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[Carich980]

Hey there,
Just wondering if there is any Crayfish in the Vedder River?

Thanks.

[cutthroat22]

Yes

[BwiBwi]

Yes.  I've seen a few of them below Hwy 1 bridge.

[ChumChaser]

I found a dead one in the sleepy hollow area a couple weeks ago. It was a larger blue crayfish with orange sides, incase you want to tie up some flys.

[Dave]

Crayfish are common in Sweltzer Creek and Cultus Lake.  Stomach contents of Northern pikeminnows sampled from Cultus Lake showed they were a key predator of smaller, perhaps juvenile crayfish; now that there are fewer larger NPM I would think crayfish populations would flourish in Cultus.
About 20 years ago they were also common in the Vedder canal area but I recall seeing many Gees type minnow traps set for crayfish.  How many were captured or whether this exploitation contributed to their decline in this area I cannot say. For sure they are not as common as before.

[Carich980]

Yes I'm going to tie some Crayfish flies, I saw a pattern in Fly Tyer magazine and thought it may work well around here.

[JPW]

I've also seen a bunch of crayfish in the Stave fwiw.

[Easywater]

I also saw a dead crayfish on the Stave a couple of weeks ago.

I have a pic of it if you want.

[JPW]

I also saw a dead crayfish on the Stave a couple of weeks ago.

I have a pic of it if you want.

How big was the one you saw?  I was actually quite amazed by how large the ones I saw were.  I would have expected something shrimp size, but these definitely looked like baby lobsters!  I wonder if you can floss them? 

[cutthroat22]

Stave is loaded with them.

[Easywater]

I think it was pretty big - about 2 or 3 inches.

[JPW]

A couple of the ones I saw seemed like they were even bigger than that from tail to end of claw.  They looked like this guy:

[Sandy]

http://www.fish.washington.edu/research/oldenlab/pdf/Guide%20to%20Crayfish%20Identification%20(Dec2009).pdf

http://www.exposureandfstop.com/flyfishnmn/descriptions/crayfish.html

[RalphH]

here's an excellent imitation:

http://www.garyborger.com/2011/08/13/fleeing-crayfish/