we found little ones in the wholes in the ground at jondaryan camp ground friend used a netand fished them out and was catchin yellowbelly of a good size in the river .
the murray river from Renmark on down seems full of yabbies at the moment we are getting them by the bucket full even in places where it was hard work at one time,, i use a couple of opera house nets as with two i can get enough of a feed i have a good spot near goolwa not far from adelaide but i'm not letting on where it is
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SOMETIMES YA JUST GOTTA TAKE YOUR COLTHES OFF AND ROLL IN THE MUD
Raid the fridge to get some fresh meat, any kind will do, on the rare occasions of having to buy some we would buy liver as it was cheap.
Next you need something to scoop them out with, Mum's collander used to quite often be taken or an old tennis racket or a piece of fencing wire twisted so as there was a loop on one end.
The only other item was a piece of string, a couple of times we even used hayband.
Armed with these and a bucket to put our catch in we headed out to an appropriate dam.
On the way we would pick up some sticks about 250mm long. Once there the string had one end tied to the stick which was pushed into the ground just out of the waters edge, the meat was tied to the other end of the string and tossed into the water, we'd put a few in each and the sit and watch the strings.
After a few moments you'll see a string moving slightly, take the string in one hand and with the other hand place the collander or whatever you have in the water beside the string, then gently ease the string in, the yabbie will be bought up into the shallow water then with a quick flip of the collander or whatever you flip it out of the water onto the bank. Grab him, pop him into the bucket toss the meat back in and the other strings should be moving.
The string only has to be a couple of metres long, tie the meat on tightly, and with a couple of people with a few strings each you'll have half a bucket full in no time.
If nothing has happened in 15 mins try moving to the other side. Also as you remove the strings even if they haven't moved, bring them in slowly and be ready as sometimes the yabbie will be following.
It's a lot of fun and both kids and adults will have a ball. But just remember the yabbies are not trying to eat the meat they only live on the rotting matter in the dam, the fresh meat that you use they are trying to move it away from their living area.
Hope this helps, we've had many an enjoyable afternoon with the family doing just this, oh and remember, just like fishing not too much noise
That's how we did it in western Victoria too Gubby .
Didn't use a colander though . Made nets out of pieces of a wheat bag tied to a circle of wire . Then cook them in the copper .
As kids we just grabbed whatever we could, the colander was snuk out without mums knowledge, at the time she wasn't too happy about it but she laughs about it now.
Reminds me of the story of two bushies chatting and one says "found the mother in law drowned in the creek the other day" the other bushie says, "well what did ya do"?... first bushie "well I gathered the yabbies and then I reset her of course..."
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If there is such a thing as a tourist season.... why cant we shoot them?
Our yabby-catching technique was similar Gubby, but the best bait by far was a sheeps skull, a bit aged and ripe. After Dad killed a sheep, we used to save up the skull to ripen it! And we made a net out of chicken wire wrapped around a heavy fencing wire frame. Next generation, and my kids were very impressed that I knew how to catch yabbies! Cant say I enjoyed the muddy flavour though.
Jondaryn camp ground is that the one opposite the woolshed? We lived there for a while on the other side of the railway line to the pub, but within walking distance top place.
the murray river from Renmark on down seems full of yabbies at the moment we are getting them by the bucket full even in places where it was hard work at one time,, i use a couple of opera house nets as with two i can get enough of a feed 
i have a good spot near goolwa not far from adelaide but i'm not letting on where it is
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