Hey guys this is my first time here. I have been on a hunt for crawfish and it seems to have no luck. I have been driving to Lake Washington, lake Union, Mercer Island, and Lake Ballinger. Can anyone tell me like a specific place to be on land? I don't have a boat. Thank you.

I haven't lived up there in a long time and I don't know if " they" still let you snorkel for them there. The Sammamish slough. I used to make the run between the two bridges I think One of them was across the valley might have been 124th. Any where north of that bridge or the next one north. The sammamish slough has the most and the biggest Ive ever seen. Long time ago though. I suppose they've been over fished by now. I used to live on my boat on lake union and kept a trap overboard at night. In the morning Id make a crawdad omelet. Then one day a neighbor dropped his keys over the side of his boat. I dove down to look for them. The whole bottom of the marina was a gel of macerated toilet paper and what ever comes with it. No more crawdad breakfasts. Ill never forget that sight. A foot of suspended nastiness just jiggling down there like a pile of s...,,Good luck finding your prey. I like to eat crawdads fast....Dan out

Omg...Hahahaha that just made me sick. I hope I don't have to see that. I saw some videos where people are on foot and they just catch it by hand. I would like to do something like that. Thanks for the information. I might have to check Lake Sammamish.

+ 1 for the Slough and its "moving" water. Hike the trail and look for rocky areas. The best method I've ever used to catch Dads is to use a cheap, small semi-stout fishing rod. Tie a small casting sinker (1 oz or less) on the end of your line (6 - 8 lb) as a dropper. Then space out and tie 2 - 3 pieces of bacon about a foot a part each going up your line (several overhand knots in your main line in the middle of the bacon strips to secure). Cast out into the rocky areas and let sit for 5 - 10 minutes and then VERY SLOWLY reel in. The little suckers are greedy and won't let go of the bacon if you don't reel in too fast. A pack of bacon should easily last the whole day. You can bring in several Dads per cast and you can cover a lot of water this way (rivers or lakes). Bring the kids and load up.

Yup, there are even regs pertaining to harvesting 'dads to include being able to differentiate native from nonnative species as there are differing regs for each to include daily limits and handling (nonnative need to be dead before removal from riparian area). Season for both May through Oct. See page 131. Good luck!

The slough is fine, but I have had several traps stolen there. I hear that if you use leaded line and hide the rope well in an out of the way place that helps. But I suspect that does not comply with all regs about marking etc.

I have seen some rather large ones at Thomas eddy during salmon season on the Snohomish.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I might have just given up for now. I went to Lake Sammish trail for 5 hours and only caught one. I tossed my nets over a bridge and hung out with the kids at the park. I came back and was really sad. I was even at Flaming Geyser and didn't see any of them. I'm I suppose to see them walking to know that they are there?

Not sure what you mean by "nets". Are you using a crawdad trap? You MAY see them occasionally but you need not see them for them to be present in large numbers. Mostly you drop the baited pot, best if overnight, and pull after a few hours. You can catch them one at a time form many Lake Washington docks with just a piece of meat on a string. Fun for the kids.

Pot rocky areas at night. These critters are much more active when it's dark out.

Do you guys know of any specific dock that would be good? I saw on youtube videos where the kids can just catch them at the edge of the shore. I bought some butterfly nets for the kids...but I haven't seen any on site.