Crawfish!!!

[DampCharcoal]

Or 'crawdads' as most people call them around these here parts. There's a couple of streams that meander across the golf course and I've noticed some sizable crawfish near the stream banks. Does anyone know the best time to catch them and where they like to hang out? I had a meal of them a few years ago down in Looziana and absolutely loved them! I'm sure I could purchase them somewhere in Columbus but the golf course is less than a minute down the road and if I can catch them for free, so much the better!

 

[lindatooo]

Damp I think you could use a crab boil on them. I love them too but have never caught them myself! Here in Oregon we have a Crawfish Eating Festival every summer! Ah! Now, to remember...do you bite the head and suck the tail or is it the other way around??????

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

The best time to catch them.... when they are sleeping.

And I hear they like to hang out at the local night clubs. I have seen the movie Nemo. Some of their relatives also enjoy hanging around refuse pipes.

 

[kyles]

best to be careful hanging around refuse pipes in the dark, the latest reports out of Australia are that the wallaroo have commenced their invasion of your parts, and being the nocturnal critters that the are the might just grab you from behind whilst you are seeking your crawfish! boo

 

[BubbaGourmet]

Crawfish love to hang out under rocks, undercut creek banks and under submerged timber. You can trap them by using a minnow trap with a can of catfood. Once you get them home, put them in a sink full of clear springwater (not distilled), add a handful of cornmeal and let them sit to clean themselves out for about two hours. Then you can boil them l;ike crabs [/b]but only for a minute or two! THEN...you pinch the tails and suck the heads!

 

[DampCharcoal]

LOL! Thanks everyone! BubbaGourmet, is there anything you DON'T know about food?

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

THe Wallaroo MUST be stopped at all costs! Now they are after the crawfish. Evil buggars!

Thanks for the update Kyles.

 

[BubbaGourmet]

Damp;
I don't know how to get caviar for free!

 

[kitchenelf]

Had a customer one time try to tell us that apparently our crawfish were not fresh - I took him a tray FULL of the live little buggers - he laughed so hard!!!!! Well, it was only when he saw that someone had one swinging from the back of my chef's jacket

 

[RAYT721]

One Liner

Customer: Do you serve crabs here?
Waiter: We'll serve anyone ... right this way, please

 

[Robt]

In Washington state there is no limit on them nor a licience [ somebody missed a tax?] They can't be trapped Oct to May, no idea why. The lake near my home and forming the east side of Seattle, Lake Washington, is home to the largest North American species. The ones I catch are usually 5-6 inches long although I have seen them near 9". Been told they get near a foot long but I've never seen it.

We use a small mesh trap similar to a crab pot or even a lobster pot- I bet more people have seen that than a crab pot. Cheap canned cat food is a fine bait and easier to get rid of than 4 day old chicken or such.

http://www.thesportsmanschoice.com/crayfish_traps.htm

Never bought from these folks but add the link so people who want can see how a trap is made.


As for cooking them, I simply boil them in beer usually with Tabasco in it. Not too long or they get tough.

Sometimes eat them with cocktail sauce, sometimes not. They are good.

 

[southerncook]

When crawfishing from a bank, there are flat traps that you tie chicken to, and yank up quick, otherwise the bugs crawl out. the corners are tied, so when you pull up, they form a semi-cone and you empty them into an icechest. The farms here use another type of trap, I don't know where you can get them, but the square ones are cheap and everywhere here. That may not help you much.

very important- pour cold water in tub w/crawfish. add a box (yes, box) of reg.salt and let them purge for an hour or two. watch out, they'll crawl over their own mom's to get out of there. rinse and let them sit in clean water for a while longer.
crab/shrimp boil in the packages works wonders in the boiling water along w/a couple of sliced onions, lemons. more salt.
boil your potatoes and corn first.
the seasonings concentrate as you go, so the last batch will be spicier than the first.

 

[AllenOK]

I haven't done this since I worked at the cajun restaurant back in OK, so I don't really have any measurements

Cajun Popcorn
(Beer-battered crawfish)

P/D crawfish tailmeat (available in most good grocery stores frozen, you may have to ask).
Beer batter seasoned with a little blackened seasoning
Deep fryer

You'll need a small mixing bowl for this, and a slotted spoon. Make sure the oil is hot enough to cook with (if it's not, this is a good time to make the batter). Using the spoon, quickly spoon a little batter into the bowl (remove, this is a slotted spoon, it will be messy, so be fast). Add a small handful of the mudbug's tails. Using the spoon, mix them thoroughly with the seasoned batter. Scoop some up with the spoon, and waving the spoon over the oil, scatter the tails into the oil one at a time (or as close as you can get, this takes practice). Fry until done, about a minute or two. Remove from the oil and drain. This is traditionally served with Thousand Island dressing, if I remember right, but maybe Cocktail and even a Green Onion dressing (Green Goddess) will work.

 

[choclatechef]

We used to tie chicken liver or beef liver to a string and catch crawdad in the creek near my town. We would pull them over our 5 gallon buckets, and let them drop right in there.

We would take them to my grandparents' house where my grandad would clean them, and make a seasoned cornmeal and flour mixture. Then grandad would fry them in a deep fat fryer pot! A dash of hot sauce was all those little buggers needed for me to feel like heaven!

 

[mudbug]

mouth....watering.....here......

 

[GaArt]

You know crawfish pie just isn't the same without crawfish

 

[buckytom]

my fav crayfish dish is from a good restaurant near giants stadium. it's called pasta le'ruth. yumm. it's kinda like an alfredo sauce over linguine, with crayifish and a little spicy kick.

lol choclate chef. my wife catches crabs that way. i've always used traps, but one time i took my wife out crabbing, she used a hand line with a chicken neck tied to the end. she'd just slowly pull up the line, hiding behing the side of the rowboat, then flick them in to the boat, and jump around screaming until i could grab it and throw it in the bucket. she kicked my butt with the size and number of crabs, so i teased her and said it was just professional courtesy ...

 

[AllenOK]

my fav crayfish dish is from a good restaurant near giants stadium. it's called pasta le'ruth. yumm. it's kinda like an alfredo sauce over linguine, with crayifish and a little spicy kick.

lol choclate chef. my wife catches crabs that way. i've always used traps, but one time i took my wife out crabbing, she used a hand line with a chicken neck tied to the end. she'd just slowly pull up the line, hiding behing the side of the rowboat, then flick them in to the boat, and jump around screaming until i could grab it and throw it in the bucket. she kicked my butt with the size and number of crabs, so i teased her and said it was just professional courtesy ...

The cajun restaurant I used to work at made a Cajun Fettucine Alfredo, where you could add all sorts of different kinds of meats, like crawfish, shrimp, crab, lobster, blackened or grilled chicken, etc. All they did different was add a little blackened seasoning with the butter and garlic at the start of the dish.

I've heard the best way to catch crabs, is to take some old liver, and place it into the toes of a pair of pantyhose, along with a rock, and tie a knot so the liver doesn't get out. Tie a line to the hose and throw it overboard. Wait 15 minutes, and haul the crabs up. They get their claws stuck in the pantyhose and can't get free.

 

[buckytom]

cool allenmi. will have to remember that one. i guess my wife shouldn't be in the stockings at the time, huh?

 

[simpleisgood]

Damp Charcoal, as has been stated, crawdads like to hide under rocks. I live near the Sacramento Delta in California which has a large crawdad industry which ships large amounts of crawdads to Asia. We have an annual Crawdad Festival that draws thousand.

I would be careful eating crawdads growing in water near of on golf courses. Golf courses tend to use a wide range of chemicals which could possibly make those tasty morsels dangerous to eat. i have worked in golf course maintenance and have seen poorly traind personel desroy greens, and kill all life in ponds as the result of incompetent chemical application. The particular area you are speaking of may be safe, but I would want to be sure I wasn't getting poisoned. I would at least have a talk with the golf course superintendent as to the way fertilizers and pesicides are applied. Please be safe.