How can you easily catch crawfish for live bait?

[TimDavey10]

How can you easily catch crawfish for live bait?

[PapaSmurf]

Just turn over medium sized stones in shallow water. If you need a large number use a minnow seine. Have someone shuffle through the water up stream turning over stones with their feet and at the same time moving upstream with the seine. Only keep the ones that are abundant in your area. Some crawfish are endangered.

[DSMbirddog]

You can also buy a trap at Cabela's or make one out of hardware cloth. I bought oen that is shaped like a box. It works great and wasn't expensive. I trap them in a lake in MN and eat them.

[buckeye]

I make my traps out of two liter pop bottles. Just cut the top off about an inch after it straightens out. put some holes in it to let water flow through. Throw in a rock to weigh it down and a can of sardines with holes punched in it. Then duct tape the top back on with the mouth of the bottle inside facing the bottm of the bottle. They will swim in but can't figure out how to swim out.

[TheCampyMom]

Just safety pin some meat (like bacon or a small piece of chicken) to a net. They make little nets for crawfishing, but a little fishing net with a handle would probably work well, too. Just try to prop the handle up on a log or something, so you will be able to see it and pick it up.

So... pin the meat onto the net and place the net in a ditch filled with water or another place with shallow water. Leave the net there for about 10-15 minutes. Then just pick up the net. If there are any crawfish in that little area, they will be in the net.

[Okwaho]

I get plenty in the same trap I use for minnows, the standard wire-mesh tubular thing with the concave ends. A sludge of sardines and crackers is what I always use for minnows, and there are always a dozen or so crawdads after one night in the crick. I would guess that a meatier bait like liver would get more crawdads.