Crawfish Trapping Report - Goldwater Lake

Crawfish 1

Last weekend Bobby & Sabrina took Crawfish 1 out for it's madden trapping voyage to one of our favorite Arizona lakes to trap, Goldwater Lake in Prescott. This is the earliest in the year we have ever trapped and the first time we have trapped crawfish in Arizona still hosting eggs. We posted a picture Sunday on Facebook; of the comments we received "redneck caviar" was the winner in our book.

Now without further ado, here is the first Arizona Crawfish Trapping report of 2015!

Crawfish eggs

Date: March 14th & 15th, 2015
Bait: Processed Crawfish Bait
Traps: 10 Promar 502 crawfish traps.
Trap Depth: 10-20 feet
Water Temperature: Unknown
Average Time In Water: Overnight /  Noon Saturday - 10:00AM Sunday
Trapping Results: 20 lbs.

Additional Notes: We don't mind when people find our traps and pull them up to inspect out of curiosity and we always appreciate when you have the character to not steal them. However, we do ask you have the courtesy of returned the taps to the water instead of leaving them toss on the bank. Merci!

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Crawfish Trapping Report - Goldwater Lake

Our buddy Franklin took only two of our favorite traps with our processed bait to Goldwater Lake today and trapped himself a good supper!! C'est Bon Franklin; best trap we've seen this year in Arizona!

Date: July 2nd, 2013

Bait: Processed Crawfish Bait

Traps: Two

Trap Type: Promar 501

Trap Depth: 7-10 foot average

Average Time In Water: Two hours / 9:00AM - 11:00AM

Trapping Results: Estimated pounds 3-5 pounds

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Crawfish Trapping Report-Goldwater Lake

The water level at Goldwater Lake is lower than we have ever seen, which is interested because the near by Granite Basin Lake is completely full. Our local resource attributes this low level to seepage between the concrete damn and where it's tied into the rock cliffs. Regardless of the low water level and our favorite trapping at the lake currently dried up (pictured below), Goldwater Lake is still as much of a honey hole for crawfish as it's ever been! 

The following are Monday's trapping results...

 

Date: June 17th, 2013

Bait: Processed Crawfish Bait

Traps: Seven

Trap Type: Four Pillow, Two Promar Collapsible, One Trapper Arne.

Trap Depth: Ten foot average.

Average Time In Water: Two hours / 120 minutes. 

Trapping Results: Average of ten crawfish per trap resulting in 70 crawfish or 4.5 pounds of crawfish.

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Watch for Boudreax on road!

He just left A and M Graphics in Mesa where Andrew just finished applying a full length window decal on his F-150. Keep an eye out for him on the road as he heads up to Goldwater Lake to trap for tomorrow night's private party crawfish boil! If you can track him down lakeside he just may have a few extra pounds of crawfish or bait he can spare...








Thank you for your support. Y'all come back now ya' hear!?

The Arizona Crawfish Company Family
www.ArizonaCrawfishCompany.com

Crawfish Trapping Log: July 4th, 2010.

When most folks think of Arizona they think dusty, dry, rattlesnakes and cactus from Tombstone to the Grand Canyon. These are the common keywords and very rightfully so, but Arizona has much more to offer. In fact, if you've never been to Goldwater Lake you probably wouldn't associate pine trees, mountain lake, family picnic destination, trout fishing or even Blue Heron to the name. But not only can all this be found and enjoyed along the shore line of this quaint 15 acre lake, it's also the habitat for thousands of crawfish!

Located a few miles south of Prescott on old Senator Highway, Goldwater Lake was originally built in the 1920's as a water source for the anticipated growth Yavapai County and opened to public use by Prescott's Park Service in the 1970's. No one really knows when Crawfish were introduced to Goldwater Lake or exactly how many crawfish lurk below the surface...but we can tell you it's close to the number of Nutria nesting in the the cypress knees along the banks of the Lacassine Bayou. In other words, A LOT!

Trapping large volumes of crawfish requires a lot of mobility around and on the water. Since the banks of the Goldwater Lake are reserved for pedestrian traffic only, please welcome the newest member of Arizona Crawfish Company known as the Desert Green Gator.

This little 14 foot boat really earned it's keep! It enabled us to set "trout line" type assemblies for the traps all over the lake and made transporting our catch back to the lakeside picnic area a much simpler task than carrying them by hand as we have done in the past. Honestly, we probably would have caught just as many crawfish without the boat and crawfish trap lines assemblies, but we would have missed out on other important outdoor activities such as wetting a fishing line, napping under the shade of pine trees or boiling twenty ponds of trapped crawfish to share with all the people present at the lake that day filled with curiosity at the concept of actually eating 'those nasty mudbugs.'

It's always a highlight watching and listening to people's reaction when trying boiled crawfish their first time. One of these day's we may write a book with all the one-linners we've heard over the years like "what is that black line?" or "Is it healthy to suck out their brains?" and a personal favorite "I can afford not to eat these!" One of the most common questions we are repeatedly asked is "what do you use to bait crawfish traps?" The answer is simple: if there are crawfish in the water, it doesn't really matter. Canned cat food, fish bones, bacon, catfish blood bait, raw chicken, hot dogs or even processed crawfish bait, you name it! As long as it creates a smell, it will attract crawfish! What's more important about bait is quantity, not necessarily quality. If you're using Open Two Ring Crawfish Traps in shallow water that need to be checked often, then a slice of bacon tied in the middle will suffice. If you're using a vinyl coated pillow trap several feet deep off a rock ledge and you may not be checking but every 12 or more hours, then up to 1/2 chicken might be required. In other words, the longer you're gone from your trap, the more bait you want to load it with as you want your bait to produce scent that will attract crawfish the entire time you are away from your traps.

This weekend we used primarily chicken since there was a sale at the grocery story of whole chickens for $3; so for less than $30 we were able to keep seventeen crawfish traps full of bait for two full days.

All said and done at the end of our 48 hour trapping expedition, we weighed out a grand total of 150 pounds of live crawfish. Averaged out we were catch 2.2 pounds per trap per 12 hours with very little relocation of traps. You would think numbers like that would make a dent in an Arizona lake but we saw no indication we made the slightest dent in crawfish population. In fact the traps were just as full the last time we checked them as they were the first time.

We've yet to decide which water source we'll be trapping at next, but we'll keep y'all posted and send trapping updates as well! No matter what body of water y'all hit next, please remember to be respectful of our environment, courtesy to other outdoors men, patience with young ones who could be experiencing nature for their first time and messing with another man's crawfish trap could consequently lead to you being the crawfish bait...

Y'all come back now ya' hear!?

The Arizona Crawfish Company Family
www.ArizonaCrawfishCompany.com