Looking for the crawdads

[hunt-fish-trap]

I live in Oregon City and am looking for these little guys. I got the traps just not the knowledge and last year I made the drive to Timathy and it stunk like a skunk. not enough food to gas ratio

 

[jamisonace]

I don't know about up there but the coastal range streams South of you (around me) have quite a few. My boys and I can spend all day wading the creeks and turning over rocks for them. They seem to be pretty small though and if you're looking to save money, you'd be better off buying the commercial ones that come from Lake Billy Chinook than driving somewhere and spending all day trying for a few pounds.

 

[Merle]

I lived in Oregon City for over 30 years. Put your traps in Abernathy Creek. Another great crawdad water
is Milk Creek, which is located in the Mulino area off of Hwy 213 South of Oregon City.

 

[hunt-fish-trap]

Thanks Merle. I to have lived in the great oc for 34 years

 

[salmon_slayer87]

you might try and throw your traps in the willamette. I have heard of people catching some in there. other then that finding crawdads large enough to spend time/money on will be tough. its always fun fishing for them when salmon/steelhead gets slow.
good luck to ya,
Dale

 

[hunt-fish-trap]

being unemployed due to a back injury, I have sorta became a modern day hunter gatherer. I have started selling off all my "excess" stuff that I will never use again but "hope" that one day I might.

that being said I remember eating them as a kid when camping and want that for my kid as well

 

[chrisohm]

Merle has the right idea! Also, I know that many other creeks in the area carry a bounty of these guys. If you know someone with creek access on their property, just go for it. The small creek on my boss' property, out in Aurora, produced about 80 in a couple hours. Fat ones too! They prefer that muddy/sandy sediment.

 

[fish4life]

Multunoma Channel use to be full of them, my boss said they use to catch them by the ice chest full, don't know if thats the best place because of the pollution. Seen some really large ones off of the pudding river.

 

[chrisohm]

Stay away from Multnomah Channel. Pudding river is a good spot! Lots of fish too... The Molalla might be a good bet near the mouth and upstream to the pudding. I wouldn't try now though. Everything turned into swampland...

 

[Raincatcher]

As a kid growing up in Hermiston, I, along with my sister and little brother would brave the local swamp and bring home crawdads the size of lobsters! No kidding! They were so big we could only fit 6-8 in my Mom's big wash tub. We took them to school for "show & tell" and always got extra points when we showed the females with hundreds of eggs tucked under their tails. We left them in the tub over the winter and they would freeze solid, but in the spring they would thaw and be returned to the swamp to start the cycle over again. Wish we would have had a camera way back then.

 

[muskieguide]

The alsea river is loaded with bigguns