NEDERLAND, Texas — Southeast Texas restaurants are dealing with this year's abnormal crawfish season after this summer's drought had a major impact on catching crawfish.
On December 11, 223 Touch of Cajun Cafe in Nederland started selling fresh crawfish. Kenny Mings, the owner, says the price per pound is higher than previous years.
Customers are buying less crawfish and waiting for the prices to drop, according to Mings.
"Usually by this time we're catching 80 to 120 sacks a day. We're boiling 20 to 30 sacks a day at the restaurant and the rest are getting sold to other restaurants," said Mings.
This year however, the catch is dismal.
"We're typically getting 15 to 20 sacks off of 600 acres that we fish. Now we're seeing 6 to 8 sacks. And it has gotten worse since last week," Mings said.
The drought Southeast Texas experienced last summer is the cause of the smaller crawfish numbers.
"A lot of people who didn't start early pumping, what happened was the crawfish bury themselves in the mud. And it dried up on them," he said.
This killed the crawfish and stunted their growth.
"We're seeing crawfish, but they're just not migrating, and moving and eating bate and getting into traps. Like I said the prices are at a all time high. I don't know if we're gonna see last years crawfish prices," Minds told 12News.
This season, the price has gone up by $5.
"We started off the season at $8.99 a pound. And we're currently at $13.99 a pound so the price has basically gone up quite a bit. So a lot of folks aren't rushing in here like they were before," said Mings.
Josh Spurlock enjoys crawfish restaurant hopping each season. He's not letting higher prices get in his way.
"I've been all over this country working and there ain't no place like Southeast Texas crawfish," said Spurlock. "Absolutely I'm a big guy, so I love crawfish and I'm going to get 'em."
Seed crawfish are the small ones used for meals like ettoufe.
"Usually seed crawfish goes for pennies on the dollar. This year we don't think that crawfish price are going to drop below $3 a pound for live crawfish. With that being said it's going to cost more money for the farmers and the fisherman to stock their ponds for next year," Mings said.
Crawfish harvesters say they expect this year's troubles to trickle into next year's crawfish season.