Crawdad Catastrophe

Soon after my population of crawdads was reduced to 28, I got to thinking how hard it would be to catch and raise 300 crawdads at once. I then realized I had no place to store all 300 crawdads while raising them! Then I had a great idea, I decided to free all my baby crawdads and only catch and keep full grown ones. Then I would only have to care for them, and not raise them. But 300 crawdads all caught by hand would be hard work. I needed something to help me out a little. That’s when Mom suggested I make a crawdad trap.

After looking up how to make crawdad traps, I began making my own. I took some hardware cloth and began following the instructions. At the end of the first step, I had made a good-looking cylinder. Once I finish the first step, I ask Mom to help me on the rest, because the next steps were a lot harder. 

We started by cutting out and making a cone for each end of the cylinder. Then we attached them, one to a removeable collar and the other to the cylinder itself. Each end was open for crawdads to go into, but they couldn’t get out. Once that was done, we made a bait box, which was a small cage for holding bait, and we were done! It was now time to set it.

I connected some strong string to the trap, then filled the bait box with fresh fish and put it out in the pond overnight. 

The following morning when I went to check my trap, I found nothing in it! I once again left the trap in the water over night, and the next day found it empty. I was getting a little frustrated! I moved the trap to the creek, hoping to have better luck but when I went to check on it the following day, I only found a few little fish caught in it. 

I decided to leave the trap in the creek one more night before moving it back to the pond. That night however, it poured down rain. The next morning, I found that the left cone for the cylinder was gone from my trap! The rain had increased the speed of the creek, making the water strong enough to wash the cone right away! I looked around for the cone, and even walked a long distance down the creek looking for it. I still have not found the cone. As far as I know, it could be at the ocean! It would be nice to find the cone, but if I do not, I will just have to make another.

My plan for 300 crawdads is not really going as easy as I thought it would. Nevertheless, I still have five months left to finish my project. I have not given up. . .yet.

~Samuel