Figured I’d share an update. Looked into the laws and native types of crawfish in my area. I found that the kind I could buy in New Orleans are legal and a noninvasive species to my area.
They come alive and packed in mesh sacks. I purchased 98lbs which was 3 sacks. There is an app called “the crawfish app” that lets you find the cheapest price per pound and also let’s you search various city’s. At the time of my purchase Hammond LA had the best prices at $2.79 per pound (live). I also bought 3 large plastic storage totes from Walmart at $8 each as well.

You need to keep them cold, which means keeping them covered in ice. I used 12 bags of gas station Ice total 4 per bin. But you also have to drain the water frequently otherwise they will drowned in the melt water. I stopped every 2-3 hours and drained each bin and would flip the bags.

Total transport time of the live crawfish to my pond was just under 9 hours. I then removed 2 of the mesh bags (68#) from the bins of ice and cut them open on my shoreline and dumped out the crawfish. All were still alive at this point and would make small movements but were definitely lethargic from being on ice. I then just started scooping them up by hand and tossing them into the pond(they were very lethargic and didn’t even pinch).

The 3rd sack (for a family crawfish boil) I left in a bin completely covered in ice overnight. The next morning I put them in a second bin without ice and rinsed them with a hose after cutting open the bag. They were now loose in the plastic bin, and lethargic like the ones the night befor. However after letting them warm up a little and continued rinsings I noticed they revived much quicker.

After checking today 6 days later I found that I had 40 or 50 dead crawfish visible where I had tossed them in. I feel now if I would have revived them better first that I wouldn’t have lost hardly any. So the next time I do this. I’m going to be more patient and do a better job of acclimating them first.


On a positive note. I caught a 4lb spotted bass today at the farthest away spot from where I released the crawfish and it had a live crawfish it had just eaten sticking out of its mouth. So my bass are LOVING the added forage!
Plus the family crawfish boil was a lot of fun. I’d say so it was worth it.