Otters and signal crayfish
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The bad one
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Mark if this is a question "Why not introduce crays." The answer is they are an invasive nonindigenous species. They are American Signal Crays in the main, but other non-natives are present. They are really damaging to our waterways its flora and fauna. They dig burrows deep into the bank causing collapses and erosion. Carry a plague known as the Crayfish Plague that wipes out our native crays. They eat vast amounts of fish eggs and fry, will also eat water weed when times are hard.
Not something we really want in more rivers than they are now.
Mike said about eating them, I like cray tails, but I’d be very circumspect about eating crays from many rivers in the UK. They are scavengers and feed on bottom detritus most of the time. Given the sublevel toxic c*** on the bottom of our rivers, which bioaccumulate in the bodies of crustaceans is it a good idea to eat them?
Not something we really want in more rivers than they are now.
Mike said about eating them, I like cray tails, but I’d be very circumspect about eating crays from many rivers in the UK. They are scavengers and feed on bottom detritus most of the time. Given the sublevel toxic c*** on the bottom of our rivers, which bioaccumulate in the bodies of crustaceans is it a good idea to eat them?
Keith M
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I wouldn’t eat Crays from our rivers they tend to have a nasty fungus infection which tastes nasty and can’t do you any good.
I took a large Turkish Cray home to eat and it tasted awful because of the fungus infection that was in it.
NB: After 20 or more years of having Turkish Crays in our lake (despite laying crayfish traps every year) we no longer have a crayfish problem in our lake however it’s because some fool illegally put some Wells Catfish into our lake (without the knowlege of the committee) and they seem to have eaten all the crayfish and the catfish have now moved on to eating our smaller Carp and our Roach and we are now having to remove them too.
When we first had the Turkish Crays invade our lake we regularly had a university come down to net some out because they were trying to develop a way to destroy them without affecting other life in the water; however after around seven years their experiments were still fruitless and stopped.
Keith
I took a large Turkish Cray home to eat and it tasted awful because of the fungus infection that was in it.
NB: After 20 or more years of having Turkish Crays in our lake (despite laying crayfish traps every year) we no longer have a crayfish problem in our lake however it’s because some fool illegally put some Wells Catfish into our lake (without the knowlege of the committee) and they seem to have eaten all the crayfish and the catfish have now moved on to eating our smaller Carp and our Roach and we are now having to remove them too.
When we first had the Turkish Crays invade our lake we regularly had a university come down to net some out because they were trying to develop a way to destroy them without affecting other life in the water; however after around seven years their experiments were still fruitless and stopped.
Keith
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no-one in particular
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I was thinking more of why not introduce otters where crays are a problem, they will be to busy eating crays than the fish.
steve2
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On that stream I was talking about it was becoming impossible to fish baits anywhere near the bottom. I even had them live baits fished off the bottom. The pollution was over 5/6 miles of river so you are looking 6000 crayfish per mile. I think on the Thames it is now mitten crabs causing problems.
no-one in particular
Well-known member
I am sure crayfish tails are tasty, lots of you have said so but I wouldn't bother to catch my own and I don't like anything from fresh water to be honest, trout always taste muddy to me, even a mullet I tried once from a river was awful, full of a black stinking mud. Salmon I can just about eat but that can taste a bit off to me as well, over rated in my opinion especially when you take into account the cost. I might try crayfish one day if the opportunity arises but I am not going to try hard.
steve2
Well-known member
One trout water I use to the trout were only fit for bin the taste was so muddy. If that water was catch and release I would have returned them.
Best muncher of Crayfish I know are Wels Catfish. Stick one in your Crayfish infested pond & fish it out a couple of years later alot bigger. Problem sorted
As for their culinary value, to me if you like Prawns then chances are you are going to like Crayfish too. However I wont be ordering a "Prawn Cocktail" in a cheap resto anywhere near a Cray infested urban river anytime soon.?
As for their culinary value, to me if you like Prawns then chances are you are going to like Crayfish too. However I wont be ordering a "Prawn Cocktail" in a cheap resto anywhere near a Cray infested urban river anytime soon.?
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dorsetsteve
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They definitely eat them.
I have sat watching two otters on the Ouse dive in one area for an hour and a half,both catching crays every dive,munching them and going down again,the venue is still solid with crays,ive also watched greater crested grebes eating them too,shaking their heads to rip the claws off,many years ago I fed a barbel swim on the Ouse,the bottom looked like the motorway at rush hour,paved with crays...
no-one in particular
Well-known member
I have only found them a couple of times, once on a disused little fishery that had been neglected, 3 lakes in some woods and they were all infected with them. We didn't know what was pulling the float under at first as it was the first time we had experienced them, that was about 15 years ago. Then I fished the Basingstoke canal around Aldershot and that was infested with them, couldn't get a bait down at all. Thankfully they have not found their way locally yet, or at least I have not seen them or heard of them.
mikench
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Not seen one on any of my waters thankfully.
no-one in particular
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I have heard to use artificial sweetcorn or maggots although personally I wouldn't fish there and if there was no other choice I would probably give up, coarse fishing anyway. Your chances of catching anything must be greatly diminished even with artificial baits, I just wouldn't bother, I don't need the fishing or fish that badly and I have other hobbies, I would rather walk along a river with a camera and a picnic than bother with having to try that hard. I have been close to it anyway and crayfish would just tip the edge.
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no-one in particular
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I have only tried artificial maggots and didn't rate them, I know you can get the fish feeding and then use artificial which I guess would work with crayfish around, but I don't want to just feed the crayfish on the chance of an odd fish scavenging amongst the crayfish and picking my artificial up. If that's all the choice I had I would rather give up. Thankfully I have a choice but if it ever came to it.....
The only way I beat them in that canal in Aldershot was to fish about 12 inches under the float in 6ft of water or it may have even been 6inch. That was with bread and I didn't catch a fish all afternoon, not my kind of fishing.
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no-one in particular
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The odd thing was I fished the Basingstoke canal a few years later but right up the other end near Weybridge, about 25 miles away and never saw a crayfish, why not was a bit of a mystery to me, it was jammed packed with them near Aldershot.
The bad one
Well-known member
Oh they are there on some Mike, Whirley has them in, TM Canal, Peak Forest Canal, Severn, Dane and quite a few others. You see or experience them more if you are fishing into dark when they are more active.
The bad one
Well-known member
One of the saddest memories for me is I’ve only ever seen Native White Clawed Crayfish in two places in my life. The first time was in the River Dane in the mid-1970s after an opening night fishing for Chub. I went for a walk to stretch my legs and on a shallow riffle I saw a green thing swimming backward. Thinking I knew what it might be, in I went and picked it up and looked at it. The underside of its pincer claws where white. Feeling pleased with myself that I was probably right as to what it was, when I got home, I got out one of the few wildlife books I had and checked it. Bingo! I was right a native crayfish.
Sadly, the Dane no longer has any Natives left in it due to the Signals getting in it.
The only other place I see them is near my sister’s caravan in the Boarders of the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District in a small shallow Beck. I love to just go and sit in the warm evening sunlight and watch them scavenging the bottom for whatever food they can find as they walk forwards.
They are a strange creatures: they walk forwards but if spooked swim backwards.
Sadly, the Dane no longer has any Natives left in it due to the Signals getting in it.
The only other place I see them is near my sister’s caravan in the Boarders of the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District in a small shallow Beck. I love to just go and sit in the warm evening sunlight and watch them scavenging the bottom for whatever food they can find as they walk forwards.
They are a strange creatures: they walk forwards but if spooked swim backwards.
mikench
Well-known member
Thankfully Phil I haven't seen any on the waters i fish and whilst I keep saying I'll try Whirley I never get round to it.