Catching Crawdads

Your Ticket to a Cheap Gourmet Meal

- Joe Shead

After yet another fishless outing, I was loading my boat onto the trailer, pondering how I would quell the rumbling in my belly. It just felt weird to go out for a Friday night fish fry after going fishing. Maybe I'd save face, swing in for a burger instead. Winching the boat onto the trailer, crayfish scuttled among the gravel at my feet.

Light bulb moment...if I couldn't get the fish to cooperate, I bet I could catch some crayfish!

That night I made my own crayfish traps: I cut holes in the sides of some empty gallon-sized paint cans I'd been meaning to throw out. I used a "church key" paint can opener to puncture a few holes in cans of cat food and slipped a can inside each paint can, along with a rock to weight it down. Then I pounded the lids back on, wrote my name and address on the cans (a legal requirement for crayfish anglers in my state) and loaded them into my boat.

The following morning, I returned to the lake to fish, but before I wet a line, I put out my crayfish traps, giddy with excitement. By day's end, I did have a few fish to keep, but more notably, I had enough crayfish for a small crayfish boil.

The critter

Crayfish (a.k.a. crawfish, crawdads, mud bugs or a host of other names) resemble miniature freshwater lobsters. They are much smaller than lobsters, generally measuring 4 to 6 inches in length. However, like lobsters, crayfish have 10 legs (two of which are claws) and a protective exoskeleton. They scuttle along the bottom, hiding in rock crevices and feeding on plants, invertebrates and small fish.

These crustaceans are widespread, inhabiting streams, rivers, ponds, marshes and lakes across the country. More than 400 crayfish species can be found in North America. And although crayfish boils are common, if not famous, in the deep South, in many areas, crayfish are underutilized as a food source.