Xplor More: Catch a Crayfish

Crayfish Wrangling

Have you caught a crayfish or has the crayfish caught you? To keep from getting pinched by the crayfish’s pincers, grab your mudbug by the hard shell on its back, just behind its claws. When you’re done looking, put it down beside its chimney and watch it scoot back inside.

What You Need

• 3 feet of sturdy string
• 1 metal nut (the kind you put on a bolt)
• 1 piece of bacon

What You Do

1. Roll up a piece of bacon, and tie it to the end of the string.
2. Tie the nut just above the bacon.
3. Look in soggy areas near ditches, ponds and marshes for crayfish chimneys. They look like towers built with blobs of mud.
4. Lower the bacon into a chimney.
5. If you feel a tiny tug on the string, carefully pull it up. There might be a crayfish clutching the other end!