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There are a number of ways to catch crayfish.
Recreational fisherman dive for them, swimming around in the kelp beds and looking under submerged rocks trying to find a feeler sticking out.
When spotted the diver must pin the crayfish from behind around its carapace to prevent himself from being injured by the sharp spines of the crayfish or getting his fingers caught under the flapping tail.
A crayfish walks forwards when on the seabed but when alarmed swims backward at speed by flapping its tail.
An escaping crayfish is impossible to catch by hand.
Another method of catching crayfish is to have long pole with a two or three metres of nylon attached to it.
A piece of wire is attached to the end of the nylon with limpets (chopped off the rocks) threaded onto it and weighted with a sinker.
You lower the limpets into a hole in the kelp, while standing on a rock as close as you can to the kelp beds.
You regularly lift the limpets to see if a crayfish has taken the bait.
If there is a crayfish on the end of the line you would feel its weight and sometimes its tug as it wrestles to get a limpet off the line.
You lift the pole slowly, bringing the crayfish to the surface unaware of what is happening, and then slide your scoop net under the crayfish and drop it into the net.
Once in the net you simply lift the net out of the water and you have your crayfish.
These days the knack of catching crayfish has been lost and most people use ringnets with fish heads as bait to catch them.
A problem with this method is that the nets often get stuck under rocks and become difficult to retrieve.
Due to the commercial demand for crayfish recreational fishermen have had their fun restricted.
Commercial fishermen get quotas and land thousands of seven to ten year old crayfish daily, while recreational fishermen are allowed a catch of four crayfish per day during a season of about four months.
What once used to be a staple meal for fishing communities along the west coast has now been taken from them as they are also classed as recreational fishermen unless thay have been granted a small quota.
The bulk of the crayfish catch is granted to fishing companies who export most of it to the USA and Japan.