The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

From reading the above I think I can be confident in assuming that by, so far, only used cooked prawns I haven't been putting myself at any distinct disadvantage then.
Next outing I will give raw a go as I know there are other species present as well as the intended perch.
Thanks.

Having tried both over the years I can't say I have noticed a difference in the fishes preference.
Where I live the rivers to the North have no signal crayfish but the rivers to the South do.
I have noticed that prawns are far more effective in waters where there are signals.

That Snape is backed up by research into the diets of carp and barbel in waters where there are signal crayfish. Where crayfish are present they represent a large part of the diet of adult fish. As I said, in France it is illegal to use crayfish as a bait. If I were still in the UK I could harvest dozens of signal crays using traps and freeze them for use as bait. The tail and both claws provide a good chunk of meat for hook bait and the rest can be smashed up and mixed with groundbait like a lobster bisque.

That is why I now use more mussels as bait rather than large prawns. They are cheaper and just as good in my experience. The small grey shrimps are also great for roach and carasssin though.

No you could not! Illegal to use them and you require a licence to trap.

National Fishery Bylaws "Bait and lures - The use of crayfish, dead or alive, as bait or in bait is prohibited."

A boilie maker was going to be prosecuted using them crushed up in his boilies!

Olly wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 10:41 pm No you could not! Illegal to use them and you require a licence to trap.

National Fishery Bylaws "Bait and lures - The use of crayfish, dead or alive, as bait or in bait is prohibited."

A boilie maker was going to be prosecuted using them crushed up in his boilies!

It is interesting about the crayfish rule and I presume it is meant to mean using crayfish caught in lakes and rivers here but as the wording is just crayfish I think it also means you can't use supermarket bought crayfish tails which look like a good bait.

Snape wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 10:52 pm

Olly wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 10:41 pm No you could not! Illegal to use them and you require a licence to trap.

National Fishery Bylaws "Bait and lures - The use of crayfish, dead or alive, as bait or in bait is prohibited."

A boilie maker was going to be prosecuted using them crushed up in his boilies!

It is interesting about the crayfish rule and I presume it is meant to mean using crayfish caught in lakes and rivers here but as the wording is just crayfish I think it also means you can't use supermarket bought crayfish tails which look like a good bait.

I have always assumed that this is about increasing protection of the native crayfish so that law breakers can’t claim they thought that they had taken and killed signal crayfish. Although, in my experience, the difference is obvious, some muppets will always try to take advantage of loopholes sadly.

I have only once been lucky enough to see native crayfish in a stillwater and that was fed by a small stream.

Phil

Some part of the ruling was down to the native White-clawed Crayfish's demise due to the introduction of crayfish plague from the introduced species of crays:- American Red Signal Crayfish and Narrow Clawed Turkish Crayfish being the most common ones.

The rest of the ruling was to prevent the eggs being moved from Signal crays into other non-Signal waters - thus killing all the native Whites with the plague.

The native White-clawed was/is smaller and easily eaten by perch and the like. So the smaller young Red Signals have superseded the Whites as food.

I have seen Great Crested Grebes catch and eat crayfish.

Just read the above about our Native Whites.

Caught them up to 70's in the river Mole at Cobham and previously in the Loddon at Stratfield Saye.

Locally there was a small stream that flowed into the R. Blackwater, a tributary of the Loddon, that held a small population. I was horrified to find in one day then notify the local Wildlife Trust off a massacre, which turned out to be the streams total population. only 100 or so native Whites but now extinct.

Raw and sometimes in bits. A great bait for Perch, Carp and Chub.

Crayfish, staple diet of the otter now in many reaches of the Wensum. I’m told that some stretches that were full of signals a few years ago are now almost devoid of them.