May 19th Tuesday

 

0530  Up early and off to “work” actually Steve did all the work.  He works the traps from about 18 foot open skiff.  He had a chair set up for me at the front.  All I had to do was sit there like the King and enjoy the experience.  It was about a 20 min run from the launch to the area back in the swamp where he sets his traps.  He has 150 of them.  He baited them up with a piece of shad, a half of a potato and he put some of the corn in some of the traps.  It was a  very interesting operation to watch.  His traps are about 4 to 5 feet long and only about  18 inches in diameter.  They are like a crab trap and have a couple of holes in the side on the bottom so the crawfish can get in but can’t get out.  These crawfish walk around on the bottom.  They will climb the side of the trap to get at the food inside.  If the trap for some reason did not get pushed all the way to the bottom there will be no crawfish in it.  He baits them up and will return in about 3 or 5 days to harvest.  Some traps would have 25 or 30 in it and others my only have two or three.  There were only a few that had none.  These probably did not get set on the bottom.  What gets me is how he can find them all.  He has his tagged with orange striped tape but remembering where they all are?  Out in the middle of the swamp it all looked the same to me.  Close my eyes and turn me around and I had no idea what direction was where.

 

He has small wooden box about 18”x24”x 4” built on the side of the boat.  He dumped the contents of the traps into the box and then culls out what he does not want to keep.  At one end of the box is a hole with a gunny sack attached underneath.  The keepers are pushed into the hole and go into the sack until it is full.  Then he replaces it with a new sack. We ended up with five and a half sacks.  We ran all 150 traps and were back to the landing by 1100. 

When we got home he started calling his customers and with only a few calls he had the four he wanted to sell sold.  We kept the one for us to eat.  Then it was time for a short nap.

At around 1730 he put the big pot on the burner with some water, dumped in the crawfish, onions, potatoes and other secret ingredients.  In about 30 min it was time.  He poured off the water and a few more spices and then brought the pot into the dinning room and dumped it on the table.

Then it was time to dig in.  What a treat.  Now that was some good eating.

After dinner it was time for dessert.  Percy and Janice live right on main street in Baldwin, La about 7 miles up the road from Franklin.  For over forty years during the summer they have made some extra money by selling snow cones from the front of there house.  It’s only been about 40 years since I’ve had one.  I was ready.  we went to their stand and I got one large strawberry shaved ice snow cone.  Was that ever a treat.  I had forgotten just how good they are.

 

 

They plan was to head out in the morning for a three day shrimping trip but the weather gods were just not willing to cooperate.  Winds 15 to 20kts ESE with four foot seas.  The forecast was no better for the next few days so I’ll just load up C-Lover and continue on East.