Funny you should ask. We've caught lots of crawdads in the past with traps. So far the best bait we've found is cheap chunk albacore in a can and - believe it or not - corn - canned or on the cob. When we've used corn on the cob, it was actually after we had already eaten the corn off it. With the cans, you just poke a bunch of holes in them and put them in the traps.
This time however, we put out some traps right on the edge of the Truckee River but because the fishing was really slow, we took a little line and a treble hook and put a worm on it. It takes a while for crawdads to climb into a trap so rather than wait, we dropped the worm in front of the things as they crawled up. There was a virtual crawdad parade coming toward the traps.
About half the time, when they latch on to it, they don't let go until you have them on the bank. It was pretty fun really. A couple times, I got double hookers when the things were fighting over the worm and wouldn't let go. Sometimes, they were little pussies and would let go every time you tried to lift so we'd let them concentrate on the worm while we just reached in and grabbed them.
Most of the time though, we drop tube style traps in about 20 feet of water in a lake and retrieve them just before dark. We redrop them overnight if we are camping.
This was more fun.
