interesting read CRAYFISH

[joffmiester]

sorry its off another site


MORE than a million crayfish has been cleared from a Scottish loch in a bid to protect other fish life.

The American Signal Crayfish have been causing a problem in Loch Ken and other waters for some time, taking over the marine life there and fishermen have been asked to be on the lookout for them.They have been described as an invasive species, particularly active in the Dumfries and Galloway area.

The Scottish Government has recognised this and funded a scheme to clear the loch and other waterways on the crayfish. The pilot scheme at Loch Ken was part of research into the impact the non-native species was having on marine life. They eat any young fish they can get their claws into and they breed rapidly. Fishermen have been given permission to kill any they come across.

A business case is now being prepared to seek further funding to undertake a three-year study in the loch, which will involve more trapping . But the Scottish Environment Agency says that it is not possible to remove all the crayfish simply by trapping. A new bid will now be made to reduce their numbers - and they are thought to be considerable - to a more reasonable level. The American signal crayfish was first discovered in English and Welsh waters, thought to have been brought in through fish farms back in the 1980s. In Scotland they were first seen in 1995 Since then they have been spreading into rivers and lochs as far north as Inverness

[joffmiester]

we have or are going to have a big problem on the river soar before long
at sutton lane end a couple of us approached a bloke that we thought was netting fish especially after our encounters with the eastern Europeans earlier this year only to find it was a well spoken Englishman who sets nets for crayfish and when we asked him how many crayfish would he expect to catch in one day he said around the 70 mark just after he said that he lifted a net in it had two big crayfish anything from 12oz to 1lb in weight but the frightening part was these two were surrounded by a dozen small ones which he through back in to the river

[fred]

I fish the top end of the Thames around Lechlade and a chap I know traps them from there. He's had over 8000, yes 8000 this last season 2009.

One of the specie carp anglers I know has told me hat the crays dissapeared in their lake after a couple of cat fish found their way into the lake. Might be a way to go. It would be easier to remove a few cat fish than thousands of crays.

We had a few lakes around South Cerney that bred them but they soon spread to tiny rivers that fed into the Thames. They are also in the Kennet and Avon canal.

[joffmiester]

cats in the river soar could be good for the chopworm gang

[MrV]

I lived in Scotland for 6 years Joffie and fished Ken regularly. The crayfish are a bloody pain
You would know when they arrived in your peg as the Bream and Roach would just disappear
I sat behind a chap once and his tip was "trembling" like mad. I asked what sort of fish were giving bites like that and he said "its a crayfish crawling up the line to get to my bait!!" He was fishing with the feeder on the bottom, and his hooklength about 4 feet above it. Sure enough, when he reeled in there was one hanging on his bait!!
If you fished your bait on the bottom, you were constantly pestered by them. Apparently excellent eating though according to the locals

[joffmiester]

i spoke about crayfish in the pub last night and a chap did say that about 5 years ago two catfish were caught in the river soar in the same session and the catch was photographed and appeared in the ANGLING TIMES so the fish everyone are loosing down at sutton could well be catfish when i say loosing them i mean proper carp anglers with proper gear on the ones match anglers have hooked have just said they can't get them from hugging the bottom and all the reports say that these fish swim up stream and brake them at first we thought about big carp as one or two carp have come out of this peg them we thought it was big barbel as its been reported that barbel up to 13lb have come out of the stretch so if anyone fancies ago let me know