Signal Crayfish

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Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,205
1,571
Cumbria
Anyone fish the invader species of signal crayfish? Heard you can get a licence for.them from environmental agency. Reckon they wld be a gd free food and gd for our native species in a small way. If you.fish them what do they taste like? Gd eating? Any gd recipes?
 

Outdoordude

Native
Mar 6, 2012
1,099
1
Kent
In Sweden when I go I fish them. They taste delicious and we have a big feast and party one night when we catch them. The way we do it is a special Swedish recipe. It takes several days to cook them though.
Hope that helps on the taste side of things. They can be cooked in other more easy ways.
 

Niels

Full Member
Mar 28, 2011
2,582
3
26
Netherlands
Saw Ray Mears talk about 'em once. He caught a couple of them, took the tail, snapped it left, right and pulled out the gut.
He then stuck a dogwood skewer in that hole and roasted them over hot embers. Looked absolutely delicious. You should be able to find it on youtube.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
I cook them the Cajun way. Season a large pot of boiling water (enough water so that when you dump the other igredients in, it will cover them and continue boiling) The best seasoning is heavy saly and cayenne pepper.

Once the seasoned water is boiling dump the crawfish into it live along with corn on the cob, cut up potaoes, and sliced onions. About a pound of live crawfish per person and at least 2 ears of corn each. After about 8-15 minutes of cooking everything should be done; remove from the boiling water and serve.
.
The traditional way to serve it is to pour it all onto a table that has been covered with newspaper or masking paper. To eat them you pull the tail off and peel it like a shrimp (only the shell is tougher than a shrimp's shell) Once you've eaten the tail meat, you suck all the meat and fat from the upper end through the cavity left from pulling off the tail.

If you'r not into the Cajun thing, they're still cooked and served the same way; only you just eat the tail and skip sucking the head.
 

Holme

Member
Mar 10, 2010
45
0
Sweden
In Sweden Signal crayfish is an invasive specie, spreading the mortal "cray fish plague", thus destroying all the domestic crayfish habitats. It has now gone so far that the original domestic crayfish is about to become extinct.

I own a crayfish water that previousluy contained a large population of domestic crayfish. Due to my up-stream neighbours moronic attempts to establish a more "viable" resource of crayfish, the original specie has been wiped out entirely.
 

swotty

Full Member
Apr 25, 2009
1,878
246
Somerset
I cook them the Cajun way. Season a large pot of boiling water (enough water so that when you dump the other igredients in, it will cover them and continue boiling) The best seasoning is heavy saly and cayenne pepper.

Once the seasoned water is boiling dump the crawfish into it live along with corn on the cob, cut up potaoes, and sliced onions. About a pound of live crawfish per person and at least 2 ears of corn each. After about 8-15 minutes of cooking everything should be done; remove from the boiling water and serve.
.
The traditional way to serve it is to pour it all onto a table that has been covered with newspaper or masking paper. To eat them you pull the tail off and peel it like a shrimp (only the shell is tougher than a shrimp's shell) Once you've eaten the tail meat, you suck all the meat and fat from the upper end through the cavity left from pulling off the tail.

If you'r not into the Cajun thing, they're still cooked and served the same way; only you just eat the tail and skip sucking the head.

I'm hungry now.....:)
 

Thoth

Nomad
Aug 5, 2008
345
32
Hertford, Hertfordshire
You need to know who owns the river to get an EA licence though I think. I used to bump into a guy who legally took 5kg a day from one river near me. They went to a restaurant in London if I remember rightly. Before you needed a licence we used to catch them whenever we had a BBQ. Pretty good eating.
 

fishfish

Full Member
Jul 29, 2007
2,352
5
52
wiltshire
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm just love them!

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Aug 9, 2013
4
0
Oxfordshire
I have been trapping the tasty blighters for about 3 years now. Yes you need landowner (riparian owner) permission and and EA permit (free). I use three 'trappy' traps and use bacon offcuts in the bait box. I think this year we have had about 6kg out of the stream next to our allotment plot. As I only catch about 14-20 per day I just pull the heads off, pull the gut out alla Ray Mears and then boil in plain water, cool then freeze for later.
 

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