Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w. d i s t i n c t ly m o n ta n a . c o m 39 Crawdad Generally speaking, the crawdads in Montana are larger and live in much cleaner water than those from Louisiana. Cuisine some lakes, McGregor Lake (about midway between Kalispell and Libby on hwy 2) being one, where divers gather each sum- mer to dive, catch crawdads, and have a big crawdad boil. I'm only familiar with the trapping method, and I don't like to be underwater so that is the method we will address here. During the day crawdads hang out under rocks or logs or in the aquatic plant growth at the bottom of ponds and lakes and it is at night they are most active and eating. They are scaven- gers and eat most anything but seem to have a preference for any meat that is a little smelly. Although dead fish, fish guts, or chicken livers are popular bait, an open can of cat food seems to work well and is a lot less messier to deal with. I find no regu- lations pertaining to catching crawdads in the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks literature, but satisfy yourself to that before you head out with your traps. Commercially made traps similar to the one in the photos can be purchased from Cabelas, Sports- men's Warehouse, and Bass Pro Shops for from $10 to $22. Crawdads, like all crustaceans, must be kept alive until they are cooked as some of the naturally occurring bacteria within them will cause deterioration of the meat very rapidly if they are dead but not cooked. The boiling process kills that bacteria and the critter at the same time eliminating the problem. So, take a bucket or something with you to put a little water in to bring them back alive. Crawdad season for the most part is from when the water starts to warm up in the spring until it starts to cool down in the fall which in Montana that usu- ally means from sometime in May to sometime in September. Accordingly, during this active time traps are set out in the evening and gathered in the next morning. See the sidebar on the next page for steps on purging, cook- ing, and harvesting the tail meat. It can be frozen and used lat- er if desired. For cooking use the size pot and amount of water to completely cover the crawdads and then some. Add a cutup lemon to the water and bring to a rolling boil. Be sure to dis- card any that are dead before submerging in the boiling water. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes after the water has resumed the rolling boil. If you're going to do a traditional crawdad boil then you would go right to that procedure described after purging them. As far as harvesting the tail meat is concerned, you may think the ratio of effort to satisfaction is a little skewed but actually that is what beer is for. Nothing goes better with a crawdad boil than downing your favorite beer as you peel and eat.

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