ARIZONA CRAYFISH MONSTERS

Don't be fooled by the calm water.

This is one of my favorite places to go.  It seems to have plenty of fish and the water is reasonably clear.  Last weekend, my family and I went up to the rim country to do a little fishing and help remove some crayfish.  I knew it had Crayfish in it, but I was not expecting to find what we did.  It has been a favorite spot of mine and I do not want it overrun with crawdads.  I have targeted this place to remove crayfish, so I can keep them in check and still have a good fishing hole for the kids.  Earlier in the year, I had pulled many six inch crayfish out of here and considered that to be the largest "large crayfish" I had ever seen.  I was not expecting this.  I don't know what is happening here, but I did not catch any fish over about four inches.  This was a little disturbing, but it is possible to not catch fish on a fishing trip, (just not preferred).  Not only did we surpass the six inch crayfish, but we caught a lot that surpassed the six incher.  They were large, aggressive, and they did not seem to have any fear.  

 This trap was in the water for only about half an hour.  To my surprise, it had several in it and they were big.

Here you can see my wife has one with the pliers for a reason.  You don't want one of those claws sinking into a finger! 


This particular trip we were able to take in over a hundred of these monsters and there seemed to be plenty more.  We are going back.  This lake belongs to us, not the crawdads.

This is what happened to those that found their way in our traps.  We dispatched them humanely as possible.

Yep, you are reading it right.  It was 8 inches.  These were monsters.

PARTY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INVASIVE SPECIES MYSTERY!

This wasn't me, but I thought it was appropriate for the fourth of July.

I have read mixed stories on the matter.  It seems the different departments of state and federal agencies all have different versions, depending on who is writing the article.  We know that some spreading of Crayfish can and will occur when lakes, rivers, and streams connect.  However, There are too many lakes here that are not connected to make that be the complete conclusion.  I have not heard of the great crayfish migration as of yet, so that is out of the question.  With not a whole lot of choices left, it stands to reason that they have been planted, (whether it was mistake or on purpose).  We know they have been planted in the local canals for vegetation control.  However, the canals do not feed back to the lakes on high.  A good portion of the warm water lakes feed into the canal system here in the Phoenix metro, but not from the high mountain lakes.  So why are they there?  Why up north?  So far it does not make sense and the mystery begins!

COMING SOON:  We are going in the field!  We are going to practice what we preach!  We are going to go after these critters and see what kind of impact we can have.  Please send us e-mails on the lakes that are infested with Crayfish.  crawdaddyspecialist@gmail.com