Avoiding the Gangsters

[S-Kippy]

Skip, I saw my first, and hopefully my last on the river rother last summer. I was quivertipping and was catching lots of small chub then pulling out for a recast saw this awefull creature hanging from my hook.
I knew it straightaway and stamped on it well away from the riverside.
I hope I never see another --- loathsome creatures, ugh !!!!!

It wont be the last you see. Once they get in...they stay in.

---------- Post added at 16:42 ---------- Previous post was at 16:39 ----------

Sounds like a good reason to stock stillwaters with big chub! mg:
That'd be a way to clean-up the Crays!

Wouldn't even dent the population. Once they get established there is no shifting the bar$tard things.

 

[maggot_dangler]

Fens pools in Dudley are infested with the things fished it once gaveup and came back to the cut .

Whats needed is a Guarenteed safe biological soloution something that ONLY does for the Signal Crayfish and nowt else .

PG ...

 

[S-Kippy]

Fens pools in Dudley are infested with the things fished it once gaveup and came back to the cut .

Whats needed is a Guarenteed safe biological soloution something that ONLY does for the Signal Crayfish and nowt else .

PG ...

I believe some trials took place trying to develop exactly that. If memory serves anything strong enough to do for Reggie also did for just about everything else too. I've said this before but some Scandinavian country did reasonably well by trapping the big males, frying their nadgers then returning​ them. This made a serious dent in their breeding efficiency and i think was successful in controlling the population if not eradicating them.

I don't think there is a solution and there certainly isn't the will at the EA to do anything meaningful about the bloody things. Eventually they'll have eaten everything and have to resort to cannibalism.......... or more likely just buqqer off and infest somewhere else. The damned things can walk for miles across country.

 

[maggot_dangler]

I believe some trials took place trying to develop exactly that. If memory serves anything strong enough to do for Reggie also did for just about everything else too. I've said this before but some Scandinavian country did reasonably well by trapping the big males, frying their nadgers then returning​ them. This made a serious dent in their breeding efficiency and i think was successful in controlling the population if not eradicating them.

I don't think there is a solution and there certainly isn't the will at the EA to do anything meaningful about the bloody things. Eventually they'll have eaten everything and have to resort to cannibalism.......... or more likely just buqqer off and infest somewhere else. The damned things can walk for miles across country.

Ok I suppose the EA just turn around and say too expensive to do as Anglers we ought to have the right to haul the dammed things out and do whatever is needed cook them if they are bigenough as long as they are the Signals and not the smaller white clawed british verity .
All from the habit of washing the bilges out here after filling for ballast over there and washing out here .
In many ways we need to get like the Aussies now in that aint dead and clean .

PG ...

 

[fishing4luckies]

as Anglers we ought to have the right to haul the dammed things out and do whatever is needed cook them if they are bigenough as long as they are the Signals and not the smaller white clawed british verity .

We do have the right.
To trap them you need a permit (free) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/permission-to-trap-crayfish-eels-elvers-salmon-and-sea-trout

If you just want to catch them then thats fine too. They are apparently very good eating. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/gallery/2009/sep/30/george-monbiot-crayfish

 

[dave m]

Small wooden balls that are glugged in smelly gluggy stuff make a decent alternative hookbait, need to fish a short stiffish hooklength and blob it on as ronnie and reggie can easily pull out boilie stiops or cut braid hairs. Get them from craft shops.

long term the solution will be to do some genetic manipulation and alter their genes to make any female offspring sterile.
will it ever happen though.

 

[thameside]

You need to organise a party https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/the-crayfish-party/ . Years back I remember my brother telling me how he went to a party held by some Swedes and Finns . It was a Crayfish party . So maybe that is your answer
Steve

 

[Ray Roberts]

These were caught by a professional trapper from a short section of the river Eden. Once they are in it is impossible to get them all.


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[thames mudlarker]

These were caught by a professional trapper from a short section of the river Eden. Once they are in it is impossible to get them all.


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Jeez, no wander those chub at Edenbridge have grown so big

Can remember many years ago that a 4 lb chub from there would of been a good fish but nowadays there's now a fair few between 6-7 lb


I've virtually fished all of the Eden at some point over the last 32 years and is one of me favourite little Kentish rivers :thumbs:

 

[Ray Roberts]

Jeez, no wander those chub at Edenbridge have grown so big

Can remember many years ago that a 4 lb chub from there would of been a good fish but nowadays there's now a fair few between 6-7 lb


I've virtually fished all of the Eden at some point over the last 32 years and is one of me favourite little Kentish rivers :thumbs:

I belong to Edenbridge and District. Nice friendly club with some very nice waters.

 

[S-Kippy]

Bloody Hell, Ray ! I knew things were bad but that pic is just frightening ! What chance has your bait got in amongst that lot ?

I sometimes wonder if I was wrong to abandon the Kennet because of the crays.....seeing that just confirms I made the right choice. I cannot fish through them like some do...I just can't.

 

[thames mudlarker]

I belong to Edenbridge and District. Nice friendly club with some very nice waters.

I've fished the Tonbridge club = Chiddingstone,

Carshalton club = Hever,

Edenbridge = free fishing,

Crowborough club = Marsh green, Edenbridge, Gabriel's fisheries,

C.A.L.P.A.C club = Edenbridge,

East Grinstead club = Lingfield ( Eden Brook )

:thumbs:

 

[xenon]

maybe the short term answer is to employ a professional trapper?

 

[peter crabtree]

We had a member of our club who trapped thousands of them from a stretch of the Colne last year over a period of 6 months. He certainly thinned them out but had to stop unfortunately. He disposed of them to a Chinese restaurant which gave him free meals and takeaways.
All well and good but the only way to keep populations low is to sustain cropping full time, not something everyone has the time for...
As stated before, once they're there, they're there for ever...

 

[S-Kippy]

Was that Ricky, Simon ? Somewhere else i don't fish anymore because of these things.

The Colne always had crayfish but the natives ones. We used to drop net for them at Denham and in the Misbourne but they were never a problem when you were fishing. These signals are just so much bigger and much more aggressive. We need a crayfish virus or something.

 

[fishing4luckies]

I spoke to our local 'posh' fishmonger today who said he'd give me £6 per kilo for fresh live ones, and up to £10 per kilo if they were properly purged.

As far as I'm aware purging involves an initial dousing with salt, which makes the critters excrete allsorts of ****, followed by up to a week in aerated tanks of fresh water. Not sure what they'd need to feed on during that week - something tasty methinks.

A bloke from the club reckons that last year a local old boy had over 600 kilos from one of our lesser fished venues.

Could be a nice little earner perhaps? The fishmonger told me that if they're good ones, undamaged and properly purged you can almost double that figure on the London market, but only if selling direct to restaurants. That sounds like an awful lot of work to me - how many is any one restaurant going to buy in a week?

 

[Keith M]

These signals are just so much bigger and much more aggressive. We need a crayfish virus or something.

There is a crayfish virus that kills signal crayfish but unfortunately it is carried by the Turkish crayfish which are just as big but have longer pointed claws so you are really not much better off Lol.

Our estate lake have these Turkish Crays and has had them ever since a lorry carrying them for restaurants broke down next to the resevoir upstream of us many years ago and some fool submerged the cages carrying them in the reservoir and eggs got out. (That's the story we heard anyway).

For years we had severe crayfish problems, and we trapped them in nets. we also had some people from some university coming down to us taking them away so that they could try to find a method to get rid of them. (This was many years ago and we never heard any more from them).

There are signals in most of the waters around us but we have never had any signals in our lake; only the Turkish ones; and we were told that it's because of a virus which is carried by the Turkish Crays that kills the signals so they cannot co-exist.

Over the last few years the Turkish Crays have slowly started to disappear and nowerdays we don't seem to catch them as much as we used to, although they are still present in the water.

Keith

 

[thames mudlarker]

There is a crayfish virus that kills signal crayfish but unfortunately it is carried by the Turkish crayfish which are just as big but have longer pointed claws so you are really not much better off Lol.

Our estate lake have these Turkish Crays and has had them ever since a lorry carrying them for restaurants broke down next to the resevoir upstream of us many years ago and some fool submerged the cages carrying them in the reservoir and eggs got out. (That's the story we heard anyway).

For years we had severe crayfish problems, and we trapped them in nets. we also had some people from some university coming down to us taking them away so that they could try to find a method to get rid of them. (This was many years ago and we never heard any more from them).

There are signals in most of the waters around us but we have never had any signals in our lake; only the Turkish ones; and we were told that it's because of a virus which is carried by the Turkish Crays that kills the signals so they cannot co-exist.

Over the last few years the Turkish Crays have slowly started to disappear and nowerdays we don't seem to catch them as much as we used to, although they are still present in the water.

Keith

Sounds interesting Keith, let's just hope that they wipe themselves out so you can get some better fishing soughted on the water