Crawfish season nears end

Mudbug maniacs have about another month to satisfy their crawfish cravings before the 2015-2016 crawfish season comes to a close.
Suzan Brown, owner of A & S Crawfish between Eunice and Chataignier, said, “Some farmers are already picking up their traps for the season. By the middle of June, the season will pretty much be done.”
Brown and her husband, Aubrey, have been in the crawfish business for almost 40 years. In addition to buying crawfish from 10 to 15 local farmers, they also farm about 300 acres of crawfish. The Browns have crawfish buyers from locations like Boutte, southwest of New Orleans, and Kemah, Texas, and most of the crawfish they sell end up in the boiling pots of restaurants. They also sell crawfish to private buyers from around the region.
Brown said the season started off slow, but things picked up.
“We did very well,” Brown said. “It was an excellent year. Two of our biggest days were Good Friday and Mother’s Day.”
She continued, “The price was low, probably because of the economy. The size of the crawfish was good though, and there was a little more volume.”
Brown said a sack of crawfish, depending on the size, is about $30 to $40 right now, and sacks average about 30 to 34 pounds.
This crawfish season, some restaurants began selling crawfish as early as Christmas. The warm and cold, back and forth, temperatures throughout the winter helped stimulate growth in crawfish, and some farmers began running their traps earlier since mudbugs were of selling size earlier than usual.
College Junction Mudbugs was one of the few places offering Christmas crawfish, and owner Steve Bollich said he will be selling crawfish all the way to the mid-summer, Fourth of July holiday.
“It’s been a good year,” Bollich said. “Right now, we are doing a two for two special on Tuesdays — 2 pounds of crawfish for $2 a pound, and they are regular $3 a pound. Our crawfish are graded, so they are big.”
Vince Deshotel, assistant extension agent at the St. Landry Parish LSU Ag Center office, said there was an influx of crawfish this season due to an increase in the number of acres being farmed for crawfish.
“There was a big increase in production because it is a cash crop and lots of people rely on it (for income),” Deshotel said. “There was also an increase in crawfish coming from the Atchafalaya Basin because of early flooding in the Basin.