Louisiana is defined by its seasons: football season, hunting season, festival season, gumbo season, and arguably, the king – crawfish season. Commercial crawfishing in Louisiana dates back to 1890, and today’s crawfish industry has grown to include millions of pounds harvested each year from farms and natural habitats from March through May/early June.
Louisiana’s crawfish harvests are composed of two species – the red swamp crawfish and, to a lesser extent, the white river crawfish.
Habitat
There are currently over 400,000 acres of crawfish ponds registered with the USDA, with about 10% of that inactive in any given year. Many of those acres are in rotation with rice, so some of them are in the fallow stage of the rotation.
Crawfish ponds have no standard size, but most are between 10 and 40 acres, and most producers manage 150 or fewer acres. The ponds are usually drained during the summer months to allow for planting and growth of rice, sorghum, grass or natural vegetation which serves as food for the crawfish. For them to grow to their maximum size, crawfish rely on the high-protein content of mollusks, insects, worms, small crustaceans and some small vertebrate found in a normal pond.
Unlike other aquacultures, crawfish ponds are not stocked with hatchery-reared young. Farmers rely on reproduction by unharvested crawfish from the previous year or on mature crawfish that are stocked to produce babies naturally. Crawfish need 12 to 18 inches of water to breed and grow. Under optimal conditions, females can hatch between 400-900 eggs each.
The ideal temperature for crawfish is about 85 degrees. They can function in the upper 40s, but the colder it is, the less they feed and the less they go to traps. When it warms up, the crawfish eat more and grow faster to a size worth catching.
LSU Aquaculture Specialist Greg Lutz reports that the snow had very little – if any – impact on our crawfish because they are cold-blooded animals. As he explains it, “When the water gets that cold, they just sit on the bottom in a stupor. Some people say they burrow into the mud on the bottom of the ponds but that’s an exaggeration – when they are that cold they are totally inactive. As long as the pond isn’t totally covered with ice for more than three days – sometimes even longer – they usually survive just fine.”
While estimates for the 2025 crawfish season aren’t expected until this time next year, Lutz says production is estimated to be in the normal range of 170 to 180 million pounds. “It might be a little lower because some of the acreage impacted by the drought of last season may not be fully back in production yet,” he adds. Production from wild habitats, mainly the Atchafalaya River basin, varies from year to year.
Crawfish Nachos
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 to 2 pounds crawfish tails
- 1 small onion, chopped fine
- 2 short celery ribs chopped fine
- 1 small bell pepper chopped fine
- 1 8oz stick butter
- 1 tsp each red pepper, black pepper
- 2 garlic pods chopped fine
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 (10 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 (10 oz) can cream of celery soup
- 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
- ½ cup parsley
- ½ cup sliced scallions (green onions)
- 1 package cheddar cheese
- 1 package Colby Monterey
- I small block pepper jack cheese cut in pieces for easier melting
- 1 -2 sliced jalapenos peppers
- Chips
Directions
In a medium saucepan, melt butter sauté onions, celery, and bell pepper.
Add seasonings and garlic and sauté two minutes longer
Blend in the mushroom soups, celery soup and the tomato sauce; cook on low for 20 to 30 minutes
To the heated mixture, add the crawfish, parsley, and green onions; cook five minutes more.
Add the pepper jack cheese and cheddar cheese blending until completely melted and heated through.
Layer chips and top with jalapenos and the crawfish mixture and top with Monterey cheese.
All may be heated in a 350 oven for 5 minutes or until cheese melts.
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