this is not a joke and i know many of us have tried it. i thought it was disgusting but i was wrong. they are exactly like lobster, exactly! cut off the tail and remove the shell, then fry in butter until just done, a dash of garlic doesnt hurt. i tried this and the four of us were so impressed, we spent hours of our fishing time catching them little buggers. delicioso!

Dont forget the froglegs.

We used to catch them when we were kids. You are right ,they taste just like lobster. Cut off the heads and devein them, boil in water and dip in butter. They are so good.

the boys down south live on that stuff..look for a pack of crawfish boil and take it along next time..

yes, we cajuns love our crawfish. Boiled, fried, stewed, ettoufeé, and in omlets. good stuff. :-)

Ensign has a pile of the invasive Rusty Crayfish... eat as many as you want.

Here's the trick... tie a piece string to anything fleshy, fish entrails, fish skin, steak fat, chicken skin etc. Drag it next to a rock crevice in the water in the early evening... they come out fast after it. Then gently lift it to the surface of the water and slide a low walled catch pan under the creature just before you pull it out of the water. They won't let go till the last sec.

Seriously low intelligence creatures!

Of course you should know almost their entire diet is detritus and carrion. In the BW it's a higher grade of detritus and carrion... but it's still dead shit.

I'm definitely going to try crayfish this year. Does the season affect their availability or taste at all?

I've eaten them in the BW around the 4th of July a few years back. They tasted good. But then anything dipped in butter does:)

"Dont forget the froglegs."

FYI - in MN, you need a license from the DNR to harvest frogs for purposes other than bait. A normal fishing license does not include harvesting frogs to eat.

My sherpas had two midnight crawfish boils. The first one caused problems as they used the coffee pot and did not clean it well (if at all). Crawfish flavored cofee is not a delicacy I would care to repeat.

Crayfish, GOOD.

Crayfish in my coffee? AWFUL!

I remember trying this on a canoe trip with the YMCA 30 years ago. The problem was not deveining them...

I know how to devein a spiny lobster = shove a spiny antennae up the chute then pull back to remove. I don't see that working with crawdads. I've eaten a fair share of crawfish ettoufe in my day but don't know how they devein them...any tricks?

Crawfish boil, drop them in live, add some red potatoes and corn on the cobb, cook crawdads till red, remove from boil. Tear the tails off, peel, dip and eat. No deveining that I know of. Don't forget to suck the heads! Have I got it right Cajuns? BTW, I was born in New Orleans while my dad was in seminary, only lived my first two years there. Great food.

I know some people keep 'dads in clean water with oatmeal for a day to clean them out. What I think this does is flush their digestive systems and "deveins" them from the inside. May not be practical while tripping. "That black line running down the back of the shrimp- that's feces". Dwight Schrute on shrimp at a cocktail party.

You don't really deveinn a crayfish, I soak them in clean water for a few hours with some corn meal sprinkled in, that usually cleans them out pretty well.

Never thought of deveining a crawdad. It would spoil all the fun, wouldn't it?

Thanks for the "deveining" ideas. I can't wait to try it. I'll revive the old sausage on dental floss crawfish'n rig and try again.

I'm not against "roughing it" but the last time we cooked live crawdads they were gritty = not cleaned out. I thought I'd have to leave the crawdad shucking to the professionals...now I know the trick!!! I likes me the crawdaddies but I don't want them to be chewing on the outside and sandy on the inside.

does anyone know if you can use traps in the boundary waters for these suckers? For kicks i made one last night and was thinking of brining it along on our trip here in August.

I didn't do very well with a baited trap. Catching them with a short length of fishing line and piece of night crawler worked well for us.

The method I was taught in deveining crayfish was to take the center piece of the tail fin (I think there are 5), give it a 90 degeee turn, like loosening a screw, and pull. The vein comes out as you break the section of tail fin off.

Caught a mess of crawl dads this september!

tasty little water bugs

B4 you cook'em*:
throw 'em in a container of cool water enough to cover them and toss in a hefty handful or two of salt. let them sit 10-15 mins. then dump & rinse with fresh water a couple of times. they'll be purged of the crap (literally), sand, dirt and prep'd for cooking. For breakfast saute 8-10 mins in butter and fold in an egg omlet till eggs are done. Overcooking = tough, chewy tails.

*sort out & discard any dead ones. prep only live crawfish.

We boiled 30 or so of them on Wood Lake in July. They did taste like lobster. The color change to orange/red during the boil was pretty neat.

quote izod: "does anyone know if you can use traps in the boundary waters for these suckers? For kicks i made one last night and was thinking of brining it along on our trip here in August.



"

I don't see why not, but i've never tried a trap. i've always caught them by hand and never ate them!

Just came across this thread and thought it should be re-vived.

We went "Crabbing" in North Carolina and used a chicken neck on a string. same idea as some here. they hold on tight enough to grab them once out of water.

I was thinking of how nice it would be to have a BWCA Etouffee. Made from fresh caught crayfish, muscles, and grouse, made with Zatarain's rice mix. WOW that would be a great meal.

I know it may not be totally legal to hunt/catch all these items, but it is mouth watering to think about.

I have seen this topic before, and was talking to my wife about it and she said that they are pulling your leg, they are just joking.
So here is my ???. Is this for real? My kids are willing to give it a try this year, but I dont need someone sick if this is a joke.
I have never tried crayfish.

Yes it's real. They are pretty tasty if made right.
I have had them several times over my life and I have no complaints. Except for the first time I made them. Must have been about 14 years old. A few buddies and I caught a lot. Must have been half an ice cream pail. We didn't know how to cook them. We ripped off their tails and put them on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at a high temp for quite a while.
That was nearly 30 years ago. I don't recall how they tasted or anything really except that we didn't like them. Maybe because it was the first time I had them or most likely we overcooked them!

Northwoods lobster...a delicacy. But going in, know that they are alot of work for little meat.

quote dprochef:

I was thinking of how nice it would be to have a BWCA Etouffee. Made from fresh caught crayfish, muscles, and grouse, made with Zatarain's rice mix. WOW that would be a great meal.


I know it may not be totally legal to hunt/catch all these items, but it is mouth watering to think about. "

All Minnesota mollusks must be released.

That said, I have eaten crayfish before. They are alot of work, but are quite tasty.

score the raw, peeled tails (topside) and just pull the dark string off. Like you would shrimp tails. Toss in pan and saute them in Ghee.

boil 'em whole and devein just before eating it.

Rinse 'em out 3 or 4 times to prep them to get rid of the griddiness. It's just dirt/sand caught in all them little crevices.

Huh, damn i have a collapsable fish/crawdad trap that ive used up on agnes, as well as the kawashawi! I always try and find a current type area and bait it with pre made bait thats for minnow trapping! I had probably 12-15 crayfish in there after 12-18hrs one time! We used them for bait with the TGO method hooked through the tail and did get a some walleyes and smallies with em along current breaks and holes!

This s a great idea. Are there crawfish in lots of the lakes up there? Or are they in a particular region of the bwca?

If I see some ill definitely be trying to catch some and they would be best boiled.

I have eaten them before. Just grab their heads and twist em off and eat the tail...they're literally like little lobsters.

Edit: I know it's been a while but if anybody's around what would be the best way to go about making a trap like the one above? If I can't get anything cool I'll just roll with line and a pan.

Why has no one mentioned to suck the heads? Boil with spices whole, twist the tail, eat the meat and SUCK THE HEADS! !Que Flavor!

Somebody did mention sucking the heads above

What did you use for bait in the trap? Fish guts?

And what sort of trap? Do lots of lakes have these?

Bump.

Trying to find the best way to fashion one of those traps. That rabbit fencing or just even an empty 2 liter bottle

Mustang, my paddle partner has a trap similar to what you're looking for. I'll talk to him and give you specs etc, on either building or buying one.

You don't need a trap. Just put one hand behind them, one in front. Motion with the hand in front - they swim backwards - grab them with the hand behind them.

You want your best hand in back of them (if you're right handed, etc. etc....).

Oops! double post.

Or bring along swim goggles and hand catch. Caught 76 one afternoon that way. Cooked them, stacked in a pyramid claws facing out, and ate with butter. Not sure I'd convert my diet to them but it was fun and they were tasty.