Harvesting

Red claw can be harvested by using baited crayfish traps, flowtraps, and by draining the pond. Crayfish traps used to catch native crayfish can be used for red claw. These traps are made of 3/4- inch plastic coated  chicken wire mesh (Figure 7). Both stand-up and pyramid traps have been used effectively. Baits include formulated commercial crawfish baits and fish feed contained in small mesh bags. Final harvesting is done by partially draining the pond (to 1/4 of original size) and setting up a flow-trap. Flow-traps are traps through
which water moves or flows. Red claw are strongly attracted to moving water, possibly an adaptive response to spring floods in their natural environment. Research suggests that flow-traps are very successful at capturing
crayfish. Pumping rates in flowtraps should not exceed 8 gallons per minute, and water from another pond or a well appears to work better than water from the same pond. One flow-trap design is the box-n ramp trap.

The box-n-ramp trap consists of an impervious box (e.g., plastic trash can or metal drum) into which water is
pumped and a ramp which carries the out-flow water to the pond bottom (Figure 7). The crayfish move up the ramp against the flow and are trapped when they fall into the box. Adding fiberglass screen, vexar, or some other rough texture to the surface of the ramp will help the crayfish climb into the trap. Flow-traps must be checked often (every few hours) as they can fill with crayfish, causing those in the bottom of the trap to suffocate.