# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Fishing >  crawdads and clams

## smittysurvival

i know that crawdad makes a good meal but i was wondering about clams? anyone know how to cook these well? and whats an easier way to catch/find more of both of these

----------


## crashdive123

Clams make a very good meal.  Finding them depends on where you are.  On a sandy beach you would dig or rake for them near the tide lines.  Scuba diving - a whole different way.

----------


## canid

freshwater mussels [what are usually called freshwater clams] are significant accumulators of most of the nasty water polutants.

as for finding them, dig in sediments in shallows. in rivers, look for mud/sediment flats at the mounts of sloughs and at the inside of bends, where the water is shallower.

they can safely bee cooked by boiling or steaming untill they open with no effort.

as for crawfish, you can ask 10 different people and get 50 different answers, but i prefer to trap them, overnight, in slow portions of streams where there is a lot of rock cover [cobbles, large gravel, boulders] of dark color, or where there is good shade. i have been taught to use traps with dark netting to shade the inside. the theory is that it makes them appear safer, like cover, so the crawfish are less timid about entering. it seems to help, and can't hurt.

----------


## hunter63

Crawdads:
Any piece of meat on a string, if really desperate.
Kids were using pieces of old hot dog and string at one of the rendezvous that has a stream running thru it.
They do it every year.

----------


## Rick

Filters feeders. Yuck! Disease anyone?

----------


## Mischief

> Filters feeders. Yuck! Disease anyone?


  :Huh: 

? Thats what he said

----------


## your_comforting_company

I've pulled crawdads out of their holes with fishing line.. just bobble it in their hole and when they pinch it, pull!
freshwater mussels are a bit trickier.. you gotta get wet, and to cook them, boil until they pop open.

There are some serious side effects so you need to be sure where you are collecting them from has no immediate upstream sources of pollution. There is absolutely no way that I would eat any mussels from the rivers here.. too much mercury in the water. In Spring Creek, I would eat pretty much anything I could get my hands on. Why are paper mills and sewage treatment facilities located on the main source of water anyway?? seems like we are ruining our sources of sustenance in this way... oh well, with progress, nature must be devoured.

----------


## canid

crawfish can always be collected by line, hand or net, but it's tedious. to make any real headway in terms of volume, i can't recommend trapping enough.

----------


## smittysurvival

spring or summer better to collect?

----------


## your_comforting_company

smitty, we did it spring summer and fall, but we were using them as bait lol. if you're gonna eat em, I'd have to agree with canid. A net will get you more at once than a line.

----------


## smittysurvival

6 or 7 will make a meal for me. i was thinkin about taking an aold minnow trap and making it into a craw dad trap/ how would i do that?

----------


## gryffynklm

THey are very similar. The minnow traps have a smaller opening for the fish to enter the trap, about 1". The crawfish traps have a larger opening about 2.25". I looked this up on line. 

Modifying a minnow trap by cutting the trap entrance to 2.25" should work. The problem is that you now have a crawfish trap and need a new minnow trap. There may be a way to re attach the cut part back to the trap? Modify at your own risk. I have never caught a crawfish with anything but my hand.  

Here is a link for traps. 
http://www.castawaylakes.com/Traps.html

Here is a link for baiting a trap
http://www.trapperarne.com/whatbait.htm

----------


## Rick

Here's a thread for you including traps. 

you can take a one liter bottle and cut the top off. Invert the top and stick it back on the bottom and tape in place. Place some food inside and minnows will be able to enter through the neck but they won't be able to exit.

----------


## Camp10

> Here's a thread for you including traps. 
> 
> you can take a one liter bottle and cut the top off. Invert the top and stick it back on the bottom and tape in place. Place some food inside and minnows will be able to enter through the neck but they won't be able to exit.


We made these with 2 liter bottles all the time.  They work very well.  I would put a rock in before I closed the top back up to keep it down.  The old bottles had a black plastic bottom in it and we would pull that off, cut the bottle open and then put it back.  This would give you a place to empty the trap.  Cat food was a good bait to get minnows in it and they would attract the crawdads.  I usually caught plenty of both minnows and crawdads in the same trap.

----------


## smittysurvival

easily doctor up an old trap. pair of wire clips put the spare wire around the opening.

----------


## panch0

I used to tie a piece of bologna on the end of a string and scoop them up with my little gold fish net. We caught a bunch and and always gave them to a lady who lived down our block.

----------


## rwc1969

If you can find the 3 litre pop bottles like "Big K" which is Kroger brand pop they make excellent crawdad, minnow and creek chub traps. they have a bigger opening like the 1 litres do, but hold more. Or you can use small square mesh chicken wire and make em. I always caught more when I covered them with a log, etc. I would use cat food or aquarium fish pellets tied in a spawn bag. It would last for days. Chicken grizzle/ cartiladge works good too and lasts a long time.

As far as Freshwater clams my Mom's neighbor used to trap them with a small steel screen trap with a lid of sorts. I'm not sure of the process, but he would only trap them a certain time of year because they were considered unsafe to eat otherwise. This was 50 or more years ago and I wouldn't feel safe eating them long term now because of the reasons YCC mentioned.

----------


## Durtyoleman

> 6 or 7 will make a meal for me. i was thinkin about taking an aold minnow trap and making it into a craw dad trap/ how would i do that?


6 or 7? hell that ain't even a snack...lol. I used hardware cloth to make crawfish traps... cylinder and funnel like minnow traps with the holes about an inch and a half in size... I prefered usin' the nets for fun tho. For clams or oysters all ya need is a good rake or hoe.

D.O.M.

----------


## Rick

> I prefered usin' the nets for fun tho. For clams or oysters all ya need is a good rake or hoe.


Yeah, it probably would be easier to get someone else to do the work.

----------


## Old GI

Wow, crawdads, that brings back memories.  32 years ago this month, I was in the Uwharrie National Forest for a three week vacation called "Robin Sage" (Phase 3 for you old SF types).  We found a few crawdads in a mountain stream but I don't remember how they were caught.  I do remember that 2 or 3 of those tasty morsels made an unbelievable feast!!!!  They were boiled up in a canteen cup with, of course, the obligatory hot sauce.

----------

