We have been going to Strawberry for years catching crawdads. It's an annual family tradition and our kids really look forward to it. We use chicken legs tied onto a string. We caught about 700 this year in 2-3 hours.
As we catch the crawdads, we drop them in five-gallon buckets of water to keep them alive. Then we "process" them before we leave the lake. It is illegal to transport live crawdads in Utah. We tear off the tails and then de-vein the tails. To de-vein you grab the middle fin on the back of the tail and wiggle it back and forth until it comes out. The vein will come along with it. We then throw the tails into a cooler full of ice. We give them one more rinse at home and then boil them. We use "Rajun Cajun" crawdad boil (a bag of salt and spice that you add to the boiling water) and throw in baby red potatoes, pearl onions, and corn on the cob.
Trust me, this method is way easier than the purging approach. We saw it on TV a few years ago and tried it out. Works beautifully and nobody has ever gotten sick.
If you can't find any by where you are camped, drive over to Haw's Point.
Good luck. Your kids will have a blast.
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"... the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice." Martin Luther King, Jr.
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