Crawfish Hole

The term, “Crawfish Hole” is used and understood by most people of the southern portion of the United States. They know exactly what the term means and where you will find a crawfish hole. 

The location of a crawfish hole is usually located several feet from a source of water, a lake, river or a ditch that has standing water. The hole is about eighteen to twenty four inches deep, three inches wide with marble size (1/4”) round balls of dirt around the top of the hole. In the bottom of the hole are one or two crawfish about the size of a small lobster. I imagine this is a hole for mating during the reproduction cycle. Boys with small arms would put their hand down the hole, feel the tail portion of the crawfish and pull it out  and place it in a two gallon  bucket then reach in again to feel for a second crawfish. We were always careful to avoid the front of the crawfish, knowing that the pinching claws operated from that end. 

I remember as a small boy at age seven my friends Bubba, Leroy and I would fill our buckets with crawfish in about one hour along the river bank.  The next thing we would do is boil the lobster size crawfish, placing a bit of salt in the water to give a good taste flavor and eat the freshly cooked crawfish almost as fast as we retrieved them from the hot water. 

A true treat from my reservoir of pleasant boyhood history about the large crawfish. The regular crawfish found in today’s stores are usually farm grown type and are minimum in size and taste.