Crayfish Curiosity

[austintgraf]

I live in the Middle Tennessee area with an abundance of water all around me. My family owns two large pond, a portion of the little duck river, property that backs up to the duck river, and I live off the Tennessee River. My family also lives just a few minutes shy of Normandy Lake as well as a small drive away from Tims Ford Lake and I live just a short drive from Nickajack I know that their is crayfish everywhere and after watching a self-sufficiency based television show for awhile, and having farmed for many years I wish to explore the relatively foreign side of utilizing the wild to its maximum potential, particularly the rivers, lakes, ponds, and streams. I'm no good with a gun so hunting is being pushed aside currently, but trapping however has me very curious. Primarily im curious about crayfish. Are they even prolific here? And if so can I eat them? Should I eat them? Is it safe? If so when is it legal to trap them? And in what quantity? Thank you in advance! Any knowledge on the matter is greatly appreciated!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm sorry I don't have the answer to your questions - but I will definitely offer to be in charge of your quality control dept! I can sure eat some crfawfish - and not half bad at cookin' em either!

Seriously though - good luck in your endeavors.

 

[baymule]

http://aqua.ucdavis.edu/DatabaseRoot/pdf/CRAWPM.PDF

http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/education/documents/SpeciesModuleCrawfishComplete.pdf

http://www.crayfishman.com/cooking.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_8265407_clean-cook-crayfish.html

Crawfish are tasty! Very good in gumbo and etouffee (pronounced A-too fay)

 

[Denim Deb]

Hubby left the Food Channel on, and they're having a crawfish boil!

 

[Wannabefree]

SW Tennessee here. Crayfish AKA crawdads AKA mudbugs...all the same as far as I know. They are edible, ask any cajun and they can tell you how to cook them I can't recall ever having eaten any myself, but I hate shrimp, and supposedly they are very similar. If that idea turns you off as much as it did me, use them as bait for catfish and bass THAT is good eating Open season on them as far as I know, and no limits either that I have ever heard about in my lifetime. I've lived here over 30 years

 

[k15n1]

One thing that I've realized in the last year is that hunting and fishing are time-consuming activities. They take time AND timing. It's hard for me to work those kinds of things into my life at this point. In a survival situation, I'm sure everyone's time will be too short of the activities required. So consider farming crayfish. They can be farmed intensively. I'm too far north to do something like that but you're in the right climate.

 

[austintgraf]

One thing that I've realized in the last year is that hunting and fishing are time-consuming activities. They take time AND timing. It's hard for me to work those kinds of things into my life at this point. In a survival situation, I'm sure everyone's time will be too short of the activities required. So consider farming crayfish. They can be farmed intensively. I'm too far north to do something like that but you're in the right climate.

I really like the idea of that. I think im going to looking into possibly farming them.

 

[austintgraf]

Thank you for all the replies everyone! I appreciate it, and hopefully will be enjoying some crawfish sometime soon!

 

[the_whingnut]

@ austintgraf i'm from the same area as you just across in Giles. (with plenty of tickets in Fayetteville) the only thing you should worry about when catching your crawfish is the local evironmental conditions. its been a few years since i was at Tim's ford but i remember some wetland areas near tims ford that had pleanty of crawfish in them. we had them in abundance near the Elk river. as for farming them there are some aquaponics systems that do very well from using crawfish as the "fish" side of the aquaponics system.

here are some links for you

http://homeaquaponicssystem.com/fish/what-aquaponic-fish-to-use/
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/using-crayfish-in-your-aquaponics-system
http://www.marbledcrayfish.com/use-in-aquaponics

 

[austintgraf]

I work at an aquarium so I'm very cautious about potentially hurting the ecosystem. I wouldn't take unless I knew it wouldn't effect much