Strawberry Crayfish

[fisheasy]

I am planning on taking my kids to strawberry in the next week or two to try for some crayfish. Does anyone know how the cooler weather will affect the crayfishing?
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[Bigcat]

a bunch of us went drawdading on friday night at strawberry just as the big storm was hitting. It was cold and windy but we still filled a 5 gallon bucket full using chicken leg on a string and a net.
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[FlyFishingMoose]

Got a favorite Crawdad recipe to share?
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[Bigcat]

We boil them up in a cajin broth with some real shrimp (so you actually get some meat) and serve them with potatoes, corn, and beans all together. Thats the only way I have had them.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I spent some time down in "Cajunville" and et a few "mudbugs" in my time. Most folks down thataway boil up a mixture of spices and when the water is "a-rollin'" they dump in the live bugs. When they are good and red, they are done. You don't overcook them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you don't have a Cajun granddaddy to give you the family spice recipe, just go to the market and get some Zatarains "Crab Boil". It comes in packets so you just drop one in the pot, boil some flavoring out of it and then add the 'dads. Of course you can add your own personal touches and extra ingredients, depending on how you want the water to taste. Not a whole lot of flavoring gets into the actual flesh of the whole bugs.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The standard Cajun way of eating them is to break off the upper part...the thorax and head...and then suck out the contents. If you don't suck the haids you ain't Cajun. Then you break off the claws and crack them with a pair of pliers (or nutcracker) if they are large enough to bother with. Most of the meat is in the tail. Twist it off and then twist off the fin part from the segmented part. If you do it right you can pull out the "vein" (excretory system" along with the tail fin. Otherwise, you can peel it out with a thumbnail. You crack the tail just like you would a peanut...between thumb and forefinger...and then pop out the little chunk of cooked meat.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In Utah 'dads gotta be dead before you leave the water. So, you either cook them on the spot, or kill them with a stab between the eyes and put them on ice to take them home. You WILL get a nasty ticket if you are checked with live crawdads. But, they spoil quickly after dying so you really do need to chill them down and keep them cold.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff] Of course I gots my own style of preparin' and cookin' 'em. I don' suck no haids. Plenty of flavor but not my favorite way to get my protein. Know what I mean? So, I "field strip" them before going home.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Wear a glove on your "handling" hand...the one you grab the 'dads wit'. One at a time, pick up the bugs and twist off the claws first. Then, twist off the entire tail. Now, holding the segmented part of the tail, twist off the fin part...pulling out the uncooked "vein" and leaving a cleaned tail. That is a lot more efficient before they are cooked.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Put the claws and tails in a ziplock bag or a sealable plastic container packed in ice for the trip home. A quick dip in ice water before packing will help chill them without rinsing out all the flavor. However, it is best not to keep them in water before cooking them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When you get ready to cook them at home, you will have a lot less volume than if you brought home the whole crawdads. A good sized soup pot will usually get the job done. You can mix up the spicy boil stuff to cook them in...or you can use a couple of my other favored methods.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]1. Faux Shrimp. Boil them for about five minutes in a mix of onion flakes, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cayenne and shrimp bouillon. With exposed flesh, they will take on more flavor from the spices.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]2. Beer steaming. Make sure your soup pan has a tight fitting lid. Pour a can of beer into the pan and bring it to a bubble over high heat. No spices added. Just as the beer starts to foam, dump in the tails and claws and bring it back to a boil. Put the lid on the pan and hold it down tight...kinda like a human pressure cooker thing. The beer will foam up around the bug parts and steam cook them in about the same five minutes or so. It's okay to release the pressure a couple of times to keep from getting blasted through the ceiling and to keep the beer from boiling over.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When the 'dads are done, dump them out on a pile of newspapers and let everybody do their own crackin' and peelin'. Have a small bowl of melted butter (with garlic) to drop the shelled meat in. Eat them as you clean them or let them accumulate for a few big nasty bites of heaven.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]Another thing you can do with the cooked pieces is peel them and refrigerate them. Use them later in a salad or in another seafood dish...like etouffee, jambalaya, chowder or whatever. They make a great "Po Boy" sammich.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]Hungry yet?[/#0000ff]
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