Crawdad Mania - 2018

[Nwgunner]

Sorry for my lack of expertise but what are the benefits of purging crawfish and how do you do it?  I bought my first trap last weekend.

[bowhunterforever]

Sorry for my lack of expertise but what are the benefits of purging crawfish and how do you do it?  I bought my first trap last weekend.

im not real sure either

[merkaba93]

Ok, I can explain. You know what we call the mud vein in shrimp and crawfish? Well it's a part of the digestive track to put it nicely. With shrimp it's easy to remove because its on the outside of the meat. Crawfish it's a bit harder because it's kind of imbedded into the meat.
By all means you can eat shrimp or crawfish with the mud vein intact. It barely changes the flavor. But if you wanna up your flavor game and have the cleanest crawfish you've ever tasted, then you purge them.
Keep them alive for 12-24 hours and drain/change the water every 4 hours or so.
You'll need an air pump because they take up a lot of O2.
It's just one extra step. Not necessary, however if you have the time and the equipment, I personally think it's worth it.

[CLARKTAR]

I'm interested! Where can a person find crawfish? (On the west side or on the Olympic peninsula?)

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[Shrimper]

Clarktar...Crawdads are everywhere, creeks, sloughs, lakes, rivers...look for areas with a lot of cover "rocks" where crawdads can hide.  My honey hole has a sandy bottom with a hard clay layer they dig tunnels into for cover.

Leaving traps overnight seem to work best for me.  Good luck!

[Whitenuckles]

Mmmm......

[Jonathan_S]

Ok, I can explain. You know what we call the mud vein in shrimp and crawfish? Well it's a part of the digestive track to put it nicely. With shrimp it's easy to remove because its on the outside of the meat. Crawfish it's a bit harder because it's kind of imbedded into the meat.
By all means you can eat shrimp or crawfish with the mud vein intact. It barely changes the flavor. But if you wanna up your flavor game and have the cleanest crawfish you've ever tasted, then you purge them.
Keep them alive for 12-24 hours and drain/change the water every 4 hours or so.
You'll need an air pump because they take up a lot of O2.
It's just one extra step. Not necessary, however if you have the time and the equipment, I personally think it's worth it.

Definitely worth it.  I've done up mud bugs fresh and that's kind of rough.  The difference in purged bugs is well worth it

[Katmai Guy]

Ok, I can explain. You know what we call the mud vein in shrimp and crawfish? Well it's a part of the digestive track to put it nicely. With shrimp it's easy to remove because its on the outside of the meat. Crawfish it's a bit harder because it's kind of imbedded into the meat.
By all means you can eat shrimp or crawfish with the mud vein intact. It barely changes the flavor. But if you wanna up your flavor game and have the cleanest crawfish you've ever tasted, then you purge them.
Keep them alive for 12-24 hours and drain/change the water every 4 hours or so.
You'll need an air pump because they take up a lot of O2.
It's just one extra step. Not necessary, however if you have the time and the equipment, I personally think it's worth it.

Does it do anything to put cornmeal in the water for them to eat and flush out their pooper?

[Southpole]

Ok, I can explain. You know what we call the mud vein in shrimp and crawfish? Well it's a part of the digestive track to put it nicely. With shrimp it's easy to remove because its on the outside of the meat. Crawfish it's a bit harder because it's kind of imbedded into the meat.
By all means you can eat shrimp or crawfish with the mud vein intact. It barely changes the flavor. But if you wanna up your flavor game and have the cleanest crawfish you've ever tasted, then you purge them.
Keep them alive for 12-24 hours and drain/change the water every 4 hours or so.
You'll need an air pump because they take up a lot of O2.
It's just one extra step. Not necessary, however if you have the time and the equipment, I personally think it's worth it.

At the very minimum I place my catch on ice on the way home (make sure the melted ice water will drain out). Then, before cooking, pour them into a bucket of water, add salt and stir them around for 5 minutes or so. It's supposed make them vomit a great amount of waste out of their bodies. It won't be as super duper clean as keeping them alive for a day but it's better than not doing anything at all, which I have done and it's not recommended. 

[merkaba93]

 Whitenuckles boil looks good!

[Shrimper]

Finally found some good ones, its been slow so far this year for us, untill....

[Shrimper]

Tried a new way of purging too...closed the tunnels shut with zip ties and let them soak lakeside for 24+ hours.  All came out fairly clean.

[Southpole]

Wow, that’s a good one. Nice dark claws on that sucker. You’re on the board  !

[Shrimper]

Boil turned out good too...always amazed how big the claws get on the mosters...the biggest claws were 3+ inches.

[Shrimper]

Wow, that’s a good one. Nice dark claws on that sucker. You’re on the board  !

Oh yeah defiantly an old warrior.