How big do Crawdads get???

Chad Sweitzer · Post by **Chad Sweitzer** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 10:30 pm

I don't know how to post pictures but I was fishing from the shore at the Thermalito Afterbay and saw some GINORMOUS crawdads, the smallest was about 6", most were about 8" long! I've never seen craws this big. Jigs are too small to imitate these beasts with the exception of cooch's wadda bomb. What does everyone use?

Cooch · Post by **Cooch** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 4:48 pm

Those look like Signal Craw claws, see the white patches in the joint at the V of the top and bottom claw pinchers, very distinguishing characteristics of the Signal craw. It get's it's name from these patches as it was said they looked like the flag the signalmen used for directing trains. Largest of the various species of craws found on the Delta. I've caught them up to 9 inches and have seen bigger ones I couldn't get to. These bigger ones can be as old as 20 years. This is the time of year we see the big ones round the Delta, as this is their spawning season and if ya do catch a female adult, she'll have a wad of eggs under her tail. Most though, are between 4-7 inches here. TNT's Booby Trap and Booby II are matches to young and adult signal craws, ya don't necessarily need the Wadda Bomb, the standard Wadda with a 5" Flapping Hog works perfectly.