Crawfish outlook good as weather improves

The cold snap Wednesday didn’t help anything, but the crawfish outlook as the carnival season builds to Mardi Gras day is good as the barometer rises.
And that’s good news compared to the last big crawfish weekend -- that of the Super Bowl in early February.
According to Jeff DeRouen of Go Fish Freight and Prairie Cajun Brands, which supplies crawfish to customers near and far, while cold weather impacts the fishing, rises and falls in barometric pressure are the real indicators of the crustacean’s activity.
“It’s just like fishing for fish -- where the barometer rises, the fish bite. When it falls, they get lockjaw. Crawfish are the same way,” he said.
And when water temperature gets to 65 degrees the crawfish start moving around regardless other conditions as they come out of the winter doldrums and feed their faces.
Cold weather (low barometric pressure) more suitable to northern climes in January and early February left crawfish pretty much sitting still in the countless area ponds.
As warming began recently and the weather stayed good, catches improved and the supply began to build.
Then came last week’s cold and a barometric plunge.
While DeRouen said forecasting supply for the Lundi Gras-Mardi Gras demand is an imprecise science, conditions do appear favorable for good fishing results.
Robert Romaire, an aquaculture expert with the LSU AgCenter, puts it another way: When the weather gets too cold, crawfish “lose their appetite and are not interested in eating or running around,” he said. “They ignore baited traps. They just lay there so they don’t stumble into nets.”
Will the crawfish climb into the traps as weather improves in the wake of the Wednesday-Thursday tumbling temperatures?
One thing’s for sure. Demand will be high for any that do help fill the traps. Supply and demand, in turn, helps set price. The mudbugs have been in the $4 -$4.50 a pound range of late.