How to beat the crayfish

Crayfish have become an increasingly troubled issue in carp angling. They can be a nightmare and seem to be a common problem on many lakes now. Unless the fishery management deals with them, they will breed at a rapid rate too.

The lake I fish for the majority of the season has a real issue with them. In fact, your whole angling revolves around them. Your tackle, rigs, swim choice and bait all depend on how the Crays are.

A stiff hook link is important to help reset the rig should they pick it up.

Nothing can make you 100 % sure that they cannot effect you, but there are some small tips and tricks you can add that will prevent them from causing you issues. Firstly, if there are lots of carp in the area, there wont be as many Crayfish. They are a huge problem when it comes to fishing, but the carp love eating them and if there are carp in the area, the Crays will try and avoid it.

Avoid putty and stick with shots and sinkers.

You are going to have to accept that there is a good possibility that they will be playing with your rig at some point or another. For this reason I always use a stiff hooklink material that will always reset itself. I use a stiff 20lb coated braid that once picked up, will always remain straight and reset itself. It also has a tough outer coating that is difficult for the Crays to damage. If they do damage the coating, you still have the main inner core of the braid that holds the strength of the hook link.

Extender stops are a must, they will pull normal hair stops off with ease.

This may sound a bit bizarre, but they absolutely love putty. It is their favourite thing and they always rip it off. I like to add putty to my rigs, but obviously not in this case. Something like a sinker or even a shot is much more efficient. It does worry me as I am a bit anal when it comes to everything looking neat. A BB shot is not as neat as putty, but unfortunately there isn’t any other way round it.

A chod rig is a presentation that they find hard to mess with.

It is also worth thinking how you are going to fish with pop-ups. I use chod rigs a lot because the Crays don’t touch them as much. However, you would normally use putty to bring that pop-up down. There are a few ways of getting round this. Sometimes I will drill some of the pop-up out and place some putty or a shot inside it. I then mesh the bait, which is something I will touch on later, just to make sure it stays inside the bait.

A strong and naturally sharp hook will deal with being picked up and dropped.

If you are fishing a conventional rig on the bottom, always use something like an extender stop. A regular hair stop is easy for them to pull off and they do this with ease. The extender stops pull right in to the bait and they cannot nip them off.

The final aspect of the end tackle I would make sure to use is a large lead. These Crays are big and would be able to move a small lead easily. It is bad enough the little creatures move your hook bait around, net alone the lead. This is why I use a big, 3oz plus lead to ensure the rig stays on the spot. I prefer to use a big lead for actually hooking the carp too, so it makes sense to use a larger lead for all of my fishing.

Bait is perhaps the biggest issue when it comes to dealing with crayfish. People instantly think that they need to use either plastic hook baits or nuts. Sometimes this is unfortunately the case. I still, no matter how bad the situation is, always use boilies in my mix.

I tend to use a particle mix, with lots of small seeds and a few nuts in. If I know the Crays are bad, this is the main bulk of my mix. I then add some chopped and a few whole boilies. The more the better, but make sure there is plenty of crumb and chops. It will take the Crays much longer to play around with a kilo of chopped baits as apposed to a kilo of 20mm boilies.

A large lead is not only better for hooking fish, it also holds the rig in place too.

The main edge with boilies is not only do carp absolutely love them; anglers tend to avoid them out of fear. Imagine a lake where carp are only fed particles and they come across a delicious feast of boilies?

I mix my baits 50/50 with both the Krill and Vor-Tex. I love both baits and so do the carp and by introducing them I have found that the amount of bites over that mix is far superior to a straight particle approach. If there are carp showing on in the area, then I would go for an all out boilie approach. This has worked so well for me recently, having large hits upwards of six fish in a session, which is practically unheard of for the lake I am fishing.

A mix of particles and boilies is a great mix, it will take the Crays longer to find your hook bait.

If I am introducing whole baits, I do like to air-dry them prior to my session. The Krill is naturally a soft and highly soluble bait, so will soften fairly quick. However, airdrying them will make them much tougher for a longer period, extending the time it takes for the Crays to ruin your presentation.

If there are carp in the area then I know that they will eat the bait. If it is a race between them and the Crays there will only ever be one winner. In the warmer months I like to soak my baits in Cap-Oil. Not only does it enhance and boost the attraction of the baits, but I can often see when the carp are on me. If it is carp feeding on me, a huge flat spot will appear over my bait.

Meshing your baits will keep the hook bait fishing for much longer.

If it is just the odd little puff coming off the spot, there is a chance it could be carp but is likely to be Crays. With how carp on that mix it is normally quite visually apparent when they are on you.

Whether I am fishing pop-ups or bottom baits I will always mesh them. There are a few things you can do such as shrink wrapping, air drying your baits and of course meshing. I normally mesh a few baits up before I go fishing to save me doing it when I am at the lake.

Oily chopped and crumbed boilies is Luke’s preferred bait if he can get away with using it.

I simply wrap my bait in mesh, tighten it, and then tie it off using floss and a slipknot. It is then just a cast of trimming the tag ends and blobbing it with the lighter. The Crays can get through this still, but it will extend the life of your hook bait in the lake. If the Crays are on you, it can be the difference of having a hook bait out there for 6 hours instead of three.