How To Keep Your Crawfish Alive - LiveOutdoors

Crawfish are a fan favorite live bait for bass in late Spring and throughout the Summer. For this reason it helps to keep some on hand for quick trips to your local waters. A while back, we took a closer look at ways you can keep your own crawfish for live bait. Today, we’ll go a little deeper and explore how you can extend the life of your crawfish and hit the water with a good amount of bait when you need it. Keep reading for a few tips on how to do this!

For starters, crawfish are very easy to keep and don't require a large fish tank with a filtration system. In fact, you can use a large rectangular plastic storage container with a lid—drill holes in the top—to keep crawfish for weeks in the garage or basement. Furthermore, you don’t need a ton of water. Simply fill the container with just enough water to cover the crawfish three-quarters of the way.

When it comes to diet, crawfish will eat just about anything, but lettuce tends to be the popular choice. It’s inexpensive and doesn’t dirty the water as quickly as foods like hot dogs or raw meat, which is a plus. Feed the crawfish once a week by dropping in just a few big leaves and change the water the day after feeding. If you’re pressed for time, you can slowly flip the container over and let the old water drain through the holes in the lid.

Finally, if any crawfish molt in the container, remove the old shells immediately. Also, if you notice any dead crawfish, remove them right away. Shells and dead crawfish pollute the water very quickly, which can cause you to lose even more crawfish and leave you with no bait.

These simple tricks will go a long way towards extending the life of your live crawfish, which will make your wallet happy in the long run. If you like to fish with crawfish and are tired of trekking to the bait shop every time you want to fish, or catch them as you need them, then try keeping them yourself. You’ll be surprised at how easy it can be.