A Fun Crawfish Friday

Blog catch-up time :)

Two weeks ago, we were headed into a full sunshine and heat weekend. Since it was Thursday I asked one of my massage clients what she was planning on doing for the weekend and she told me all about local crawfishing and how I should go. After spending a few years in Louisiana, I couldn't help but get excited.....and I went and bought a crawfish trap at Bi-Mart right as my shift ended :)

I spent the evening researching the best spots to crawfish and what regulations might exist. (Which there are none if you're doing it for sport.) I had seen a few posting that mentioned that the Wilson River had crawfish which was perfect as that's where the dogs and I do a lot of hiking. I figured that we could hike a few miles and then the dogs could relax on the river bank while I put the trap in and lounged reading.....

....except when I arrived to the trailhead I had in mind, the Forestry gal told me that the Wilson was too fast moving and that the Nehalem would be much better. The Nehalem had been mentioned on the forums also but was 45 minutes away. I decided to get the dogs on trail for a few miles and think on it. My feet were still recovering from my backpacking trip so we only hiked up and in about two miles and then ran back out. There were several guys on trail mountain biking and it's always entertaining to hear grown men hollering like lil boys as they excitedly come around corners ;)

When I came off trail, I decided that it was a nice day for a drive, so I loaded the dogs back in and off we went. We made it to the campground the gal had suggested about two and I was able to get the trap situated and in the water within thirty minutes. I used chicken for bait and as soon as I put the trap in I could see the crawfish coming toward it....

.....but let me tell you....those crawfish are SMART! :) At one point I had  15-20 crawfish ON the trap. As in they knew they could just eat my chicken through the trap without going inside it. I was able to catch three by hand, but really wished that I had a small net to just scoop several more up. Eventually I tied the chicken inside in a way that they couldn't eat it through the sides...and of course they were less interested. At the end of the day I had only two crawfish inside the trap and one of those was smart enough to know how to swim out! Ha.

I came home with four crawfish....but it made for a pretty entertaining day anyway. I also struggled with whether or not to boil them up once I had them home. They just looked so sad in the bag on the counter and in reality you don't get much meat off a crawfish. So I seriously debated letting them go in the local creek by my house (which I found out later is either frowned upon or illegal...can't remember which), but eventually I sucked it up and just dropped them in.

Altogether I learned a lot, still felt proud to catch my own dinner....and now I'm pretty excited to go fishing with an old buddy of mine for free fishing weekend (June 6th and 7th). :)