Craw Fishin'

[AtticaFish]

Hit my local res an hour before sunset last thursday to try out some new flies. Decided to change up to a popper right at dusk and had to use my head lamp to tie my knot. As i glanced in the water, i noticed movement all over in the shallow water.

Crawfish everywhere - or as my northern tounge pronounces them... craYfish. Lots of big ones too. They were actively hunting, even crawling up on the rocks. In the next pic you can see my popper that he was originaly chasing.

By friday afternoon, the :idea: went off in my head and i ended up making a couple traps out of chicken wire fence. Took the family up on saturday before dark to get some bait - green sunfish - and came back up by myself at dusk. I ended up catching just as many by baiting a hook with a piece of meat and letting them grab ahold to swing into a bucket. End result: 130 or so by about 11:00!

So today we rinsed and cooked them up. Wow...... i have eaten craws before but never this fresh. They were incredible! Both my wife and daughter liked them as well. Ate about 1/3 of them and rest went into the freezer. This was a first for me. Fun fishing and great food. Few more pics........

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

That lake is loaded with them. I've never eaten them before but they look good. Dem fishes like bass love them things,too. I call them crawdads.

 

[oldfox]

Nice catch Russ ! If they taste anything like their big brothers (Maine lobster), I bet they were delicious!

 

[Ron Don]

Awesome! Can't believe u northerners haven't eaten crawfish before! Reminds me of being a kid and goin with dad and catching ice chest full. People sell boiled crawfish on every other corner here.

 

[CrappieHappy]

nicely done Russ!... MMMM, love me some crawfish!

 

[Radtexan]

Now your talkin !!!!! One of my favorite meals. Ive never caught them like that though.

 

[Jig Man]

Good stuff right there.............

 

[Ron Don]

You may have done this. Before you cook them, purge them in saltwater. Makes them spit up all the mud and grit.

 

[AtticaFish]

I have to say, if someone did not see you cracking the tails open... give them some hot butter to dip it in and they would believe it to be bite sized lobster tails! The claws have a slightly different flavor, closer to crab maybe, but there were not many that had fat claws to be able to get much meat from. Tomorrow night my wife is making stuffed mushrooms with crawfish filling from some of the leftovers that are in the freezer!

Ronny - We did not do the saltwater trick, but will next time, thanks!! When i left them overnight in a 5 gal bucket of clean/clear water with a bubbler, the water was very dirty by morning. I actually changed the water 3 times (each time it was muddied up again) before finally cleaning/rinsing them. I was more affraid of them tasting like algae or seaweed because the lake has a pretty good layer of green on the bottom.

 

[Pup]

I miss crayfish boils.

Waxing nostalgically... Great post AF!

 

[StumpHunter]

Nice size crawfish. I didn't know they got that big up there. Looks like a great meal and some great eating.!!!