Crawfish

[Guest]

Anyone else out there looking forward to catching and eating a bunch of minnesota crawfish as much as I am? What is your favorite method of trapping, cooking, and cleaning the tasty little devils?

[Guest]

We have a lot of fun with those tasty min-lobsters. I use the cylindrical crayfish trap with the inward cones on each end. I need about 4 more.

When the kids get bored, I give them the crayfish rods. A stick with some line tied on it, and tie on left over lunchmeat, hotdogs, etc. They spend hours catching those aggressive Rusty Crayfish!

I boil them for 5 minuted, then take the meat out of the tails, and on the larger ones, the claws, and saute them in garlic and butter. A great appatizer for some fresh walleye.

[Guest]

Coldone,

That is basically what we are going to be doing for the first L.E.T.'S Tourney on Vermilion, only we will be doing shrimp instead of crayfish .

I have found Cajun Land crab boil to be the best. I also cut up a few lemons and throw them in there. Then when the water is boiling add some baby red potatoes, make sure you use a fork and punch a few holes in them, when they are close to done then add your seafood of choice. You can also throw a few other things in there and make it an all in one pot dinner.

I always include ham chunks, andouille sausage, or your sausage of choice, and corn on the cob.

YUM Now I'm getting hungry

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Paul
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[Guest]

Yup, I am quite familiar with cookin up the taters and corn in the pot before adding the crawfish, that good eats! But I skip the sausage and just throw in plenty of crawfish, can't get enough of those!

Anyone else have any other techniques for catching, cookin or eating crawfish?

[Guest]

Half the fun is the eating -- the beautiful mess created by shelling whole crayfish at the table (after they're boiled, of course) and using fingers to dip the little guys in sauce, and tossing the shells, claws, etc. into the center of the table.

Every bit as good as a Carolina crab feed.

[Guest]

O.K. Now you guy's really have me going! I may have to get out this weekend and hunt some down. I use the a square piece of mesh about 3 feet on a side, with a wire frame adjoining each corner. I bait the center with some pieces of minnow or any type of meat. Then send it to the bottom in a shallow rocky area, once a few have moved onto the net I pull it up and empty the critters into a bucket, and move a few feet and repeat. They are delicious! I cannot believe that some people don't care for the idea of eating them, yet they go ahead and eat Maine lobster and Gulf shrimp, more for us I guess. I like to boil them in seasoned water (cajun spice), and peel and eat, cold or hot, with cocktail sauce and cold adult beverage. Or use in baked fish recipes.

[Guest]

If the same we call em Redclaw down under and have heard that bringin some water to the boil and droppin in spuds for coupla minutes then takin out to cool is best bait for the traps.
Have seen where others use Rockmelon , banana and also Pilchards.
Cheers
Volvo

[AaronM]

The best (and funest) way I catch them is going out at night with a flashlight and a minnowbucket. Its entertaining to try catch them with your bare hand, it should almost be made into a sport. I cook them in boiling water and when their done dip them in butter.

[Guest]

I agree, barehand crawdad wrasslin should be an official sactioned tourney event, much more challenging and "macho" than catching a bass or walleye, or even a muskie for that matter. I agree that boiling in seasoned water and dipping in sauce is the best method for eating the tasty critter. But parboiling and chilling and using the shelled meat in other recipes is good too.

[Sarge]

I have tried afew of the tails, but do any of you "suck" the head?

Heard of it, just never tried it.

[Guest]

Boil em on the river shore..........butter and garlic!......St. Croix that is.

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