crayfish

does anybody know how big the american red signal crayfish can get.on saturday myself,my son,amd friend fished maythorne silk mill,when my friend asked me over,as,he had a "crab"in his swim.i pointed it out as a red signal crayfish.before long there was almost a dozen of the blighters,i suggested to my frined to slowly drop his landing net under them,he did this and pulled out four of them and the largest was well over 8 inches long.does anyone know how big these can get?

Hi William,
The biggest Signal crayfish that I have seen and handled was between 10 and 12 inches long. There are that many of them of all sizes in the River Lark that the river bed seems to be completly covered in the buggers

If you take 'em away and eat 'em they don't get any bigger at all.

are they edible ???

if there are that many why hasnt someone started exploiting them with traps ......... Surely there must be a market for them .....Chinese or Indian restuarants maybe lol

they are very edible.in the venue where they where seen they have arrived after escaping from a small pond where they are bred for the table.the pond flooded into the river devon which loops around maythorne silkmill.again when the river flooded the crayfish ended up in the mill ponds.if anyone wants to cook one i have been told the most humane way of cooking one is to put them in a freezer for about an hour,this stimulates the hibernating effects for the crayfish,then,when they are put into boiling water they don't scream as much.

If they are the same as lobsters --they dont actually scream --Its just the air coming out of their shells

Signal Crays are excellent eating. I caught about ten of the things some years ago after a friutless chub session on the Upper Ouse.

Took 'em home and boiled them.

Exquisite !!

You have got to be careful, regarding the amount of freshly caught crayfish that you eat.
They do carry some nasty bacteria in their gut which can be dangerous to humans.
I tend to take between 40 and 50 live Crayfish a week for the table. A tip that I picked up a few years back, was to keep the live crayfish in a well aerated aquarium for a week. Feeding them only potato peelings. The peelings contain a chemical that flushes their gut out and kills the bacteria.
Another tip that I picked up, was to add a flavouring to the water that they are kept in. This has the effect of marinating them while they are still alive. I know that last sentence is going open me up to ridicule, disbelief, and other such things. So here goes.
For the 5 days that we have the Crayfish in the aquarium before we kill, cook and eat them.
Each day, I add a level teaspoon of either Schwartz Montreal steak, or Schwartz Garlic bread seasoning to the aquarium water. This has the effect of flavouring both the water that they are in, and the potato peelings that they are eating. No doubt, being the scavengers that the are, they are also picking up the small pieces of the seasoning and eating that to. It would not surprise me at all, if the seasoned water that is passing over their gills is also helping to flavour them up.
To kill them, I drop them into boiling water, and when I am certain they are dead. I wrap them singularly in tin foil and cook them under the grill or on the BBQ for about 15 minutes each.
To eat them just separate the tails from the body and shell them like you would a prawn, but be careful the shells are rock hard and sharp. Don't forget to crack the claws with a nut cracker and eat that flesh to.

Sounds good.....cant you send some up here ---

or is it as bad as they say ---will we soon have some of our own ???

My preferred venue for crayfish angling is plagued with decent sized Chub and Perch, along with a few Rainbows and Brownies. My preferred method for catching the crayfish is a single maggot on a barbless size 16 which is tied onto a 3 inch long hair link attached to a a single size 6 or 4 barbless under a light float ledger set up
unfortunately the cray fish always take the baited size 16 stinger hook. So I have to play them very slowly and carefully. Trouble is I only manage to land 7 out of ten Crayfish intact. Those pesky Chub, Perch and Trout keep attacking the struggling Cray's, and foul their lips on my main size 6 or 4 hook. These hard fighting fish are a real pain in the ass, when all I want is a little relaxing chuck and release Crayfish angling