Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum

Fishing in British Columbia => Fly Fishing Cafe => Topic started by: Carich980 on October 26, 2011, 01:31:14 PM

Title: Crayfish?
Post by: Carich980 on October 26, 2011, 01:31:14 PM

Hey there,
Just wondering if there is any Crayfish in the Vedder River?

Thanks.

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: cutthroat22 on October 26, 2011, 01:31:53 PM

Yes

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: BwiBwi on October 26, 2011, 01:32:14 PM

Yes.  I've seen a few of them below Hwy 1 bridge.

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: ChumChaser on October 26, 2011, 04:23:06 PM

I found a dead one in the sleepy hollow area a couple weeks ago. It was a larger blue crayfish with orange sides, incase you want to tie up some flys.

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: Dave on October 26, 2011, 05:55:51 PM

Crayfish are common in Sweltzer Creek and Cultus Lake.  Stomach contents of Northern pikeminnows sampled from Cultus Lake showed they were a key predator of smaller, perhaps juvenile crayfish; now that there are fewer larger NPM I would think crayfish populations would flourish in Cultus.
About 20 years ago they were also common in the Vedder canal area but I recall seeing many Gees type minnow traps set for crayfish.  How many were captured or whether this exploitation contributed to their decline in this area I cannot say. For sure they are not as common as before.

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: Carich980 on October 26, 2011, 09:30:45 PM

Yes I'm going to tie some Crayfish flies, I saw a pattern in Fly Tyer magazine and thought it may work well around here.

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: JPW on October 27, 2011, 08:46:41 AM

I've also seen a bunch of crayfish in the Stave fwiw.

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: Easywater on October 28, 2011, 08:40:18 AM

I also saw a dead crayfish on the Stave a couple of weeks ago.

I have a pic of it if you want.

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: JPW on October 28, 2011, 12:01:05 PM

Quote from: Easywater on October 28, 2011, 08:40:18 AM

I also saw a dead crayfish on the Stave a couple of weeks ago.

I have a pic of it if you want.

How big was the one you saw?  I was actually quite amazed by how large the ones I saw were.  I would have expected something shrimp size, but these definitely looked like baby lobsters!  I wonder if you can floss them?  ;D

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: cutthroat22 on October 28, 2011, 02:10:33 PM

Stave is loaded with them.

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: Easywater on October 28, 2011, 03:41:30 PM

I think it was pretty big - about 2 or 3 inches.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/BCfisher/GEDC0487_sm.jpg)

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: JPW on October 28, 2011, 06:11:17 PM

A couple of the ones I saw seemed like they were even bigger than that from tail to end of claw.  They looked like this guy:
(http://bionicbong.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/signal-crayfish.jpg)

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: Sandy on October 29, 2011, 12:04:43 AM

http://www.fish.washington.edu/research/oldenlab/pdf/Guide%20to%20Crayfish%20Identification%20(Dec2009).pdf

http://www.exposureandfstop.com/flyfishnmn/descriptions/crayfish.html

Title: Re: Crayfish?
Post by: RalphH on October 30, 2011, 12:37:49 PM

here's an excellent imitation:

http://www.garyborger.com/2011/08/13/fleeing-crayfish/

(http://www.garyborger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Fleeing-Crayfish-6-480x359.jpg)