The query on each Houstonian’s lips round this time of yr: When is crawfish season once more?! The reply is at all times not quickly sufficient, however there are some elements that dictate when our favourite spicy crustacean lands on our plates. Right here’s all the pieces you could learn about crawfish season in Texas and Louisiana.
The “Conventional” Season
The time for wild-caught crawfish is within the spring, typically throughout March and April. A chilly, late winter can delay the season (crawfish don’t prefer to get out and about when it’s too chilly), whereas a scorching, early summer time can minimize the season brief (crawfish head again into their mud burrows beneath the rice fields when it will get too heat exterior). Droughts may also have an effect on the crawfish; if there’s too little water, they received’t develop or reproduce.
Crawfish Farming
Due to more and more large-scale farming operations in Louisiana and elements of southeastern Texas, now you can get crawfish from January to August, relying on the producer and, once more, the climate (even farms aren’t impervious to temperature and barometric-pressure fluctuations, each of which impression the crawfish’s life cycle). This implies the season now covers roughly half the yr, which we take into account trigger for celebration. It additionally signifies that if you happen to’re getting crawfish within the fall, it may very properly be frozen stuff shipped over from different international locations.
Bigger than Life
Although the season spans roughly half the yr, crawfish are nonetheless at their largest and finest round March and April, once they’ve had loads of time to fatten up, farmed or not. The remaining months can herald equally giant crawfish if the climate is favorable, however that’s not at all times a assure. People who as soon as complained about crawfish coming in too early had been proper to quibble: January and February wild-caught crawfish had been woefully small. However now we will get good ’bugs at a decent measurement due to farmers’ efforts to maintain them well-fed and guarded.
The 2025 Crawfish Season
This yr is shaping as much as be significantly better than the final, which was marked by drought and excessive warmth that’s unfavorable to good, plentiful crawfish. Fortunately there was sufficient rain over final summer time to set the mudbugs up for achievement, adopted by a comparatively delicate winter. Crawfish boils started showing on some menus in Houston in January, however the chilly temperatures that blanketed the South on the finish of the month slowed manufacturing in Louisiana. With temps now creeping again up, it appears like we’ll be able to twist tails and suck heads on decently sized crawfish by mid-February, with a juicier (and cheaper) catch coming in early March.
