Crawfishing in the Basin
 

Always wanted to soak some traps while I was fishing and leave with a half sack or so to bring home, my boys would enjoy it.

Anyone have pointers on what to look for when setting the traps? Where is the best place, near a tree, near a runoff??? What the hen do you look for and what's the best bait? How long do you soak?

Spill the secrets!!!

I know you can go to the south farm in sherburne, but I don't want to... I want to drop some, go fish half the day and check them now and then around Indian bayou.

Best advice I can give you is stay away from the locals they don't take people putting traps in "their" area lightly.

^^^ This!!!

If that's the route you want to go, with the quick response, your best bet is set nets.

I love people privileged enough to own public land.

It takes a special kind of person to own public land. Just not anyone can afford it.

Actually most of indian bayou was private untill the corps bought it....the crawfishermen that do it for a living lease rights to fish certain areas.

So I assume your saying nets catch better than traps? If so, why???

Good areas to set them is ditches/small canals that drain the swamp

Nets would be your best bet for a quick catch. Traps usually take a little more time in the water before crawfish figure it out. Find trees with moving water and set them against the trees. Bait with cut shad. If you use nets tie the shad to the net and make multiple passes.

You normally use a different bait, beef melt. It requires more attention but, produces faster results. When I was fishing, our pillow traps were a slower process. When we would double back on first run traps, they would be pretty empty. Leave em overnight and, they may well be full. It's like the dang 8th wonder of the world!

Understood....

Also look for rocks, they like to hide under them. I just went out and scooped my ditch and all i got were a bunch of babies. 1/4" to 1/2".

Find the woods with trees and Lillie's. by them and put them in edge of Lillie pads.

You should meet the hands hunting catahoula lake and lacassine bayou!! Proud public land owners!