WEBVTT - Ep. 481: Backwoods University - Farming Crawfish 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:08.400 Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife, 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:11.440 wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.520 conserving both. Big shout out to onex Hunt for their 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.600 support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle. Last 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:22.400 week we dug into the topic of crayfish, crawfish and crawdads. 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.960 I purposely inserted the crawdad terminology in there because some 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:28.000 of y'all let me know loud and clear last time 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.040 that I left that name out the first time around. Anyway, 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:33.520 we found out a good bit. But like I said, 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.000 and like we saw, there's a whole lot more to 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.760 learn about these tiny critters. Heck, we didn't even talk 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.240 about the crawfish that end up in a crawfish bowl. 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.240 But fret not, my friends, because that's what this week's 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.360 episode is all about. So get ready because we're in 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:49.800 for another round of stories and facts that are both 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.879 interesting and unexpected. Let's get into it. 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:11.240 Oh and you'll like this. 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:16.119 Sorry, I'm all in. I listened to your podcast about 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.800 the pogy boats, okay and all that. Yeah, you can 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:20.400 cut this out of the whole podcast if you need 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:22.480 too or whatever, but yeah, I'll listen to your podcast 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.720 about the pogy boats, and for a while I had 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.600 been driving out on Louisiana and getting pogies to bake 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:31.280 crawfish crawfish traps with. 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.560 Let me give you a little bit of context. I 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.920 know it may sound confusing from the jump, you know, 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:40.400 like I said, we're talking about crawfish again, but this 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.880 guy's talking about pogi's. What's going on here? Well, the 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:45.959 man that you're hearing is a friend of mine by 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.120 the name of Jason Roberts, a fellow Mississippian, a heck 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.160 of a wildlife artist and a crawfish farmer who owns 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.680 and operates Mississippi Crawfish Company. I head up Jason about 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.360 an interview to get the crawfish farming side of this story, 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.120 which will dive into fully. But when he threw in 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.000 this a little bit about pogi's, well it got my attention. 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.240 And let me tell you, like, pogis work extremely well 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.560 for crawfish bait. When you bait these crawfish traps early 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.200 in the season, when the water temperature is cold, you're 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.920 using you typically want to use fish right just because 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:20.480 it just gives off this like especially pogies, they give 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:24.400 off this like oily just you know, Yeah, they're more potent, 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:26.600 so it attracts the crawfish in there when they're like 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.160 less active. As the water temperature starts warming up, you 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.079 use this, you switch over to either a combination or 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.919 eventually switch over entirely to this pellet bait. And it's 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.520 like this tube. You know, it's almost like a little 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:41.760 thicker than a hot dog, I guess, but about that 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:44.880 length of like this you know, artificial bait, and it's 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.120 just like compacted just grain and other kind of fish 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:49.079 and animal parts in there. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.360 Yeah, sounds kind of like the catfish food kind of. 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.680 Yeah, it's like that, or like if you're familiar with 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.280 like range cubes, they yeah, at'll yeah, it's like that, 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.680 but bigger. But there's just like some little bit of 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:00.840 you know, fish, fish or whatever in there, just to 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.120 give it a little bit of stink. But that's a 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.720 lot easier to work with because it just doesn't stink 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.959 like fish when it starts to get hot and all. Anyway, 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:10.120 getting back to it, I was going to tell you 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.160 about the pogies. I've been using pogies for the past 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.799 several years. Early in the season, well, I listened to 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:17.840 your podcast. I'm like, man, these pogies is this is 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.480 like becoming a controversial thing, Like do I need to 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.359 like seek out another bait fish? And of course I've 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.040 used you know, just old crappy you know uses like 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.360 that from going crappy fishing and just save all stuff, 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:31.520 put it in the freezer. That works really really well, 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.320 even old catfish. For some reason, catfish doesn't work. Nothing 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.880 works as good as pogies. But long story short, I've 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.080 kind of gotten into frogging, yeah, with my kids, and 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.120 I decided to take one of my girls and a 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.560 buddy and his kid. We went frogging up in this 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.080 lake in the Delta last year. And when we first 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.960 got going, man, it was like carp i was jumping 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.240 invasive carp jumping all over the place. We had one 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.040 jumping the boat, and it was like a giant, like 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.720 thirty pound, you know, jumps in there, hits the guys 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.240 like trollo motor or something and just starts spewing blood. 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:08.560 It's just a mess. 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:10.920 Of course, kids are freaked out, and I'm like, sure, 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:12.680 I like goy So that kind of we caught a 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.280 few frogs, but kind of like happened early on in 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.240 the night. So it just kind of set the tone 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.960 for our frog in that night, you know, and everybody 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.880 was like on edge, and yeah, it's like, man, somebody 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.400 needs to do something about these about these carp and 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.840 these invasive carp because they're just ruining the the experience here. 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:30.160 I just want to go out and go go for 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.960 fron yeah, you know. And so I thought, man, I 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:35.880 wonder if it's a way to turn those into crawfish bait. 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.120 Long story short, I started doing some research on it, 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:44.600 and I found a place in Indianola and apparently somehow 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:48.280 the Department of Wildlife had like I don't wan to say, 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.080 pay people on how it all works to go out 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.960 and catch these invasive carp and some of these Delta lakes. 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.599 And this company like buys them and they you know, 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:00.760 cut them up and back at them up, and they 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:02.440 ship them and they ate, they sell them for food, 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:04.520 and they even sell them for it started selling them 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:06.520 to places in Louisiana for crawfish bait. 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:08.440 This place is right up the road. 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.760 So I'm like, man, this is just a win all around. 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.719 So long story short, I've worked out I've quit using 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:19.080 Pogi's entirely. Now I'm using this these carp I get 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.039 them cut up in the little two by two inch 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.400 pieces and they're perfect, just you know, pre cut dropping 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:24.880 down the and they work every bit as good as 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:26.920 a pogy Do you really think I would cut that out? 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:31.000 And I use it. I'm absolutely keeping that. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.240 God is my witness. I had no idea the old 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:38.080 pogy boat episode would work its way into another backwoods university. 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:40.640 But here we are, and now that we had a 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.080 bit of an icebreaker with meeting Jason and had a 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.440 great story that involved crawfish, pogy boats, flying carp and 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.000 frog gigging. In all honesty, that's gonna be a tough 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.640 story to follow up. But let's get into this whole 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:57.160 crawfish farming endeavor. When did you get into crawfish farming? 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.720 Farming crawfish? I started doing that in twenty twenty two. 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:08.000 That's when I actually bought some old catfish ponds in 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.280 bal Zona. That's where we're doing this crawfish farming thing. 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.279 Now you answered like, there's more to the story there, 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.760 Well there is, okay, yeah, Well, I mean I think, 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:18.680 like I told you before, well maybe I didn't, but 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.360 you know, this whole thing started from just. 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.679 Being a big duck hunter. And we just had noticed 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.480 when we were draining our duck hole that there's crawfish everywhere. 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.200 One spring, and I thought, man, let's get some crawfish 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:34.159 traps and see if we can catch them and maybe 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.720 just kind of throw them in our crawfish bowl along 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.040 with the ones that we've purchased, sure, you know, kind 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:43.520 of supplement. And you know, we bought some crawfish traps 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:45.200 and started catching them out of that duck hole, I mean, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:47.599 started catching a lot of them. And it was at 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:49.560 the point where it's like, man, maybe we could maybe 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:50.360 we could sell. 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.640 These, yeah, turn it into the business. Yeah yeah. 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:58.440 And And anyway, that that property, that big duck hole 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.440 was right next to the Black River that you know 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:05.080 floods this is in you know Von missip Be. Flood's 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.720 really really bad during the spring. Sometimes it'll get out 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:09.680 and it'll stay out, you know, for a month. And 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:13.080 so that was the problem. There after we had bought 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.320 a bunch of crawfish, you know, harvesting equipment, traps and 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:18.880 boat and that kind of thing, and and and put 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.560 them out there. The river jumped out and stayed out 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.200 for an entire month. One time it was like, okay, this, 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:25.080 this can't be done. 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:26.080 Yeah, you know. 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:30.400 And so I had had this idea that heck, these 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.280 old catfish ponds up in the Delta a perfect right. 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.360 You got already a you know, totally leveed off pond. 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.440 You know, you got a well there as a water source. 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.200 And uh, I mean most of the time, like I said, 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:44.400 because you got all four levees, you're not going to 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:46.960 have to deal with you know, flooding from somewhere. You know, 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.760 typically it's going to cause that problem. So but yeah, 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.640 it was I'd been looking around for for some old 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:54.520 catfish ponds for a long time, which are very hard 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.920 to come by, but they're not you know, grown up 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:01.320 in trees and then WRP or CRP and whatever. And 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.240 so I was actually able to find these in Balzona 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.680 and in the spring. It was April i think, whenever 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:10.920 we closed on that property of twenty twenty two, and 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:13.760 so that's when I guess you could say I started 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.080 farming them, you know, doing it actually commercially, you know, 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:19.920 selling them. Before then, it was all just kind of 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.040 a thing like after duck season was over, we'd pull out. 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:23.800 The crawfish traps. 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:27.280 In February, it'd start catching crawfish all spring long. Yeah, 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:29.280 and I say we, I mean it was it was 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:32.360 me and my dad, you know, and it eventually kind 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.920 of ended up being mostly me going out there. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.000 I mean, he'd come with me every now and then. 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.240 I'd bring friends and that kind of thing, you know, 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.719 every now and then, and of course they would get 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.679 a taste of it and be like this is this, 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:45.480 you can have this. 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:46.400 And they didn't want to come back. 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:48.360 Just let me know when you bring the crawfish back, 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.880 and I'll be there for the crawfish bul Because it's 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:52.160 just so labor intensive. 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:54.240 How much would you catch, like in the spring before 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.240 you had the ponds before you how much would you 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:58.080 catch when you're just recreationally doing it? 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:00.640 You know, It just all the ends on how many 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:05.000 traps we had out gotcha, no catching anywhere from a 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:09.160 pound to three pounds per trap. So I mean at 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.880 a commercial like a rate. I mean, like if you 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:13.959 had a crawfish farm, that's what you would expect to 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:16.040 catch during the peak of the season. 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:17.920 Really. Yeah, So that's. 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.360 Kind of what made me think, Okay, you know, I 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.800 always thought that crawfish farming is just something they do 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:24.600 in Louisiana. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:25.120 We can't. 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.040 We can't do it here. You know, it just can't 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.160 be done here for whatever reason. I didn't know enough 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.320 about it as to the reasons why it couldn't be 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:35.640 done here. But all that to say that's not true. 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:40.160 It can be done here, currently doing it, but it. Yeah, 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.000 that that kind of made me think, Oh, you can 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:44.800 catch this much crawfish up here, and the qualities every 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:46.720 bit is good. I mean, you know, why aren't we 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:47.080 doing this? 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.800 Yeah, you know, I'd say that's a bit of an 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.600 unorthodox start to a crawfish farm, but I like it. 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:57.240 I'm also intrigued at the notion that Jason, much like 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.360 all the rest of us, acknowledged that there's just a 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.480 whole heck of a lot that we don't know about crawfish, 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.360 such as him thinking that Louisiana was the only place 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.520 that you could farm crawfish. I'm interested now in what 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.240 kind of species he was catching, because, if you remember 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.640 last week, the two crawfish that we talked about the 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:18.199 most were warpaint mudbugs and Jackson prairie crayfish, none of 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.000 which would you often see in a bowl. So what 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:25.480 species are we After thinking about species of crawfish. Now, 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:29.320 because of my conversation with Calvin, my ignorance to it. 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.240 I didn't even know there were different species. I just 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:35.120 thought there was crawfish, you know. So when you were 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.720 first catching these crawfish just for the sake of we 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:39.800 can make a bowl out of this, like, did you 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:41.880 know what you were catching? When the first time he. 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:43.200 Tried to boil it? Did it turn out? 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:43.560 Well? 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:45.800 Like, how did that go? Yeah? 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:52.280 So we did know what we were catching. And only 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:57.679 because LSU has this Crawfish Production Manual that you can 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:59.760 just google and pull it up, and it's this whole 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:02.760 just I don't know how many page thing of like 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.160 if you were gonna want to farm crawfish, it's the 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.480 whole guidebook of how to do it, you know, and 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.679 it gives you the two main species of crawfish that 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.360 you are commercially you know, farmed and caught while in 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.760 the wild, you know, child flaid, basin and wherever else. 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:22.320 The LSU ag Centers Louisiana Crawfish Production Manual, page one 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:26.240 list the two species of commercial importance and Louisiana crawfish 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.760 ponds as the red Swamp crawfish and the white River crawfish. 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.560 And so once we started catching these crawfish, I immediately 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.479 kind of did some research and found that Yeah, and 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.280 it just I mean, I'd like dove all in to 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:44.880 find out and learn everything about yeah, crawfish and their 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.120 behavior and crawfish farm and all that. So yeah, I 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.320 quickly learned what we were catching and what we wanted 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.479 and what we didn't want. But then I was occasionally 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:57.240 catching one species of crawfish that I wasn't sure what 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:58.160 it was for a long time. 0:11:58.280 --> 0:11:59.200 Finally figured it out. 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.520 What wasn't I think maybe a common name in Louisiana 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.600 All times they call them a coffin cutter crawfish. 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:11.160 Coffin cutter, devil crayfish, painted devil, thornytail, painted hand jewel, mudbug. 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.720 I don't know. It almost sounds like the scientist in 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.199 charge of naming crawfish was fond of death metal music. 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:17.520 But who knows. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:22.280 Anyway, that's not your red swamp crawfish or white river 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:25.520 crawfish that you're catching that you're or buying to go 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.640 have a crawfish bowl. Okay, Yeah, but they're very colorful. 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.840 They're kind of colored like a blue crab. Yeah, and uh, 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.040 real pretty crawfish, and they get really big. And I 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.360 started catching those every now and then, like early in 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.720 the season, like they're in February, early parts of March, 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.320 when the water temperature was still kind of cool. For 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.240 some reason, I guess, whenever it the water temp heetes up, 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:48.760 I quit catching them. 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:49.920 But I didn't know what they were. 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:52.440 What they were, I mean, huge claws on these things, 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.560 but not a whole lot of tail meat considering how 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:58.960 big the body is, so they weren't the best for cooking. 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:02.160 And you know, but yeah, I didn't know what I 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:03.920 was catching there for a while. I was just throwing 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.600 them out. I thought, you know, yeah, real interesting. I 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:10.640 realized that there's definitely not just the Red Swamp crawfish 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.880 or the White River there. There's more out there. So 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:17.199 I told you before I had bought these two ponds 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.400 to start farming crawfish over in the Delta. Yeah, since then, 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.600 we've added on some more. We got another property with 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:27.640 about seven ponds. These ponds kind of flooded naturally just 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.079 from the way they had been kind of sitting there 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.120 for a while and got a bad beaver problem. Beavers 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.040 had burrowed through one of the levees. That was kind 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.439 of letting some creek water dump into one of the ponds, 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.160 and they were flooded naturally, you know, I guess yearly, 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.400 but only to a small extent, but enough to like 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.480 have this population of crawfish in there. Of course, when 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.200 I made the decision to start farming them and selling them, 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:55.720 you're kind of required to learn all about them, sure, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.120 I mean, I need to know all there is to know, 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:03.000 which is good because just naturally just kind of obsessed 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.120 with learning as much as I can about crawfish. It's 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:09.440 a weird thing, I know, but it's not that I 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:11.920 can't help. I don't know why, but they just fascinated me. 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.520 They like you said, I mean, there's so much to learn, 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.240 and they're. 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:18.760 An interesting little critter. 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:23.120 But what we've realized this year with our season, with 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.000 some new ponds that we've got and whatnot, we were 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.000 catching the heck out of blue crawfish. I mean went 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.040 for a stretch of I don't know, it was probably 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.600 a month long where almost every time we'd run traps, 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:36.800 we'd catch at least one or two or even a 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:41.000 few blue crawfish. And that was so neat matter of fact, 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.040 one day, they ran a pond and about a quarter 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.240 of the sack had crawfish in there that were either 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.400 completely blue or they had just variations. 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.760 Of like the blue claws or blue back. 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:54.280 And then the rest of them was red and they 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.840 were like just the craziest paint job on these crawfish. Yeah, 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:00.960 you know that kind of led me down, like causes that, Yeah, 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.520 why is that? And I mean the best that I 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:05.960 can I was able to find was I mean, Google 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:08.480 will tell you. It's like it's has something to do 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:13.440 with what they're eating, and it's a genetic thing obviously, 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.360 It's like a genetic thing that just I guess expresses 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:20.840 itself under good habitat conditions, which told me I'm like. 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.000 Okay, well that's great. Yeah, we're doing good, yeah, doing 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:24.160 something right. Yeah. 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.120 Yeah, But I never had that when we were catching 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.120 crawfish and doing this thing over at the property on 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.160 the Big Black River and never saw a blue and 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.600 never saw a whole lot of diversity over there besides 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.400 that lonesome grave digger often cutter crawfish. 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:39.080 That was the only thing. 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.680 But since kind of I've moved the thing over to 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.000 the delta, it's been a lot more variation. 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:45.440 I guess we'll get the blue crawfish. 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.160 There's other species, it's I guess, like with everything else 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:49.440 in the Delta, you know, it's just kind of a 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.160 it's a unique spot, yeah, and then just the different 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:53.280 stuff going on over there. 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.480 Sure, but it's so fascinating. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.240 Fascinating stuff. Indeed, from catching crawfish that he wasn't sure 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:03.400 of the species to coloration that indicates good habitat, sounds 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.160 to me like he has a good thing going. And 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:06.520 for real, I saw. 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:08.920 A picture of this blue crawfish. It's on the YouTube 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:09.560 version of this. 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:12.120 Episode if you haven't seen it, and it's wild looking. 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.520 Doesn't even look real, to be honest. It's also not 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.240 surprising to me that the Mississippi Delta was a good 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:21.400 place for the natural floodplain and the fertile soul that 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:24.320 seems to make everything else there grow big. It's likely 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:32.400 a good spot for crawfish too. I want to know 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:34.920 what the process was. How did you get this farm 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:35.560 up and going? 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:40.000 I just knew from just like the cycle of how 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.680 crawfish work. You know that, like almost anywhere in Mississippi 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:45.840 where you've got a duckhole or something that's just like 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:50.120 seasonally flooded, either when it's naturally or through you know, 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.560 somebody pumping it with a well, you know, to flood 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.360 for ducks or whatever, and that water's taken away at 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.320 some point in the season and you've got a little 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.800 dry spell there to get rid of or just naturally 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.320 to prevent the population of predatory. 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:05.680 Fish in there. 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.159 You're gonna have a situation where the crawfish is at 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.000 the top of the food chain, so you're gonna have 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.960 there's any crawfish in there at all. Over time, that 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.119 population is just gonna take off and explode. 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.320 Interesting, and so that. 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:19.520 That's kind of why I thought, well, these old catfish 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.240 ponds in the Delta are perfect because the catfish are 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.360 taken out of there, right and a lot of these 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:29.320 ponds are flooded for duck hunting, and they're probably already 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.960 full of crawfish. And sure enough, when I found this 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.720 property with these two ponds absolutely full of crawfish already 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.520 interesting and so I didn't even have to stock the ponds. 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.120 No kidding, no, kid, Well that worked out. 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.720 Yeah, exactly, because that's gonna be my That was a 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:45.800 question I had. I was like, do you bring crawfish 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.080 in and hope that they keep to reproduced or like. 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:49.399 But you didn't have to know. 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.000 And that's what's so great about it is they do 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.720 their own thing. They take care of themselves like they are. 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.119 They're easy as far as I mean, unlike you know, 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.440 other aquaculture like catfish. You have to feed them. Yeah, 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:02.560 that's labor intensive. 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:03.200 Yeah. 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.239 The real work comes in with harvesting them, sure, you know, 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:09.280 and that is labor intensive and lasts for several months 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:11.840 or a few months. But the rest of the year, 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.560 I mean, you're hanging out letting them do their thing. 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:18.080 And you know, I'm a big duck hunter, so I'm 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:20.600 duck hunting the pines during during the winter, you know. 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:21.520 So it kind of works out. 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:24.520 Uh yeah, that's a gift that keeps on giving. 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:25.040 Yeah. 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.400 Yeah, so I mean to me, when I started, yeah, 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:30.919 like you trying to figure out this whole thing and 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:31.600 thinking about it. 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:33.639 You know, these old pines and Delta. 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:35.920 You know, man, you already got crawfish in them, they 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:37.879 got a well, you got all this stuff, and you know, 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:40.439 Delta is known for having a bunch of ducks. I mean, like, okay, 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.080 for me, I'm like, let's get into crawfish. 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:48.720 Farm when when ye yeah, yeah, so that's that's kind 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:49.920 of how it all started. 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.159 I was like, let's, you know, buy a piece of 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.880 property and you know, duck hunt it during the winter 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.800 and harvest crawfish off there during the spring, and uh, 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.640 that kind of keeps it to where you know, I'm 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.280 kind of doing something I always want to do, you know, 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.720