crawdad color survey

I am going to post this identically on at least two other sites. I want to develop as much info as I possibly can.

What colors are the crawdads in your neck of the woods and where is that neck of the woods?

Here in N. Texas I have seen pretty much only olive-colored ones. Anyone know of any other common colors hereabouts and which bodies of water?

I think that effectively communicates the question, what geographical locale, as close as you can get it and what are the crawdads' color/colors?



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RRhyne56
[url=http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com:aa850]http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com[/url:aa850]
IM = robinrhyne@hotmail.com

mine are usually bright red and covered with spices! Yum!

sorry, could'nt resist. I don't even know if we have them in Florida as I only fish salt.
Bill

I have only recently seen some here in the Omaha Area. Okay, it was really last fall, not too recent. They were also olive in color, with a brown cast to them.

In Utah (Northern area, Provo River, Spanish Fork Canyon) they were more of a brown to red with many being bright Orange when they stayed in the sun too long.

Some of the Utah ones ended up a dark red in a pot of Crab Boil on more than one occasion. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/biggrin.gif

Don

I have had a chance to look over unspiced and uncooked crayfish in Lake Harwell (South Carolina) and the Chattooga River (SC, GA, and NC. In the uncooked stage, the crayfish varied from light greenish brown to dark greenish brown. In the cooked stage, they were definitely orange-red in color. 8T

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You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it's a real short camping season.



[This message has been edited by Eight Thumbs (edited 09 February 2005).]

the crawdads i have seen were reddish to brownish, depending on the time of year and whether or not they were molting. since im from tejas, i wont answer your question on the flyreport...

Here in the Notheast I find that they are primarily olive but with some brown variability. I find that it depends on the bottom texture and color. Most of my crayfish patterns are olive bodies with brown claws to capitalize on the variability and to give some contrast.

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Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick

I could be wrong, but it seems like they're a dark olive(I guess almost brownish) down here in Florida.

In S.W. Oklahoma, brown to brownish red depending on the time of year and the color of the water.

Robin,

I'm in Arizona from September to the end of May.

The crawfish in the small lakes south of me (Southeastern Az.) are either brown, orangeish with black markings, or green (not olive). The green matches the vegetation they live in, which is a slightly reddish green, sort of like the stem of a rose (the vegetation is called 'elodea')

On the Black River in Northeastern Az., the craws are green, a few of them are a bit on the brownish side, but the green predominates. They are just exactly the same shade as the green slime/moss like stuff that grows on the rocks...

I'm in Southwestern Colorado from May through August. The craws there are brown, with a few of the orange/black variety (these may be a moult/mating color?). The craws in Colorado are a lighter shade of brown than the ones I find in Arizona.

It's likely that the color of the bug has to do with the color of it's environment, but that's just a guess. I really have no clue as to 'why' they are colored as they are...

Good Luck!

Buddy

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Robin,
In my neck of the woods (west TN and KY), we have a plethora of crayfish species. In the two states of TN and KY, more than 150 species of crayfish have been identified. There are a number of color and size variations between species, as one would expect. There is even one species, located in the Green River of western KY that is cobalt blue. Below is a link that has pictures of a few different species from various locations in the U.S. of course, it is NOT an all inclusive listing! [url=http://webby.cc.denison.edu/~stocker/cfgallery.html:267cd]http://webby.cc.denison.edu/~stocker/cfgallery.html[/url:267cd]

Cool link. I guess that now I need to get some blue hackles and fish in holes in the ground.

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Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick

Here in the Finger Lakes area, they're olive to brown and mostly dark.