With summer approaching rapidly, barbeque weather is almost upon us!! Yeppie!!! Barbeque chicken, lamb and crayfish. Or at least that's the plan! In part anyway, my young boys continually drive me mad over catching anything that moves in the sea while on holiday, especially crabs. My plans this summer is to invest in some basic trapping equipment, get a license and muck around with my boys. At least it'll keep them busy, with a bit of luck we'll have some really tasty crayfish and a bit of fun at the same time!

So far, I've called the National Fisheries Laboratory 01480 483968, spoken to a lovely young lady who is sending an information pack with the necessary forms to get us started! Ebay will be the next stop for our trapping equipment, £5 or £6 should cover it, of course you can always pay more but as this is an experiment it's not really worth putting too much in at this point. What I've read so far is that fish heads, rotten meat or gone off chicken all make a good bait - my preference is sardines in olive oil, just pierce the tin can and pop it in the trap. All simple enough, little mess! Sadly, we're not quite in season, the water needs to heat up, the flood waters to recede and run clear.

Signal Crayfish [Pacifastacus leniusculus] that is, the American invader escaped into our rivers becoming a real pest!

Just like the red squirrel the poor native crayfish doesn't stand a chance, as you can see the Signal is nearly twice the size of the native. Should be plenty of meat in just a couple!!

Some useful links;

River Cottage Forums contains all sorts of interesting details  - Link

Environment Agency - Crayfish / Trapping