Muddy Creek, York County 3/22/2013

[DanW]

Fished in the FFO stretch of Muddy Creek from around 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Water was maybe a little low for this time of year and clear, water temp a chilly 40*. Which was also close to the air temperature, windy and mostly cloudy. Caught about a 10" brown in the hole below the big rock and about a 16" bow at the big rock. Both on a #16 Hares Ear. Also fished a BHPT and IPW but no more fish. No bugs.

I've always heard that crayfish are a sign of a healthy stream. Does size matter?

 

[Letort]

Looks more like a lobster!

 

[geebee]

good eating. they also live off trout eggs. i would have eaten it.

thats a lovely brown. reminds of the wild ones i've caught

 

[DanW]

Don't think the thought of steaming that beast up with a little Old Bay didn't cross my mind. Especially considering it was way too big for it to be trout food. Maybe I would've been doing the trout a favor by harvesting...

I'm sure the bow was a fresh stocker. Not so sure about the brown.

 

[dc410]

I can remember many years ago, fishing the Buffalo Creek (an ATW) in Perry County with my son on a weekend family trip to the cabin. I was flyfishing the upper end of long pool and my son (probably 9 or 10 at the time) was fishing the deep mid section of the pool with worms and his spinning outfit. When I got back down to him a little before dark he had the entire bottom of a large Igloo cooler covered with some monster crayfish.
I remember telling him if we were going to keep them we needed to eat them. He obviously had no problem with that! My wife on the other hand ....... well ....... she was a bit less than impressed with the number of crayfish that he happened to fool that evening. However, we did steam approximately two dozen large crayfish and with a bit of ketchup and horseradish sauce they really were not too bad. Oh, the memories!

 

[Fishidiot]

Good chance they were Rusty Crayfish - not a good thing to find in your local waterway (they're in the Susky drainage now).
However, they grow big and make for good eating.

Even if they were not Rusties, many of the native crayfish are very large this time of year after they come out of hibernation. I have a personal theory that the very large adult crays are more active in cold water. I see a few - usually very large - crayfish that are out and about in the dead of winter with water temps in the 30s. By this time of year, crayfish are starting to move and it's often the bigger ones that you'll see first (at least that's been my unscientific observation).

 

[geebee]

Fishidiot wrote:
Good chance they were Rusty Crayfish - not a good thing to find in your local waterway (they're in the Susky drainage now).
However, they grow big and make for good eating.

yup, they can overrun streams and ponds. i saw a show about a pond in London that the park wardens were trapping 200lbs of signal crayfish a week. they couldn't trap them fast enough...

a trout net and a chicken bone was we used to use as kids to catch em.

 

[DanW]

Just as well I passed on the fresh water lobster. A quick check of the regs...

Approved trout waters are closed for taking fishbait and baitfish from March 1 to the opening day of trout season.