I thought I would take a crack at catching a few of these little guys while I'm out fishing. are there any guidelines about when, where, how deep, etc. that you can pass on.

A small star trap with a trout/salmon head in the middle dropped over a rocky bottom structure. Doesn't have to be very deep. If you want to get serious though, go after dark when these critters get real active.

Beezer

DL - someone posted this link on gamefishin'. I thought it had some useful information.

http://www.terrybullard.com/CrawfishMain.html

Are the local lake crawdads safe to eat?
I like to try catch them in Storm lake in Snohomish county next time I go trout fishing.
Sounds easy enough to catch them.

I'm not familiar with Storm lake but I grew up on Lake Stevens and caught a ton of them when I was younger, some were so big they were scary.

just pitch a trap off a dock with bacon and that should get you some

I have traped crayfish for bait for years and have found trout,herring and sardines to be the best baits in our local lakes

The best bait that I have ever found for crawdads is corn on the cob after the corn has been eaten off...It sounds strange but it is true ... I have tried all the old stand by baits like fish heads and bacon side by side with a trap baited with corn cobs and have always had at least twice as many crawdads in the corncob baited trap .... Von Warner