How to: Catch a Crayfish

Nearly 40 kinds of crayfish live in Missouri’s streams, marshes, and ponds. With pinching pincers, four pairs of walking legs, and a lobster-like tail, crayfish are one of the Show-Me State’s most interesting animals. Here’s how to catch one to get a closer look.

Crayfish Wrangling

Have you caught a crayfish or has the crayfish caught you? Even if a crayfish pinches you, it usually doesn’t hurt too much. But to keep it from happening, hold the mudbug by its carapace, the hard, saddlelike shell just behind the claws. After you’ve gotten a good look, always put a captured crayfish back exactly where you found it.

Catching Crayfish Bare-Handed

Crayfish can be found crawling around rocks and stones at the bottom of shallow streams. You can scoop them up using an aquarium net, but it’s more of a challenge — and more fun — to catch them with your bare hands. These tips will make you an expert crayfish-catcher in no time:

• Crayfish escape predators with a quick flip of their tail, which causes them to rocket backward in the water. Because of this, try to approach a crayfish from behind.
• Once you’ve spotted a crayfish, slowly lower your hand into the water. Be careful not to splash or make sudden movements.
• When your hand is just an inch or two away, reach quickly but gently to grab the crayfish.
• Crayfish are fast! (You would be, too, if you saw a giant hand coming at you!) Keep trying if you don’t catch one on your first attempt.

Fishing for Mudbugs

Some crayfish tunnel down into soggy ground to stay cool and wet. As they dig, they use their legs and mouthparts to roll mud into little blobs. They stack the blobs at the surface to form short towers called chimneys. Look for crayfish chimneys along the edges 
of ditches, ponds, and marshes. When you find one, try this:

1. Roll up a piece of bacon and tie it to the end of a length of cord.
2. Tie a heavy metal nut just above the bacon.
3. Lower the bacon into a crayfish chimney.
4. If you feel a tiny tug on the string, slowly pull it up. There might be a crayfish hanging on to the other end.