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I generally just catch them by hand in shallow lake water with rocky bottom or stream with rocky bottom. Have to wear polarized shades to see 'em easily, but just flip over rocks and grab them. Usually in 15 minutes I'll have a couple dozen to fish with. When I run out, I catch some more.
Wow, how did I miss this thread?! Live dads are the ultimate bait up at Guist creek where I mostly fish, because it's mostly all rock bottom. There are a million there but because they're under huge bolders and heavy rocks so the net thing is really impractical except on small rocks right by the ledge. I think the trap would be awesome for somewhere like that if you had a way to keep them hid for a few days at a time. Like plant them a few days prior to a big outting and then show up and hour or so ahead of time and get them all up and then go fish!
Dads are awesome, sometimes when the wife gets bored, I let her grab me some, I never buy them just because of the money. But yea, I'd love a way to easily harvest some :D, nice post.
get a old short pole tie a string ,hook, and gum
Best thing to do is get a long handled, fine mesh(1/4") net. when you scoop the net do it hard along the bottom and through all the weeds along the bank. you should come up with a lot of crap in your net. Just dump everything out and pick up your crawfish, minnows, ect.
Do this up and down the bank of a creek, river, pond, ect.
hope this helps....works well in Louisiana.
I just buy 35lbs for $20, i can imagine they are rather price up north.
Good Luck
Take some screening and make yourself a bait trap with a 1.3 inch diameter intake funnel. Put some purina dog chow in it. Drive down to Louisana. Catch the crawmoms in it first. The crawdads will follow and can't get out.
I used to catch'em at night while wearing a head lamp. They are mostly nocturnal and we would just wade a shallow creek, turn over rocks and catch them by hand coming up behind them (a seine or net would be better). Oh, yeah, we'd always wade upstream so they couldn't "feel" us and we wouldn't muddy up the place. DON'T cover them with water in your cooler (unless it's aerated) or they'll drown!!! Just put 2-3 inches of wet leaves in there for them to stay moist with.