Hi all,

I went out beach fishing last night with a two hook ledger rig and to my big surprise hooked a crayfish.
I felt a small bite for a while but kept on fishing. Then I got a solid strike and reeled in.
After a bit of a fight, the first thing I saw coming to the beach was a nice sized kahawai.
And then on the second hook was a crayfish ... !
I couldn't believe my eyes. I've never caught a crayfish on a hook and didn't even think that was possible.
He got hooked in his leg and the hook was set pretty solid.
Quite amazing I thought - perhaps a once in a lifetime experience? - or perhaps quite common...
I've been fishing a new area that's quite a well know rock lobster territory.

I used a piece of salted bonito as bait and glow in the dark squid squirt on my hook.

Has anyone else ever hooked a crayfish?

Here are a few pics:

Sounds like a once in a life time to me...Off the beach is very rare.

Crayfish will take a bait on a line, no probs. In fact using a baited line with no hook, is probably the most common way of catching yabbies in Australia, which are a type of fresh water crayfish.

Google, which knows everything, knows nothing and what Google does not know I know and between the two of us know it all's we know nothing about catching crayfish on a beach....haha...Yeah, go on read it again

Yep, looks like a 'once in a life time' to me.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else has caught crayfish / lobster off a beach...

its a nice experience indeed. i remember back 2-3 years when we were surf casting that we hooked on a small lobster as well. almost same setup as the one you are using, with glow skirt. after asking around it seems that other people have had similar experiences with glow skirts in that particular area - the most logical explanation i can think of after so many years of fishing is that its probably a territorial thing. the bait probably landed near the lobsters hideout and the lobster went for it to protect its territory. i doubt that its the bait scent that attracted the crustacean - its probably the glow skirts. they are very very picky eaters.

I’ve been fishing and crayfishing for 50 years just north of Perth and never caught one on a hook! Well done. It looked a bit too small to keep though...