I did a 3 day solo campout on a public land area in North Central Florida last week. It was the last week of small game season. Unfortunately the weather kept the hunting poor (only killed one squirrel) but I was able to do some crawdad fishing by hand:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyZxO6WbtjI


 

Good video!

Glad you got out.

That vid reminds me of catching crawdads as a kid. Good times.

If you have a net or similar, you can lay it down on the bottom just before dusk. They come out and cover the bottoms, around here and it's fairly easy (at least compared to the one at a time style) to scoop up a bunch.

I used to love watching the kids chase those little suckers around.

When I was a kid, my dad and I used to walk up the Muskegon River from one camp site to another, each with a fishing net and scooping crawdads as we went.  Simply place the net behind them, move your foot toward them, and they went right in the net.
By the time we got to the next campsite we'd get out of the river with a small bucket of crawdads...and legs covered in leeches.  

You need a lot of crawdads to make a meal, at least up here in Michigan.

When I was a kid we had a park in the neighborhood with 'dads in it. We tried to keep them a secret but were not successful and within a couple of years they were gone.
Then one day yours truly, at the tender young age of about 10, discovered another pond, loaded with 'dads.
My friends and I gathered, recon'ed and went in. We hit it about three times in the late evenings before one fool friend decided to go during broad daylight, and ruined it for all of us.
You see, the pond I discovered was actually a reflecting pool.
Inside a cemetery.
I'd got a little bored after Grandpa's funeral and wandered off while the adults were talking, and made the discovery.
It was easy to get over the big wall around the cemetery, but dumbass friend decided he'd try the pool that was at the gate of the dang place, and was caught with two other of his dumbass friends in broad freakin' daylight, fer cryin' out loud. Wading in said pool whilst a procession of mourners drove in to lay their Dearly Departed into Eternal Rest was not appreciated by any of these folks. And was frowned upon by the management.
3 kids in cutoffs with some mesh sacks full of live 'dads futzing about in the reflecting pool wasn't the image the joint wanted, I dunno. Naturally, my name came up during the inquiry. Pricks ratted me out, and I got dragged down there. I admitted nothing. They didn't see it, so it didn't happen. They had no pictures.
I held out.
Til Dad got home.
So they drained the ponds, cleaned them out and filled them with chlorinated water. End of 'dads.
My parents reminded me of that adventure for years. They shared it with girlfriend who became wife.
Wife now brings it up every time we get ahold of some Crawdads.

Neat video.  I have never tried to catch them.

How do you prepare crawdads to eat?  I've seen them at the Chinese restaurant here.

They hide in holes in your yard. Piece of bacon tied to a string. Drop it in the hole, they latch on, slowly and carefully pull them out. Get you a mess... Boil em up with some crab boil...

The only way I know to cook them is to boil them and otherwise treat them like miniature lobsters.

In Florida there isn't really a tradition of catching them by hand. There aren't rocky clear creeks here like there are in the mountains where you can flip a rock over and find them. There's also too many animals in the water here that are dangerous. For that reason catfish noodling isn't a big tradition here either. You're as likely to stick your hand in the mount of an alligator snapper as you are a catfish unless you can actually see the fish you're grabbing.


Most of the crawdads here live in weedy places where you're better served with a dipnet. I'm going to try to make a video doing that. That's the way to catch a mess of them for a big meal. In the right habitat at the right time of year you can catch several dozen in just a few drags of the dipnet.

They are freshwater lobster...
If it's in the woods and you need to eat, boil them in a little salted water, or you can even just cook them on a fire. Keep in mind that their diet is dead and decaying things and they thrive in slow moving water. Crawfish taste can vary a lot based on the environment and their last meal.

If you have all the time and catch a whole mess of them, put them in cold water and add a pinch of salt. Let them sit for a while to clear out their system. Then boil them with a ton of Cajun spices/Old Bay and some andouille sausage for a wonderful meal.

That is not surviving, that is thriving.  
 

At Scout camp guys would walk the rivers/creeks turning over rocks.  We would catch them and hold them in a #10 coffee can.  We then boiled them in the same can over a fire until they turned bright orange.  Topped them off with some salt and butter that had been "re-purposed" from the mess hall.  Not much besides the claws and tails.  Tasted like baby shrimp in a can to me.

Can't say that I learned anything but it was a fun video to watch.

Just as the author says, crawfish are an absolute delicacy when caught in large numbers and boiled in cajun seasonings. I normally eat 5 pounds in a sitting with potatoes, corn, sausage, hot dogs, mushrooms, garlic, onions, asparagus, and probably anything else you can think of. I've never thought of them as a survival food to catch by hand.

When I was a kid we used to catch them by hand in June when they were moulting.  The soft shells were excellent bass bait, although I've never eaten one.

we always used the nets with the four wires in a pyramid shape...  worked well

HERE

When we go to the cabin for the rattlesnake hunt my kids and nephews spend hours catching crayfish.

GREAT VIDEO! Thanks

It brought back fond memories of my misspent Florida youth. I grew up in Seminole County back in the 70s-early 80s. I remember stained creek water like that with white sandy bottoms. I was fortunate enough to have experienced a little of "Old Florida" before most of it disappeared.

Why not leave the scraps stuck to the pan, submerge the pan, tilt it on it side and simply lift the pan with a crawdad inside when one enters?

TRG