The Cajun life of Victor Vautrot: Crawfishing on the farm: May 2012. Part I: How to crawfish?

This was in May 2012. I had set out 100 crawfish traps on my farm in Eunice, Louisiana. Eunice is a lovely city, located near several Cajun and Creole-rich cities, such as Mamou, Church Point and Opelousas.

Crawfishing begins as early as November in one year and ends in late May or June of the following year. From what I have learned from experience and what I have been told by local crawfisherman is that the crawfish that we catch at the beginning of the season are the ones re-emerging out of the soil from the last season. These crawfish will immediately begin to breed. You will find some of the female crawfish with bundles of eggs tucked under their tail, too. In February, around the time of Mardi Gras, and then later, around the time of Easter, people are always trying to find and buy sacks of crawfish, and this is when the price shoots up! The size of crawfish are small to medium from November to March. Then, I notice in my traps that they start growing to huge sizes, as I call them "King Kong Crawfish." Some of them get fascinatingly monstrous...like small lobsters...and they can be as large as a man's outstretched hand. One simply needs to go to a place that sells the traps wholesale...most crawfish pots are approximately $8 each...maybe as low as $7 if you buy them in bulk. Secondly, if you have any standing body of water that is about knee-deep high with water, then that is a great place to set them out. Some traps come with the optional metal rod that enables you to stake them into the mud. This may assist with several things: keep the trap erect/upright during high winds; keep it upright when Herons or other predating birds land atop your traps; and keep them erect when mischievous raccoons are attempting to tip them over and steal the crawfish and eat them. The crawfish pots that have the metal rod are $1 more.

Thirdly, you simply need a lot of energy and stamina as you walk out into the pond and deposit each trap in the water. I wear hoop waders that come up to my waist and attach to my belt. It is terrific exercise as you trek through the pond bringing out dozens of traps from land to the interior of the pond, as you have to tread through mud and all types of pond grasses and foliage. You can space out your traps into rows--where each trap is perhaps 20 large steps from the last one. Some crawfish farmers have various types of boats which are motorized with a large wheel that propels them along at a slow, steady pace and it runs on gasoline. Other crawfisherman, however, may simply have a floating boat that they push or pull along with them. I, however, do it the most basic way possible--no gasoline powered boats, no floating boats, etc. I simply created/invented a system of buckets.

After having deposited a long, linear row of traps in a pond, I then take two buckets and attach them over my neck and have them cross over my chest and under my opposite arms...sort of like a saddle on each side. One bucket will be empty, and it will be for the crawfish; the other bucket is loaded with crawfish bait.
Crawfish bait comes in different types. Most local places (i.e. the towns of Eunice, Lawtell, Church Point, and Breaux Bridge) will sell some heavy sacks of artificial bait that is jokingly called "crawfish turds" because they are long, brown hardened masses that sort of look like a toilet paper roll that is solid, but is made of several things put together (corn, cotton seed, soybean).

Sometimes, we use dead fish that are very oily...such as Shad, Pogeys, etc. I may even catch my own catfish (such as “Pollywogs", which are a yellow, mustard colored catfish) or Bream, Perch...and cut them up and use them as bait.

Thirdly, I have used poisonous snakes as bait...now that's revenge for the crawfish! Crawfish ponds in southern Louisiana are full of Cottonmouth snakes (a.k.a. “Water Moccasins”). So, I always have something handy to kill them—hard sticks, shovels, or a .22 caliber pistol. Once you have set out the baited traps, which can be in long rows, or in large circles that encompass increasingly smaller circles, then you wait about 2-3 days to check them. From personal experience and from guidance passed on to me, if you wait too long, then the crawfish have not only eaten all of the bait, but they now have enough idle time to do several things: constantly look for the holes to escape from; attack each other and commit cannibalism (yes, crawfish murder and eat each other); or have your traps knocked over by heavy gusts of wind, large birds or raccoons. So, it is optimal to keep a persistent vigilance on your crawfish traps and check them about every 2-3 days.