9 hours ago, the reel ess said:

Not to argue, but when I was growing up, my parents had a lake house. I NEVER saw a crawfish in that lake until I was over 30 and I caught a bass with a claw hanging out of its rear end. They might still be there.

On the island here? What lake?

1 hour ago, Weld's Largemouth said:

On the island here? What lake?

I can't say. Just giving a little anecdotal evidence of how I never saw one, yet they were there.

Maybe salinity is too high there???

If they are in Jersey, they should be in LI, but who knows. I've never seen Craws in this reservoir I fish, but the bass love the jigs with Craw trailer. Then I caught one that spit up a craw. Still haven't seen a live one...

On January 22, 2016 at 6:36 AM, Weld's Largemouth said:

On the island here? What lake?

I'll give you one.

Lake ronkonkoma has them. You can see guys on YouTube trapping them.

On 1/20/2016 at 11:59 AM, Paul Roberts said:

There are crayfish developed for just about anywhere there is a wet spot:

I'm not gonna say it, I'm not gonna say it..........

 

You can find a craw in a mud pile 100 yards from a lake hiding in cover. If it has water in the continental united states it has craw fish.

I live in MA and have never seen one either ,but according to fish & game there all over the place up here ,so I guess I'll take their word for it ..

There is a lake here that is river fed, never seen a crawfish, then one day in the late summer early fall of last year there were tenths of thousands all hanging around. Don't know if they were breeding, but there were a crap load. Came back the next day... gone, not one to be seen.

On 1/21/2016 at 8:01 PM, Weld's Largemouth said:

Come here to long island, every lake I fish here has no crawdad/crawfish. Nada

Many lakes and ponds have them on long Island...I know as a Kid Randall Pond next to the DEC office in Ridge had them as we used to catch them as young kids...You would never know they were in the pond but we used to use a sein net and get them. I also have seen them on the Peconic river and that river in Smithtown where they stock all the trout...I can't think of the name..Check out the Fish and wildlife page or DEC page and they will have lists..I also remember finding them under rocks at Wildwood and a few ponds in the Panamoka area...Maybe the weather over the past decade killed them off?

Crawfish are hard to see during the day and usually you have to chum them to get them to show themselves and even then you need a trap. If you just hop in a boat and go fishing you will rarely see one unless sticking out of a fishes throat. The next time you head to any lake, take off your shoes and walk around the ramp, flip over rocks but they are fast, so lift them slowly...At night you can find them easier with a light as they seem to congregate in areas.

I have a pond behind my place that I have fished almost daily for 5 years while walking my dog...I never knew it had any crawfish until I found one walking in the drainage ditch one day...I would have bet anyone money that they did not exist in this little pond because I had flipped over the few logs available, but they are in almost every body of water, and love streams.....