Tagged: crawfish

Taking the "West Bank shortcut" to get just a little closer to the source pays big dividends when it's time for a boiled seafood safari. 

After two lean years caused by summer drought and winter cold, it looks as if there will be plenty of crawfish for Super Bowl Sunday — one of the biggest days of the year for Louisiana's crawfish dealers.

Last year's wetter summer and a relatively warm and wet winter are boosting the early crop for a season that peaks in April and May. January downpours that flooded crawfish ponds will dent the total, but those in the business call it the best early season in years.

As rain followed rain in south Louisiana, the president of the Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association saw a good chunk of his crop swim over the levees around his ponds while fish swam in to feast on those remaining.

David Savoy of Church Point says rains since last week have overtopped the levees in about 35 percent of his 1,700 acres of ponds. But he says those are his most low-lying ponds, which also tend to be the most productive.

A visit to one West Bank seafood specialist can feel like a mini road trip out to crawfish-producing Cajun country.