Crayfish?

[Fishfoote]

I once ate crayfish at a bar in Little Rock, AK. It was awesome. Anyone ever eat them out of a Michigan Lake or stream? How did you prepare them? Which kind are good/best?

[outsider]

Gathering or traping them in quality water is the first thing to consider. Then live well them for a day or two so they have time to rid themselves of the dirt in there systems . Then boil them alive ( ouch) in a pot of water with crab boil mix. Dip the finished meat (tails ,claws ) in butter ,(after shelling).:p

[JStarbrite]

Done it many times. I tie chicken wing tips to a weighted minnow net, lower to the bottom, wait a few seconds and haul up. Done this at Mio dam. TONS of crawfish gather there to feast on the fish parts that get chopped up going through the dam.

You can purge the mud bugs out by alternating salt water rinse with fresh water. Don't leave in the salt water for more than a few min. or it will kill them. Do not eat if dead.

Prepare cooking water by lightly salting and using a crab boil bag (I like Zatarains), squeeze in a few lemons, add a few onions and garlic. Add your live bugs, return to a boil, then turn off heat and cover for 5 min. Crawfish should turn bright red. Let cool and enjoy!

[Fuzzz]

is there a certain kind to use (or not use)?

[JStarbrite]

If it's big enough, eat it.

[Fishfoote]

Had a party this past weekend, collected up about 2 gallons of crayfish (after sorting out the little ones) - cooked them up in some cajun seasonings - and people flocked to them. As easy as they were to catch in a basket trap - I suspect I'll be eating a lot of crayfish in the future. My wife and daughter even liked them.:D

[sfw1960]

Taste like chicken..........

[woodsmanq]

Where might I catch some crayfish in macomb county?

[Andi@thecottage]

We do the crayfish thing :)
We have had the best luck with a greasy piece of KFC-usually a wing-in the trap. We place the traps in local rivers and creeks usually under a bridge. I have even used a chicken wing tied on a fishing rod and you drag along the bottom and scoop them up with a net. Like crabbing!
Usually we toss a couple traps in on thursday night and pick up 12 or so hours later. Bring home and start them soaking in a pickle bucket. Keep changing the water. I add salt at first-every other rinse-so they get salt 2 times. This causes them to purge the mud from their system. Only leaving in salt water a few minutes at a time. Keep changing the water every couple hours. It will get dirty-so keep changing it.
Okay-to cook them.
We boil outside on a turkey fryer burner. We heat water with zatarains. Onion-garlic- (hot pepper) then we dip in a basket that contains smoked sausage, new potatoes, corn cob chunks and let those cook -add corn in the last few minutes. Remove and keep warm. Add crayfish to basket, place in boil and cover. Cook for about 20 minutes. Dump it all out on newspaper covered table with some nut crackers and Dig in. :)
I like to serve with melted butter w/franks hot sauce to dip.

I believe you need a fishing license-we get one...lots of dnr here....

Not too sure about Macomb county but they are everywhere up here. Houghton Lk, and rivers, streams, creeks all in my area. The rusty's here are huge-about 5"-as big as my hand!

Try the clinton river-under bridges!

[Ausable Junkie]

I call it the poor man's lobster. I use a cheap 99 cent package of hot dogs for the bait. Cut 'em up into roughly 1" pieces ( and tie 'em in an onion bag along with a rock inside to weigh it down to the bottom. After a few minutes in the water, lift up on the rope and you'll have lots of crawdads clinging to the mesh bag. As soon as the bag is lifted off of the bottom, use a smelt net (or similar small mesh net) to get under the bag as you lift it out of the water. Otherwise 1/2 the crawdads will drop off the bag before you get it out of the water.