Crayfish, hooks and the removal thereof..

[Zalastar]

On a recent canal trip I managed to bag myself a rather nice specimin of crustacean, nasty looking little ****** with mean pincers and an attitude to match. Having never seen a crayfish up close before and knowing little of their anatomy I fond myself with a small conundrum, how the hell do I unhook the thing?

I looked at the line and followed it carefully only to find that it disappeared into what can only be decsribed as some sort of bilogocal portcullis, I was stumped!

Aha! I know, I'll get my disgorger and thread it down the line (avoiding all pincery type things) hoping to dislodge the hook... no chance, I hit hard shell and the disgorger was going nowhere... completely stumped I decided the best thing to do was cut the line as close to the (mouth?) as possible and chuck it back job done.

Now I'm a sensitive soul and the thought of a creature, even one as ugly as this, swimming roung with a hook stuck in its digestive tract concerns me. I know it can happen when a hooklength snaps but in this case I had an opportunity to remove it but couldn't.

What is the general theory on dealing with such creatures, is there a way to remove the hook or is it really a case of cut the line and chuck it back in?

 

[smudger172]

if this crayfish had red claws it was a signal crayfish. the way to deal with them is stamp on them.. it is illegal to return them to the water.....

 

[fishing4luckies]

Like smudger says, you don't remove hooks from crayfish, you remove crayfish from hooks. (as long as they are signals of course)

Sticking a knife through its head does the job and is considered humane. Also it doesn't reduce the beasty to mush which often happens if you just stamp on them. They're good eating if you get enough of them.

 

[Zalastar]

Illegal to put them back? I didn't return it, it escaped... honest m'lud: -(

Note to self, get a knife to take along next time

Sent from my SM-J500FN using Tapatalk

 

[iannate]

Bank stick across the head will do if you can't find a knife - a swift sharp wallop.

 

[S-Kippy]

They are the very devils to kill. I have stamped them to mush, kicked the bits into the margins and watch them crawl off.

 

[john step]

Thank god I have never seen one let alone had the misfortune to hook one then

 

[steve2]

I have always found the boot method of unhooking works.

 

[rayner]

Never caught a Crayfish but I did catch a Terrapin 3yrs ago on an expander pellet.
Boy do they take some dispatching.

 

[smudger172]

Never caught a Crayfish but I did catch a Terrapin 3yrs ago on an expander pellet.
Boy do they take some dispatching.

i watched one of them about a foot diameter swiming in the margins of a local reservoir not a pretty thing..........

 

[steve2]

A lot of these were release into the wild when the ninja turtle crazy finished. They had them as pets till the novelty wore off.

 

[mikench]

Pop the signal frays into boiling water and retain the tails! If you get enough of them they can make a tasty sandwich with mayo and paprika !

 

[S-Kippy]

Pop the signal frays into boiling water and retain the tails! If you get enough of them they can make a tasty sandwich with mayo and paprika !

Yes...great idea except that these things do not come quietly and you ain't popping them into anything they don't want to be popped into. These things are big and incredibly aggressive.

 

[kevt]

Hi

Had one on the River Calder a few months ago, put it on the floor with my boot on the top, cut the claws off at the body with a pair of scissors then put the scissors through the carapace behind the head then removed the hook and slung the thing up the bank, the crows soon finished it off

KevT

 

[tomino2112]

Fortunately never hooked one, but watched TA fishing video couple of days ago where Graeme hooked on one and for whatever reason had pretty bad nightmares that night... They are nasty things