crayfish activity

[Richard Borley]

does anyone on here know if this hot weather makes crayfish more of a problem ?

i know they are less of a problem in colder water conditions , but someone suggested to me today that the higher the water temp the more of a problem they are .

the reason i ask is that over the last few of days crayfish have been a nuiscance on the river lea in swims where they have not been seen before.

i had a hard 16mm halibut pellet whittled away to virtually nothing in 10 minutes the other evening

any thoughts

 

[Colin Gordon]

Richard, I reckon the water temp at which crays become less active, maybe about 60 - 70'c, normally found in a pan with salt and clove of garlic.

TBH I've found that the warmer the water gets the more of a nuisance they become and sadly it seems to have no cut off point.
Spose looking at their place of origin (western USA) our hot weather is nothing in comparison.

 

[Simon King]

I pulled a nice big one out of the middle section at FG last night. They hammered both baits, in the margin and the middle.

Par for the course I always found at this time of year.

You mean you've found crayfish-free swims up there? Outside of casting into a tree..........?

Pray, tell.............!

One of the reasons I never used pellet up there was they ate it in a tenth of the time of a boilie?

 

[Richard Borley]

Richard, I reckon the water temp at which crays become less active, maybe about 60 - 70'c, normally found in a pan with salt and clove of garlic.

TBH I've found that the warmer the water gets the more of a nuisance they become and sadly it seems to have no cut off point.
Spose looking at their place of origin (western USA) our hot weather is nothing in comparison.

colin ,

i didnt see that coming

i hope your serious reply is correct , thanks

richard

 

[Martin Stevens]

To be honest I've never really noticed a big drop off in cray activity on the kennet whatever the conditions or temp.

One of the worst days I've had for crays was worming for perch on the enbourne about 4 years ago. At one stage I was reeling in with four or five clinging on to the end and that was on a day that the net was freezing to the bank!

Bait doesn't seem to make a difference, I've had them on just about everything including bread flake trotted off bottom.

One thing I did notice was that hard baits such as pellet weren't always the way to go, especially if they were drilled. My thinking was that as the cray grips the bait in it's claw to pull a but off, it cracks a harder bait often destroying it completely. A drilled pellet is even worse as it's structural integrity has already been effected. If I found this happening I would normally switch to a boilie which would last much longer. Although the crays can whittle it away it would be bit by bit and at a much slower rate. I think that the circular shape might be harder for them to get hold of too. I even caught quite a few barbel and chub on bolies which had obviously been nibbled by crays first. In fact in one case there was a very small piece left on the hair, but I have never had the same with a pellet.

Cheers
Martin