Thread: Crawfish Boil

I have not done that for years. When I was a kid growing up on my grand parents place we used to sain the ole "crawdad ponds" use them for catfishin and then cook up a bunch. I still eat a lot of crawdads but I have not sained for them in years. Them ole shallow ponds out in pastures were always the best. Wade out in them and sink up to ur, well you know how deep in that ole blue mud. There were several of these ponds on our farm and they were always full of crawdads.
Brings back good memories.

CX.

try looking in ditches around farm fields and along highways, we will drive along the roads until we see a lot of crawfish holes and start from there and usually there will be a lot of them, its not uncommon to load up 100 pounds of them in a couple of hours, i can't wait till the water drops in my spots to start loading up on them.

silver creek and the one that runs under 143 (forget the name of it) have alot of crawfish in them...i also hear the creek by dam west that run up by the golf course has good crawfish in it...i dont eat them so i never go looking for them but this is what i have heard

Boy have not done that since I was a kid.. use to make drop nets and put liver in them and we would have a ball catching them.. and the boil was just a great time ..

Hey Junie -

I think the question you need to ask is what changed in the lake that keeps them from repopulating. I can guarantee that you didn't seine or trap them all out and it doesn't take too many to replenish a lake. Are you still pumping the water from the Kasky into fill it? The reason I ask is that a buddy of mine has raised them commerically and ran into some water quality issues.

His ponds were down in the flood plain not far from the Miss. and his first well was a shallow one because of the high water table there. After a few years he ran into too high of an iron content (rust basically) and they stopped reproducing. The second well (a deep one) produced water that was too cold and again - they wouldn't breed. Because it was so sandy - he was having to pump almost continually, so he never really got water temps up to the right level. He finally gave that up.

Basically - the rule of thumb is - it you're using the same water source as where you're getting them from, you'll be okay with no issues.

As you probably know - there's a bunch of crawdads in this area, but there's 4 that do especially well. The Northern is the most popular and then the White River, Red Dwarf and Papershell. Those were the 4 that he raised and he did that because they all mature at different rates and he had them at the right size for good bait (about 1.5 in) the whole time thru late spring and summer. I forget which ones were which - but if you're just wanting them for a boil - the northerns are the most easy to find, grow big and are usually of a good eating size by late summer. I think they're fall breeders but I can't recall.

The other thing that you have to worry about for a lot of them is feeding. He used to grab any road kill he could find and toss them in the ponds - but he eventually found that plain old bales of straw work just fine. (I'm pretty sure it was straw and not hay but I can double check on that for ya)

As far as where to find them - just about any creek flowing thru IL is gonna have a good supply of them. He used to trap them but we'd also stop at ditches and shallow places along different roads and seine them. So - it depends on how you want to approach it.

If you can't find them anyplace else - I'll be glad to take you to a creek near my house and we can seine a few hundred pretty fast. They're more like bait size but they'd be good brood stock.

You have to be careful not to introduce the Rusty Crayfish - they're an invasive species and I think it's probably even illegal to transplant them. They're not hard to identify but make sure you know what you're looking at.

The last option would be to order some from one of the crayfish farms down south. It's probably too late for that this year now as I think they stop harvesting in early June. My buddy tried that this last time. I think he ordered 3-400 lbs.

And lastly - if you're still reading this. The other thing is predation on the crawfish - bullfrogs can wear them out as well as the herons and other puddlewalkers. You can take care of the bullfrogs and have a nice leg-fry. If the pond drops quickly to about 18" - then that'll keep the birds out of your pond and save the crawdads....

If the pond dries out - they'll just burrow in and stay there - they typically won't migrate at all.

Hope this helps - I'm sure it's more than you ever cared to learn about a mudbug.... If you have more questions - gimme a shout and I"ll get them answered or put you in touch with my buddy. He owns a bait shop and is my 'resident expert' on all things crawdads....
:D

That's all real good info! We used to find them just like the others were saying by lookin' for the mud towers when they burrow. Haven't had a boil in some time, but the ones you have with the home made wine sound like a ball. Send me an invite the next time Junie. :D

If you're wanting to order Delta Growers out of Paragould, AR still has them, or did last Saturday. The Cajun Grocer online can get them to you too. Shipping is a little high, but they are some good crawfish and packed well. We ordered from them last year about this time.

yeah - my buddy got some the other day (about 60 lbs) from someplace in AR - but I can't remember the name or how much he said they cost.

It ain't real cheap.

We had WAAAAAY too many crawfish (or not enough cajuns) --- A few years before he ordered like 100lb and I think that was like $400 at the time. Dang good eatin - but spensive...