Crayfish expert

[PaulK]

The other evening, as I waded off a favorite stream, I saw EVERY rock bigger than a bowling ball with at least three crayfish crawling on top of it. But these crayfish were 2"-2-1/2" long. Are these young of the year crayfish. I see plenty of dead crayfish carcasses up to 5" in the creek, but these little guys were simply everywhere, everywhere. Anyone care to explain what I saw.

It almost seems ludicrous to carry mayfly and caddisfly imitations in my vest when the streambed is crawling with crayfish. No wonder I saw no large fish feeding on top at dusk.---Paul

 

[FarmerDave]

Probably not young of this year, but maybe last year's.

I'be never seen that many out in the open. Maybe it's mating season or they are molting or something. But yea, if I saw that, I'd pull out a crafish pattern, or a wooly bugger in about the same color if I didn't have a crayfish pattern with me. wooly Buggers are one of my must carry flies pretty much no matter where I go.

 

[franklin]

PaulK wrote:
The other evening, as I waded off a favorite stream, I saw EVERY rock bigger than a bowling ball with at least three crayfish crawling on top of it. But these crayfish were 2"-2-1/2" long. Are these young of the year crayfish. I see plenty of dead crayfish carcasses up to 5" in the creek, but these little guys were simply everywhere, everywhere. Anyone care to explain what I saw.

It almost seems ludicrous to carry mayfly and caddisfly imitations in my vest when the streambed is crawling with crayfish. No wonder I saw no large fish feeding on top at dusk.---Paul

I've always noticed a lot of crayfish on Penns. Often wondered how a crayfish pattern would work. I asked several shops in the area and they all said it was the first time anyone ever asked about it. On my list of experiments for the summer.

 

[pcray1231]

Back in my baitfishing days, live crayfish were decent brown trout bait, specially bigger browns but not as good on the smaller ones. They kind of sucked on (stocked) rainbows.

They are just murderous on smallmouths, though. Ridiculous.

Of course, the thing that sucked about it was that you'd spend half the day catching the darn things.

A few things I noticed. Had to be the smaller ones, those big ones sucked. And softshells were noticably better than hard shells.

Some of the "dead" crayfish you see on bottoms are just the shell after a live one molts.

 

[Swattie87]

I agree with pcray...they're a huge food source for fish in warmer water streams. I've had days where it seemed like every Smallie and Redbreast I caught had claws and antenae sticking out of their mouths. Never thought of using a crayfish imitation for trout though...most of the trout streams I fish are small and cold though...not ideal for crayfish. It seems to reason they'd be a significant food source for big Browns in bigger transition water streams though. Big Browns behave a lot like Smallies in those streams.

 

[bingsbaits]

Got these ready for some big Browns in the river...

 

[caveman]

I caught a large rainbow on a Crayfish imitation in the donegal back in early spring. We used to use them for trout bait when I used bait. Trout will smack them given the chance.

 

[Fredrick]

Bing try making them with the claws smaller it makes it look like a easier meal

 

[Fishidiot]

Paul,
Interesting. Judging by the size of the crayfish they probably aren't young of the year but I'm not sure. Typically, crayfish live about 2 years but can reach 4, maybe more and this time of year the YOY should be visible but I'd think they'd be smaller (more in the range of about 1-1.5" body length). YOY crays will molt repeatedly in their first year to facilitate rapid growth so it's a tough call. Many crays will die after spawning and that may explain the numbers of dead you saw. Perhaps the heavy crayfish activity you witnessed could be attributed to rapid water temp rise(?).
Whatever the case, I'd say, a crayfish pattern would be a hot ticket on the water where you were fishing. Bass guys love crayfish patterns but I think they're a very under-rated fly for summer trout.

 

[PaulK]

Fishidiot,

You pointed out something that I observed on the creek as well. The temperature of the water was a startling 69 degrees when I waded in Monday evening. Compare that to 57 degrees when I last fished it 10 days ago. So what's the connection between rapid temperature rise and the crayfish activity? Anything special, other than all of them being more active in warmer water?

I'm going back tomorrow evening with a few orange beadhead, yellow rubber-legs, burnt orange wooly buggers. Heck on the Sulphur hatch at dusk. Although the air and stream temps have dropped since MOnday and I bet the little crays are all hiding now.

If you've come off of Penns at night with your headlamp on, you've seen the same thing, except these were just a 1/3 smaller than your typical adult. Lots of fun.