Louisiana Crawfishermen Say Cold Snap Will Slow Down the Season

First things first, if you raise crawfish in Louisiana, we salute you. That is one of the toughest, wettest, muddiest, jobs there is. And when you consider "the season" is really at its best when the weather is still kind of chilly which makes working in the wet even harder to endure.

Besides the physical hardships of cultivating crawfish for massive consumption, crawfishermen have to contend with Mother Nature. If she's not happy then the mudbugs won't grow, breed, and get big and delicious.

Local crawfish cultivators tell us the optimum water temperature for the mudbugs to be active, grow, and become the delicacies we crave is about 65 degrees. Beginning later today and for the next several day's temperatures across the region will be much colder than the optimum 65.

That means that the crawfish will actually slow down their metabolism. They tend to bury themselves in the mud and wait for warmer weather. While the creatures are in this semi-dormant state, they don't grow bigger and molt their skins. When they don't grow bigger fishermen won't catch them for the market.

That means a shortage of big bountiful mudbugs for crawfish lovers everywhere. Some crawfishermen around the area have suggested that this upcoming cold snap could delay the best of the season by about a month.

That doesn't mean you won't be able to find crawfish. It does mean the bigger and better bugs will come at a premium price until things warm up just a little. Then we should be set for our socially distant crawfish boils without breaking the bank by sometime in early March.

By the way, don't wait for the bigger bugs. Get your crawfish now or this weekend and get them often. Let's support our Louisiana fishermen. They had a tough year with COVID last year, let's not let them down this year.