Mudbug rush

Published 6:00 am Thursday, March 29, 2018

The Easter Holiday for many includes family gatherings and a much sought after attraction to the dinner table — crawfish.

Area mudbug retailers are accustomed to the peak in sales for the Cajun lobster as many prepare for crawfish boils on Good Friday through Easter Sunday.

“Everybody knows holy week is one of the biggest weeks of the year for the crawfish industry,” said David Ducote owner of Ruby Rouge Seafood. “The quality is really good this time of year. It takes a lot of preparation to get ready for this week.”

Ducote said he’s a relatively small wholesaler of crawfish and it’s been busy trying to keep up demand, his waiting list is full.

“We stopped at Ruby Rouge and they were out, so we were directed over here,” Javon Jones of Jeanerette said.  

She and her sister stopped by Oakridge Seafood on Spanish Trail looking for a few sacks of crawfish to feed the family over the holiday weekend. Her sister Astrid is the person in the family who is the best at boiling.

“We don’t want anything small,” Astrid Jones said. “As long as they’re a good size then we’re happy.”

Bradley Lupe works as a grader for Oakridge Seafood, which means he goes through the sack, checks the size of the mudbugs, and discards any dead ones.

They’re looking really good,” Lupe said. “The demand is high.”

Greg Hensgens, owner of Lil Lobster on Center Street in New Iberia, sells both live and boiled crawfish. He said he hires extra help for this time of year.  

“You can’t ever keep up with the demand for Holy Week but we try,” Hensgens said. “We will sell about 20,000 in live crawfish if the catch stays good between Thursday and Saturday.” 

Hensgens catches his own crawfish and goes out seven days a week. He said this time of year they have a strategy on how to increase their catch. 

“Instead of just the usual fish we will add a little artificial crawfish bait, it helps the catch come up a little bit,” Hensgens said. 

The Little Lobster owner said his restaurant farms and buys crawfish this time of year to keep up with demand. 

“We have double the normal traffic on Good Friday,” Hensgens added. “Everybody’s family is in town so everybody wants to try to get a sack.”

Ducote says his holy week sales total about 50 to 60,000 pounds of live crawfish for the entire week and he says he knows some retailers that sell upwards of 100,000 pounds.

“The availability of pound crawfish is relatively good,” Ducote said. “I would say that’s about 99 percent of what is being sold this season.”

Sacks of medium to large live crawfish in the area are ranging anywhere between $75 to $100 a sack. Whether your plans are to boil mudbugs as a family or find a local restaurant whose willing to do the work for you, the demand of the season makes calling ahead and reserving close to a necessity.