How to Make Crawfish Traps

Whether you call them crawfish, crawdads, or crayfish, these little guys are tasty! Lucky for us they are easy to catch, easy to cook, and easy to eat. If you have a waterway near you, rig up one of these traps and see if you can catch a few.

Things You'll Need

• About 8 feet worth of 2 ½ foot high welded wire
• Wire coat hanger
• Regular pliers
• Needlenose pliers
• Wire cuter
• Gloves
• Rope
• Bait

Instructions

1. 

   This is a perfect use for old pieces of wire and stuff you have laying around but if you have to purchase the materials try and get welded wire with smaller size holes. The half-inch size is fine. It doesn't matter too much what size you get, just remember, too big and the crawfish can walk right out of the trap, too small and the holes might get clogged with debris from the water.

2. After collecting all the materials needed for the trap, put your gloves on. Any time you are dealing with wire you should wear gloves. Some of those edges can end up sharp and wire makes a wicked cut.

3. 

   Untwist the wire hanger and straighten it out. Using the wire cutters, snip off several pieces of the hanger so that each piece is about 1 inch long. Bend each length into a shallow half circle and then set them aside. Alternatively, you can use any other lengths of wire you have laying around instead of the clothes hanger. Just cut and bend them the same as the clothes hanger.

4. 

   Now take the length of the welded wire and measure out about 2 1/2 feet square or so. Form this into a circle and use the cut ends to hold in this shape while you get the pieces of clothes hanger and your needlenose pliers. (I've used poster board for the examples instead of the wire because it stands out better in the photographs and it's easier to see what I'm try to show.)

5. Start in the middle and wrap a piece of clothes hanger around the seam. Wrap it around the seam at least once and then use the pliers to crimp it on. Do another one a couple inches to the side and then another until the entire seam is held closed by the wire pieces. You should now have a hollow tube of wire.

6. 

   Take another piece of welded wire and cut so that it is 1 foot by 2 1/2 feet in size. When this is formed into a circle it should be the same diameter as the hollow tube you already made, but only about 1 foot long instead of 2 1/2. Put the two short ends together and form a loop. Don't wire it shut just yet, see if it fits okay into the longer hollow tube. If not, overlap the short edges until it can fit right inside the edge of the tube.

7. 

   Look at your loop of wire. This needs to become a funnel shape with the bigger opening wired to the hollow tube and the smaller opening where the crawfish will enter. The smaller hole should end up about 4 inches in diameter or so. To do this you will need to make a few pleats in the loop. It doesn't have to be perfect, just bend the wire into a sort of funnel shape. When you have formed it to this shape you can wire the seam shut, the same way you did with the hollow tube.

8. 

   Place the funnel of welded wire into the hollow tube so that the point of the funnel is about halfway down the inside and the wide opening of the funnel is flush with the end of the tube.

9. 

   Wire the wide end to the edge of the tube with more pieces of clothes hanger.

10. 

    On the other end of the trap, you will need to create a circle to cover the opening yet be able to undo it so that you can get the crawfish out and place more bait in. Using the hollow tube end as a pattern, measure out a circle onto another piece of welded wire.

11. 

    Cut the circle out.

12. 

    Use one piece of coat hanger to attach the circle to the open end of the hollow tube. This will act as a hinge.

13. Now use a few more pieces of coat hanger to attach the door all the way around the diameter of the circle, but don't twist them really tight. You will need to undo them every time you want to get into the cage, so only twist them on enough to hold the door shut and not let anybody escape.

14. Tie the rope around the trap so that it will lay flat in the water but not come loose. If you want, you can cut a couple of small holes in the trap so that you can feed the rope through and tie it off. Just make sure the rope is going to stay attached somehow so that you don't have a trap that washes away.

15. Go out to a freshwater stream, pond, or lake. Look for an area about a few feet deep or less with not a lot of current. Set it in an area with a lot of underwater weeds or pieces of rock for the best results.

16. When you find a nice spot, place some bait inside your trap. The bait can be anything from fish pieces to a partially opened can of fishy-flavor cat food. Some people swear by the canned cat food, but many people dismiss this as a myth. Others really like a can of tuna that's been punctured. Use what you have on hand and keep trying until you find something your crawfish like. Close the door and make sure no crawfish will be able to escape once they get in.

17. Set the cage into the water. Tie off the other end of the rope to something nearby so that the trap doesn't get lost.

18. Now, wait. Leave the trap in the water for an hour or so or even overnight. Crawfish come out mainly in the evenings and night, so leaving the trap in all night should net you some good results but if the waterway is really popular with people you may not feel safe leaving your trap there alone. If you do leave it there, remember where you've placed it so that you can find it again. If it is your own pond or stream you can even paint the top of the rope a bright color so that you can see it easier. If you do this, don't color the rope below the waterline. It could scare away the crawfish.

19. After waiting a while, pull your trap up. There should be a few of these marvelous little bug-eyed creatures inside. If not, move the trap to another area or try a different bait until you get the hang of it. Just about every waterway in the US has crawdads in it, the trick is to making them want to go in your trap by putting your trap in the areas they frequent and baiting it with something they like.

20. Now, have dinner. Boiled, in a stew, or fried, crawfish are always a tasty dish.

Tips & Warnings

• Use whatever miscellaneous pieces of wire and stuff that you have handy, the crawfish won't care what the trap looks like.

• If making a trap sounds like too much work but you still want to catch a few-just buy a trap. Crawfish traps are readily available for purchase from most sporting goods stores as well as online at places like Cabella's and Frabill's.

• Check your local fishing requirements for details on catching practices. Many states require you to have a fishing license and others limit where you can place traps. Don't break the law-no matter how good crawdaddies taste.

Resources

• Crawdad Catching 101
• Ultimate Fishing-about halfway down