The Art of the Craw—Crawfish, that is.

By Bob Lusk

This is the time of year when crawfish are plentiful. Some pondmeisters believe in supplemental stocking of mudbugs into game fish populations. Others aren’t quite so sure.

Is that a good idea, or is it best to cut up some potatoes, onions, corn on the cob, add Cajun spices and boil enough to feed the neighborhood?

All the above.

While eating crawfish is a bit of a chore for us, seasoned veterans swear by them. It’s an event more than a meal.

But what about your hungry bass? Do they deserve some crustaceans to support their need for food?

The sweeping, broadbrush answer is, “Yes” …

How do you make that decision? First, know some facts about crawfish. Read Eric West’s The Cutting-Edge article this issue. It shows energy levels comparatively and crawfish rank pretty high. That means high-value nutrition. Secondly, crawfish are stocked during spring months, as the natural food chain is renewing itself through reproduction after winter. What that means to pondmeisters is we can add supplement a temporary food void between spawning classes of young fish, so our game fish don’t miss too many meals, especially recovering from a rigorous spawning season.

While this sounds simple, it’s actual not quite so. Crawfish fill a particularly picky niche. In the U.S., there are around 400 species. Only a handful of those species are farmed and available for sale. Be aware of that important point. Don’t bring crawfish to your pond that don’t belong there. By far, the Red Swamp crawfish species is the most widely available. They are great for southern ponds. But you folks in the Midwest and northern tier states, that species isn’t allowed.

If you live in those states, find a producer of your local species.

Back to that “niche” thing. With those big claws, crawfish are natural predators. They’ll grab something, pull it around to its mouth parts, and chew it up, slowly. They’ll raid spawning beds, and eat vegetation, especially decaying vegetation. If they catch a fish, they’ll eat it. Not likely, but it happens. Usually, the fish eats the crawfish before there’s time for reverse revenge.

Here’s the point. Be picky as to how many you stock at a single moment. I’ll never forget hearing the tale of a well-known south Texas entrepreneur stocking tractor-trailer loads of those red mudbugs into his commercial bass fishing lakes—one venture into his quest to break the world record. 40,000 pounds of crawfish into 100 acres of lakes seemed a bit excessive. Four hundred pounds of crawfish per acre? That’s enough to influence water chemistry.

No obvious need to talk about the money… When I heard about that event, my first thought was about his consulting biologist who allowed it. What was that guy thinking, other than a nice payday?

But to each his own…and that world record still stands, since 1932.

Here’s how you should think about it. Can you establish a crawfish population? If you have the right kind of habitat and natural food for crawfish, then stock some. How many? 40-50 pounds per acre is enough to establish a population, unless your game fish are so overcrowded that they annihilate the crunchy critters, pronto. If that’s the case, bump up the numbers to account for attrition. Consider up to 100 pounds per acre for small waters.

That’s a side of your decision that makes it a little bit complicated.

If you stock them more than two years in a row, and they don’t start a population, they probably won’t.

That brings up the second school of thought, circling back to that “supplemental” feeding concept. Remember, it takes about ten pounds of food to put a pound on a bass. For bigger bass, that conversion rate is skewed even more. It takes up to twenty pounds of food to add an additional pound to a double-digit bass.

That’s probably how that south Texas guy with the deep pockets decided how many to stock.

Mark Shirley, Area Aquaculture and Marine Extension Agent with Louisiana State University, in a recent phone call, said that crawfish can be an important segment of the diet for sportfish, but not as important as bluegills. Bluegills are the backbone of the food chain, but crawfish can essentially be a good snack for fish in his part of the country, a carryover of sorts. Of course, crawfish are a staple all over Louisiana, in most all watersheds.

J.B. Hanks, crawfish producer from Saint Landry, Louisiana, who is a wholesale provider to the food industry, is a big fan of stocking crawfish into sport fish ponds. “I stock crawfish into my own bass fishing lakes. I see a big difference in bass growth, and in their behavior.”

I asked him if he likes to add a bunch at a time, or spread out the numbers over several stockings. Since he owns a crawfish farm, he can do both. He said, “It makes good sense to add them several times during the season, if they are available.”

Toward the end of the season, he wholesales quite a few “peeler” crawfish to dealers and pond management professionals. “By then, we’re wanting to finish off the crop and get the ponds ready for the next year.”

“Peeler” crawfish are basically pond-run—meaning many of them are too small to sell to restaurants, so they are destined for lower prices at processing plants to be cooked, peeled, frozen and sent around the world as ingredients for the kitchen table of crawdad connoisseurs.

Crawfish are definitely seasonal. Hanks has advice how to manage the seasonal availability. “Early, say in March, most crawfish are going to the food market to supply the demand, so the price is pretty high. If people wait until the end of April, crawfish prices drop quite a bit. Each year is a little bit different, somewhat based on weather.”

Last year wasn’t good—consequences of a major drought throughout Louisiana.

He explained that the bigger crawfish are sold first. As the season progresses and the crop grows toward maturity, there’s a mix of sizes from babies up to full grown adults. By the end of March, prices begin to drop. That’s due, in part, to the wild crawfish coming from trappers in the Atchafalaya Basin, a famous crawfish area. For farmers, they don’t want to separate crawfish according to size—it’s labor intensive. Plus, when the season ends, it’s done. Sell what they can, and push to finish strong, without depleting their stock to carry over into next year’s crop.

He said prices for crawfish to stock ponds ranges from $2.00-4.00 per pound, FOB at the farm. Delivery adds to the base price…unless you are that guy who buys 40,000 pounds. He gets a big discount.

The season for stocking ponds with crawfish goes from the middle of March, sometimes all the way into early June, when Red Swamp crawfish burrow and are gone for the season.  

David Snell, a Texas-based distributor, at pondcrawfish.com, provides several hundred thousand pounds yearly to individuals as well as operating a catering service for big groups. He recently saw pond stocking as a viable option to diversify his business. “Being the middle man, I can sell crawfish between $3.00-5.00 per pound, depending on volume and time of the season.”

Like many distributors, he’s happy to deliver sacks of crawfish, but volume dictates feasibility. “I’d just as soon people come to my shop, pick up their sacks, get a little advice how to handle them, and go have some fun.”

Still undecided? Crawfish come in plastic mesh bags, 30-40 pounds per bag. You can haul them in the back of a truck, on a tarp, covered. Don’t let them dry out, or mortality will be higher than you want.

What about the cost? Compare crawfish to other supplemental forage fish and consider the purpose. At $5.00 per pound, it takes about $50 to put a pound on a bass. If crawfish are able to populate and fill a niche, that’s value added. Compare that to fathead minnows at $12 per pound—you can do the math.

Think a little bit ahead. I tell people to provide crawfish a bit of refuge and some food, prior to stocking them. If your pond doesn’t have much vegetation, consider anchoring a few bales of hay. Tether them in fairly shallow water. Hay will float, but after some time, will begin sinking in the water. Crawfish tend to migrate to it, latch on underneath and begin feeding.

If you just want to give your fish a snack, open the sacks, spread them around, and feed the fish.

Don’t forget to keep a few to feed the family, too.