bait, but they aren't able to get out before you collect them from it. As long as your trap is giving off some scent, the crawfish will hang around it to feed. If you really want to get creative, you can make your own crawfish trap!
How To Make A Crawfish Trap
There was a time when Cajuns had to make their own traps from whatever was available. Those days are gone, but it's still fun to learn how to make a crawfish trap. Here are some directions to get you started:
- Get a 2' x 5' roll of 1/4" hardware cloth.
- Get a roll of stainless steel tie wires.
- Take the cloth and cut a section about 2' x 2' 4".
- Fold over so that it is a cylinder.
- Weave the wire to tie the two sides together.
- Use the rest of the cloth to cut out a 9.5" semi-circle.
- Fold the semi-circle in half along the straight edges. Now it has a funnel shape.
- Connect the halves of the straight edges together.
- Cut the pointed end off of the funnel to make a 2" hole.
- Insert the funnel piece into the cylinder one and fasten them together.
- Find a spot on the side of the cylinder to make a door. Draw a square section about 4.5" x 4.5".
- Use a marker to draw lines from one corner to the other in an X pattern.
- Cut along these X shaped lines and fold the flaps in. Fasten the flaps to the cylinder.
- Cut another piece of cloth about 7.5" x 13.5".
- Fold this in half and it will be your door.
- Lay the door over the opening to make two hinges and tie them together.
- Now you know how to make a crawfish trap!