if you are a kid you can see them on rocks and they hide in the shallow, sandy bottom. Theyr’e fun to catch if your’e quick. If you just want to eat them use bacon for bait and a little crab pot.
I am so trying to remember. My dad took us out to some little river or creek in West Virginia or North Carolina when we were kids, to catch crawfish, and for the life of me I can’t remember any more than that. Since then, I’ve just bought them, at the fish store.
Turn over rocks in the shallows of a creek. Then you got to be quick and snatch them up with your fingers before they jet off to deeper water or under another rock. You can use a little net if your scared of their claws but they don’t really pinch that hard.
Living north of the 49th parallel, the opportunities to catch them are somewhat limited, especially when lakes and large rivers have 4 to 6 feet of ice on them from late November until mid May! Seine nets are the method of choice in the early spring and in late fall.