Yes, they change color. I am suprised to hear you see crawdad parts spit up. They are not nearly as abundant in MA as they are a little further south (AZ and OK for sure).
If you are finding them always at tourney spots, that's probably a big factor in making them tourney spots. I fish quite a few ponds and bogs... I have seen them only one place in New England, and that was one of the Sudbury reservoirs on the Framingham/Sudbury line.
I found a shedded shell and two shedded claws.
If they are around anywhere, you can easily see them and there remnants anywhere in the shallows where you would see juvenile fish, frogs, tadpoles, etc. I fished for them like crazy as a kid too...
Also, they were introduced to parts of the Charles River as food for humans and sportfish in the late 1800s. They didn't establish.