7 Great Tips To Combat Crayfish When Carp Fishing

Crayfish occur naturally in most lakes & rivers in France.  The carp love to eat them & almost without exception where there’s large carp you’ll find crayfish too, because they are an excellent source of protein which makes the carp grow very quickly. Here is how to beat crayfish when carp fishing…

Under normal circumstances they are not a problem to anglers, but in the hot summer months when the water is warm even lakes without a crayfish problem can suddenly find they have some activity in the margins. 

They will nibble away at your boilies and if the bait is soft enough then they can completely remove them from the rig. They can also cause the rigs to tangle with their incessant pulling & tugging.

How to create the perfect carp fishing lake
Crayfish, a common occurence in French lakes

But don’t despair, you can get around them.  Here are some tactics you can employ to beat crayfish when carp fishing by slowing them down considerably, so that you are confident that your bait will, at least, last overnight. 

1 – Use rock hard air dried boilies as hook baits.  At least 48 hours drying so that they are so hard that you need a drill to get the hair through.

2 – Use plastic boilies as hookbaits

3 – Use hemp and/or particle mix as a background feed to slow them down. Don’t just use boilies

4 – Use plastic sweetcorn as your hook bait. Fish 4 on a “stack” on your hair

5 – Feed on a little and often basis & re-cast every couple of hours.  This allows you to re-bait & check that your rigs are not tangled or have been dragged into silkweed

6 – Use protective mesh or shrink tube on hook baits, so it’s harder for the crayfish to break the boilie down

7 – If they do have a fiddle around with your rig, they could well tangle it. For this reason use a stiff hooklink material that will reset itself

Here’s a couple of older videos covering this subject; 

So now you know how to beat crayfish when carp fishing, check out more of our tactics and watercraft articles here: Tactics & Watercraft – Angling Lines Blog

See all of our fantastic French carp fishing lakes here – Angling Lines Venues

Comments

One thought on “7 Great Tips To Combat Crayfish When Carp Fishing

  1. Ron Key says:

    I’ve fished crayfish infested waters for many years and I think it wrong to always see them as a negative. Make sure your hookbait is protected or artificial and ensure you steer away from mono hooklinks that they can crimp in their powerful claws and you will be fishing effectively.

    I don’t hold back on baitng just because crayfish are around. Remember you are attracting fish not feeding them so does it matter if the crayfish get a few boilies? Their activity around your baits; scuttling around and chopping up baits will soon attract the carp into the area around your waiting hookbait then its game on!. Cheers Ron

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