How Did Louisiana’s Recent Cold Snap Affect Crawfish Season?

Just one week ago Louisiana was on the precipice of a huge Arctic plunge in temperatures. All over the radio and websites were warnings about protecting your home's pipes and plumbing because temperatures were going to plummet to some of the lowest readings we've seen in years. The forecasters were right, we did get cold. And yes there were pipes that didn't weather the storm.

And while protecting pipes and property is certainly important, we do have other priorities in the state of Louisiana. Namely, crawfish season. We all know that our enjoyment of mudbugs each season is usually tempered by two things, how big they are and how much they cost. Unfortunately, weather conditions play a big part in the determination of both of those factors.

Like many of us, when the weather gets cold the crawfish don't like to do a whole lot of moving around. That means they aren't looking for food or for our purposes wandering into the crawfish traps that have been set out to harvest them.

Since the crawfish aren't moving in the cold water, they also aren't eating. And, if they aren't eating they aren't getting to the nice big size we like to see poured out onto our newspaper-covered crawfish tables.

Now to complicate our enjoyment of crawfish further for the season we have to go back in time to October. If you recall there were several weeks during the Fall when Louisiana's crawfish-producing areas got very little rainfall. You've got to have the water if you're going to grow the crawfish and in many places in Louisiana, those ingredients did not come together in an optimal way.

Greg Lutz who studies aquaculture at LSU and the LSU AgCenter told BRProud.com that he believes the combination of the cold snap and the lack of water last fall will create a crawfish season that shapes up this way. Lutz believes we will have lower supplies of crawfish which means a higher price. But Lutz did go on to characterize his assessment of the season as "normal".

This means Louisiana residents are going to find their crawfish and they are going to enjoy them and celebrate getting together with friends and family all the way through Easter and beyond.