My goal is to catch a crayfish. I did online research and found that crayfish is abundant in NH and it should be found in almost every pond. I began by constructing my own traps from bottles, but they failed. So, I bought a simple net trap from eBay instead. The first bait I used was D-Hall bread. Nothing happened and the bread rapidly dissolved away, so I changed my strategy.
According to many websites, the best crayfish bait is fresh fish, so I bought real preserved minnow (fish). After a few day, I got a small turtle. Then in the next day, I got a small fish. They did not seem to interest in the bait, so I suspect that they accidentally got stuck there by the current.
After a week of no crayfish, I biked around the woods to find a better spot. I found a stagnant area at one end of the river and placed the trap there instead. Three newts (aquatic salamander) was trapped on the first day.
I keep two and release one. For a week, I still could not get any crayfish, so I moved again. The next place (not shown in the map) is on the left of the second trap, in the same stagnant water area. So far, I do not get again crayfish (all I get are newts and more newts!), but I still check the trap everyday, hoping to get a better result.
