Prebaiting advice please

[108831]

Crayfish usually need a less intense pre bait,or maybe bait an area with fishy bait a short distance away from your particle swim,hoping to draw the bulk of the crays to the fishy area,using home prepared chick peas(harder),or maybe maple peas as hookbaits...

 

[Robbie C]

Crayfish usually need a less intense pre bait,or maybe bait an area with fishy bait a short distance away from your particle swim,hoping to draw the bulk of the crays to the fishy area,using home prepared chick peas(harder),or maybe maple peas as hookbaits...

Thanks Whitty and everyone who posted.What about hemp as a feed and chickpeas, tares , casters etc as hookbait ? Will try a meaty or fishy decoy bait too.Is a rod length away from the float fished area enough for the decoy ?

 

[peterjg]

A rod length away for decoy baits is too near - suggest around 30ft away each side of swim. Decoy baits definitely help but you will, I am sorry to say, still catch a few crayfish - there is no complete solution. Don't ever put crayfish back, stamp on 'em, and kick in undergrowth. In November the underside of the females are covered in greeny/brown eggs -yuk! How people can eat them is beyond me!

 

[tigger]

If you are going to pre bait imo it's best to do so at exactly the same time everyday, so when you go fishing the fish should be ready and waiting.
If you feed at various times the fish may just roll up anytime.

 

[108831]

Thanks Whitty and everyone who posted.What about hemp as a feed and chickpeas, tares , casters etc as hookbait ? Will try a meaty or fishy decoy bait too.Is a rod length away from the float fished area enough for the decoy ?

Dont forget casters are a meat course,groats are a cheaper option than hemp,but yes,hemp and groats work well together too mind.

 

[Robbie C]

Dont forget casters are a meat course,groats are a cheaper option than hemp,but yes,hemp and groats work well together too mind.

I’ve never thought/heard of groats as a bait but am happy to try them and have read up on how to prepare them. 2 questions:
1.Are they less attractive to Crays than say wheat or maize ?
2. Can you or anyone share experiences of what you have caught on groats and how you fished them ?
Thanks

 

[108831]

They are seeds,but are obviously organic,crayfish are basically scavengers so will eat anything organic,but seeds are less attractive than meat or fish,the other benefit of groats is they are very easy to prepare,they take flavouring or colouring well,an old trick is to pour a tin of evaporated milk in after preparation when fed into the swim you get a milky cloud,very attractive to the fish....

 

[Peter Jacobs]

How people can eat them is beyond me!

Au contraire . . .

Crayfish are delicious and so versatile too. Substituted for prawns or lobster even in many different recipes and they are terrific.

Try a crayfish stuffed chicken breast in a mushroom cream sauce . . . . amazing.

In Louisianna and Mississippi Crayfish étoufée and rice is a classic Cajun dish and dead simple to make too.

 

[peterjg]

What puts me off of eating them is that when you tread on them they ooze what looks like French mustard - that must be why they are so popular on the other side of the Channel - preflavoured!!!

 

[Peter Jacobs]

The French connecion is very apt as the name "crayfish" comes from the Old French word escrevisse (Modern French écrevisse) but just like in the uk most of the native French crayfish have been pushed out by their American cousins.

If live they should be kept in a bucket until ready for the pot and only cooked for a couple of mnutes, any longer and they get too tough.

In the part of France that I visit a lot they are not all that common so I have to go to the coast to get them . . . but well worth the tip

 

[tigger]

Au contraire . . .

Crayfish are delicious and so versatile too. Substituted for prawns or lobster even in many different recipes and they are terrific.

Try a crayfish stuffed chicken breast in a mushroom cream sauce . . . . amazing.

In Louisianna and Mississippi Crayfish étoufée and rice is a classic Cajun dish and dead simple to make too.

uke::yuck:....kind'a thing you'd see in a chinease wet market !

 

[Peter Jacobs]

uke::yuck:....kind'a thing you'd see in a chinease wet market !

No, nothing whatsoever like that . . . . given the French influence far more like haute cuisine actually . . . .

 

[sam vimes]

They are essentially big freshwater prawns. There's nothing particularly exotic or unusual about them. If you've ever eaten shrimps, prawns, lobster, langoustines, crevettes etc then turning your nose up at crayfish is totally illogical.

Crayfish are out of season at the moment but look at the price of the damned things. I guess that not everyone turns their nose up at them.

 

[tigger]

No, nothing whatsoever like that . . . . given the French influence far more like haute cuisine actually . . . .

Exactly, french cuisine, they'e as bad as the chinks, they eat sky larks, racing pigeons, snails, horses....nice!!

 

[tigger]

They are essentially big freshwater prawns. There's nothing particularly exotic or unusual about them. If you've ever eaten shrimps, prawns, lobster, langoustines, crevettes etc then turning your nose up at crayfish is totally illogical.

Crayfish are out of season at the moment but look at the price of the damned things. I guess that not everyone turns their nose up at them.

Chris, I know what a crayfish is.
If they came from a clean place then maybe worth a dabble but I wouldn't eat one out of my local rivers!

 

[Robbie C]

They are seeds,but are obviously organic,crayfish are basically scavengers so will eat anything organic,but seeds are less attractive than meat or fish,the other benefit of groats is they are very easy to prepare,they take flavouring or colouring well,an old trick is to pour a tin of evaporated milk in after preparation when fed into the swim you get a milky cloud,very attractive to the fish....

So how do you use groats as a hook bait ?

 

[Philip]

but just like in the uk most of the native French crayfish have been pushed out by their American cousins.

A few years ago I was fishing near Dijon and stayed at a gite near there. The owner had a tiny stream in the grounds and we got chatting and the subject of Crayfish came up. It turned out his little stream had the native version in it and he had gone to quite some lengths to protect them...fixing barriers at either end of the stream to stop the American Signals getting in and telling me that they never went wading or took anything into the water in case they took any American eggs in by accident.
He showed me how if I chucked a few lumps meat into the water and sat still...the native crays would almost magically appear out from under rocks and start crawling all over the meat. it was really interesting to watch.

The other advantage of my new found friendship with the owner was that he let me fish his private trout lake each evening with the agreement that I would keep a couple of Trout for his dinner. Those Trout were great on the BBQ !

 

[108831]

So how do you use groats as a hook bait ?

Noooo,you dont lol,its basically like putting a bed of hemp in,you could if you really wanted mount several grains on a hair,I however would be more tempted to use chick pea,maples etc,you could easily afford to throw a gallon of groats in as pre bait,it would only be around four pints dry,Im not sure how much a 20 kilo sack costs now,but not a massive amount in comparison to the amount of prepared bait it turns into and much cheaper than hemp...

 

[Philip]

So how do you use groats as a hook bait ?

Not sure about as a hookbait but one interesting fact about Groats as a background feed is that they are one of the few particles that dont require boiling, just an overnight soak. For that reason they are ideal for easy on the bank preparation if your out camping for a few days. As Alan (whitty) mentioned they take on flavour really well.

 

[Robbie C]

Noooo,you dont lol,its basically like putting a bed of hemp in,you could if you really wanted mount several grains on a hair,I however would be more tempted to use chick pea,maples etc,you could easily afford to throw a gallon of groats in as pre bait,it would only be around four pints dry,Im not sure how much a 20 kilo sack costs now,but not a massive amount in comparison to the amount of prepared bait it turns into and much cheaper than hemp...

Ok I get it thanks. Will try hemp and groats with chick peas hopefully this summer.