I'm sure people have told you that cray snares are useful to help you catch crays, but THEY ARE ILLEGAL! Fisheries will confiscate all your gear and fine you if you're caught using a snare. They are legal in WA I think, but in victoria you can only legally catch crays by hand.
Yes crays can be caught in waters <1m deep, the key, as you have said, is finding area with appropriate cover. And this doesn't mean just rocks, it means holes, crevasses, caves and similar types of cover. If there are no holes for crays to hide in, you won't find any in that area, simple as that. Quite a few times I have gone over a reef very thoroughly, and found just 1 hole in the entire reef.....that contained 5-10 crays. Find the holes and you'll find the beasts!
As for grabbing them, best to go for the BASE of the feelers. If you grab them by the tips of the feelers they will snap off, the bases are very strong and spiny, and (mostly) stay attached to the cray.
Jaz
Yes crays can be caught in waters <1m deep, the key, as you have said, is finding area with appropriate cover. And this doesn't mean just rocks, it means holes, crevasses, caves and similar types of cover. If there are no holes for crays to hide in, you won't find any in that area, simple as that. Quite a few times I have gone over a reef very thoroughly, and found just 1 hole in the entire reef.....that contained 5-10 crays. Find the holes and you'll find the beasts!
As for grabbing them, best to go for the BASE of the feelers. If you grab them by the tips of the feelers they will snap off, the bases are very strong and spiny, and (mostly) stay attached to the cray.
Jaz