Crawfish Trapping Report - East Verde River

How do you judge a successful crawfish trapping trip? When you have a supper table that looks like the one pictured here! Below are the details from the Sharp Family's day of crawfish trapping.

Date: June 19th, 2013

Bait: Sardines & turkey bacon

Traps: Four

Trap Type: Promar 501

Trap Depth: 3-7 foot range.

Average Time In Water: Four hours / 240 minutes. 10:00AM - 2:00PM.

Trapping Results: Estimated pounds 12-15 pounds.

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2013 Arizona Crawfish Trapping Contest

2013 Arizona Crawfish Trapping Contest

Official rules and regulations for the 2013 Arizona Crawfish Trapping Contest can be downloaded by clicking this link!

NOTE: Rules & Regulations are subject to change prior to the event as Arizona Game & Fish Department sees fit. Rest assured any changes that are made from this point forward, will only benefit the tapping teams and the conservation effort to remove 10,000 pounds from Arizona water ways.

Download the entry form here!

What happens to all the crawfish trapped you ask? We're going to eat EVERY LAST ONE at the Arizona Crawfish Festival!!! Tickets now available online! (Tickets not required for trapping team members).


Send all comments, questions and concerns to arizonacrawfishco@gmail.com or call Romey (602)885-1078 and Bobby (480)299-7866.

Crawfish & Bon Temps Chere!

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Crawfish Breakfast Burritos

For those of you wondering, crawfish is an approved meat to any wholesome breakfast! In fact...we are pretty sure it's better than any of that processed cereal, processed bacon or other frozen heart attack crap they sell in the frozen food section that some are even know to call 'food.' 

Crawfish Breakfast Burritos

Serving Size: 12

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter

4 eggs, beaten

1 10oz. can diced tomatoes and green chilies, drained

1 10oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 5oz. can chunk white chicken, drained

1 ½ cups cooked rice; white long grain

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

12 flour tortillas

Sauce:

1 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

2/3 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 7x11 inch dishes. Melt butter in medium heat skillet. Add eggs; cook over medium heat until eggs are firm but moist, stirring occasionally. Transfer to large bowl. Stir in tomatoes, soup, chicken, rice and 1 cup cheese; mix well. Spoon onto center of each tortilla. Once folded place seam side down in prepared pans.

In medium bowl, combine all sauce ingredients; blend well. Pour over burritos; cook. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated through. If desired, garnish with sliced pimento or chopped red bell pepper.

Source:. The Riceland Collection.

And oh yeah…like always…don’t forget a mess of crawfish tails!!!!

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Crawfish Trapping Report-Goldwater Lake

The water level at Goldwater Lake is lower than we have ever seen, which is interested because the near by Granite Basin Lake is completely full. Our local resource attributes this low level to seepage between the concrete damn and where it's tied into the rock cliffs. Regardless of the low water level and our favorite trapping at the lake currently dried up (pictured below), Goldwater Lake is still as much of a honey hole for crawfish as it's ever been! 

The following are Monday's trapping results...

 

Date: June 17th, 2013

Bait: Processed Crawfish Bait

Traps: Seven

Trap Type: Four Pillow, Two Promar Collapsible, One Trapper Arne.

Trap Depth: Ten foot average.

Average Time In Water: Two hours / 120 minutes. 

Trapping Results: Average of ten crawfish per trap resulting in 70 crawfish or 4.5 pounds of crawfish.

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Coonass Productions

Introducing "Coonass Productions"!!!  The production company for the Arizona Crawfish Company's videos! Through Coonass Productions you will have access to "priceless" information into the Arizona Crawfish community. Learn what lakes are hot, what traps are catching, what bait they are biting on and most importantly...insight to the 2013 Crawfish Trapping Contest!! ...oh, and we almost forgot, how to secure a video camera to a tripod when the attachment is missing...

Subscribe and Follow.

"I got this" ~Boudreaux.

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Crawfish Maquechow

Boudreaux's maquechox is the best dere is, everybody that ever tried it will tell you dat! Well, we think it may just get a little better next time when we take this technique and add...you guessed it! CRAWFISH TALES!

Crawfish Maque Choux

Ingredients:

12 fresh ears of corn cut
1 onions, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 pods of garlic, minced
1 cup onion tops, chopped
1 cup parsley leaves, chopped
1 can Rotel tomatoes, diced
2 lbs. Crawfish tails
1/2 cup salad oil
1 stick butter

salt and pepper

 

Directions:

Shuck corn away from cob (cut corn away) and have ready.

To cook Corn: In a cast aluminum pot, heat salad oil then add corn and smother-cook until tender.

Smother bell pepper, onions, garlic, celery, parsley and onion tops until tender but NOT brown. Add corn and a small amount of water. Cook covered for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until all ingredients are cooked.

In another aluminum pot, melt butter. Add the crawfish, Rotel tomatoes and the juice. Cook until crawfish are red, about 10-15 minutes. Add corn mixture to this. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes for flavors to mix well. Serve hot over rice.

Cajun Crawfish credits this recipe to Marilyn Vidrine from Church Point, Louisiana.

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Crawfish Festival Press Release

2013 Arizona Crawfish Festival

For immediate release:

Who:              Arizona Crawfish Company

What:             2013 Arizona Crawfish Festival

When:            August 10^th, 2013 Noon -9:00PM

Where:           Bison Ranch. Overgaard, Arizona

Why:              Raise awareness of Crawfish in Arizona and educate wildlife enthusiasts on personal harvest and consumption of Crawfish.

Details:          Due to popular demand, the original Arizona Crawfish Festival is BACK!

In spring of 2002 the festival was birthed by Louisianan born radio host Rosie Romero upon hearing crawfish were over populating our waterways. After two years on the shoreline of Willow Springs Lake, the attendance and popularity was growing so rapidly a site with basic facilities and services was required. The festival then merged with a similar event and held on the lawn of Camp Verde’s historic Fort Verde. After a few years Rosie pulled his affiliation with the festival and Camp Verde held it’s last crawfish festival in 2010.

It was during this eight year run of annual crawfish boils that Arizona Crawfish Company’s founders Bobby Avery and Romey Romero met when they faced off for the eating contest in 2004.

Like the original festival at Willow Springs Lake, this year’s crawfish will be from Arizona’s waterways. Trapping teams are being assembled and assigned to lakes, rivers and streams along the Mogollon Rim for maximum extraction. In the past this had always been a challenge because of the transportation regulations on crawfish in Arizona set and enforced by the Arizona Game & Fish Department, in order to prevent further infestation. However, special permitting has been granted for this event. The goal is to remove 10,000 pounds of crawfish in the week long trapping contest leading up to the festival.

All trapped crawfish will legally be transported under Game & Fish supervision to Bison Ranch for the August 10^th Festival where they will be boiled and served to festival attendees Cajun style with corn, potatoes and onions! For a complete list of Rules, Regulations and participation details, visit Arizona Crawfish Trapping Contest.html.

There will be a crawfish eating contest, Cajun food vendors, frozen daiquiris, Abita Beer, live music, the performance of Arizona’s own Taylor Family Circus and more! For the kids there will be inflatable bounce house & slide, train rides, horseback rides and face painting to name a few!

The festival will be held Saturday from Noon to 9:00PM in the lawn courtyard at Bison Ranch in Heber/Overgaard, Arizona. There will be a $5 parking fee benefiting the local lions club and a $15 admission fee per person/$25 per family ($3 per kid 12 years of age and older, under 12 free) to cover staff, entertainment and facility use. Pre-Purchase tickets by August 7th to ensure you receive at least three pounds of crawfish at the festival!

$2 of every ticket sale will be donated to Jared Allen’sHomes for Wounded Warriors Project.

Stay up to date with new developments by following this blog and/or joining the facebook event page.

An event this size takes community involvement to make it a fun, safe, success family event. We extend our sincere gratitude to the people and sponsors involved.

·      Sanderson TomCar 

·      Rosie On The House 

·      Arizona Game & Fish Dept.

·      Bison Ranch

·      Lone Eagle Outdoors

·      Wild Woman Saloon

·      Abita Beer Co.

SPONSOR VIDEO

For event details, call
Bobby Avery at (480)299-7866 or
Romey Romero at (602)885-1078
or send an email request to arizonacrawfishco@gmail.com.

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Crawfish Report-Bartlett Lake

This picture was sent via text to Bobby's lovely wife, Sabrina, from some friends who spent the weekend at Bartlett Lake's SB Cove camp ground.

Romey's only trapped below the Mogollon Rim twice. Once in Canyon Lake once back in 1998 and again at Alamo Lake in 2011. Between the two trips, one catfish and one crawfish was all that was yielded and again why we stick to the high country for crawfish trapping.

The report we received with this photo stated "there were so many (crawfish) the kids wouldn't go in the water!" Now we've come to learn over the years our definition of "a lot of crawfish" compared to anyone who has never been to a Louisiana Crawfish Pond or Boil are completely different. However, judging by the size of this crawfish and the word that bass are biting, may just be enough for us to try a third trip to a desert lake...

Where are you seeing crawfish? Email us at arizonacrawfishco@gmail.com and we'll share your report!

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Smother Okra and Crawfish

We love the way some recipes are written. Take for example the last sentence in this recipe: "serve over rice if desired." Louisiana Life Magazine does realize this is a Cajun recipe...right? Some things just go without saying...right???

Smothered Okra and Crawfish

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:

¼ cup vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 pound okra, trimmed and sliced

1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes in juice

1 cup chicken stock or broth

1 pound peeled and cooked crawfish tails, with fat

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper and hot sauce to taste

Directions:

In a large Dutch oven or heavy casserole, cook the onions, garlic and okra in oil on medium heat, stirring frequently, until softened, about 10-15 minutes. Add the tomatoes with juice and the chicken stock. Simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until the okra is tender, about 30-40 minutes, Add the crawfish; season with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Simmer for 10-20 minutes. Serve over rice, if desired.

Source: March/April addition of Louisiana Life Magazine.

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2011 Great Cajun Crawfish Boil

10 hours of boiling pots and 2000 pounds of crawfish later we sure passed a bon temps with all y'all that came out to the annual Great Cajun Crawfish Boil on April 29th. If you were not able to attend but wanted to know what it was like, you're in luck! Destination Arizona was onsite with cameras and made a great video you can now see on YouTube.

See y'all at the 2012 Great Cajun Crawfish Boil!!

Arizona Crawfish Company
www.ArizonaCrawfishCompany.com

Cooking with a Legend: Crawfish Celery Dip - a fast and easy crawsfish appetizer.

Cooking with family and friends has always been a part of Cajun culture and tradition. It's not uncommon to spend and entire day slow cooking a cochon de lait or stirring the roux for a big pot of gumbo just in time for the farmers as they come off the fields at sun down. No matter the hard times they may be going through be it drought, poor crops, slow economy, more mouths the feed than slices of andouille sausage in the jambalaya, oil spills, or anything in between, when the Cajun's get together there will be bon food and bon temps!

This is no exception in our families and around the kitchen of Baby Kay the stories are endless, the drinks are full, memories are created and the meals are legendary. In spite the entire families effort to write down or recreate her recipes, all attempts have failed. Not because Baby Kay (or Mama Kay as her family calls her) is concealing her recipes or cooking secrets, in fact she goes out of her way to help teach the curious minds and watchful eyes lined around her butcher block island. The reason efforts have fallen short is because Mama Kay doesn't follow recipes and never cooks the same thing exactly as she did the last time. But without fail, all her creations are nothing short of perfection.

So, what better way to prepare three frozen pounds of crawfish tales remaining from July 4th's trapping adventure than bringing them over to Mama Kay's to fix up? I couldn't think of one either... Following is one of her favorite "fast & easy" dishes perfect for unexpected guests that happen by or when you need a little filler while waiting on the gumbo to cook down.

Crawfish Celery Dip:

With at least one pound of crawfish tales in a mixing bowl include the following ingredients chopped to preferred size and mixed to taste. After chilling, serve with your choice of assorted crackers...don't expect leftovers.

• Celery stalks
• Parsley
• Green Onions
• Mayo
• Tony Chachere's Seasoning
• Tabasco

This dish also goes great over salad and prefect for hot summer afternoons.

Hope y'all enjoy this Lagniappe creation of Mama Kay's. If you fix it up in your own kitchen drop us line and let us know how it turned out. Bon Appetite!

Y'all come back now ya' hear!?

The Arizona Crawfish Company Family
www.ArizonaCrawfishCompany.com

Watch for Boudreax on road!

He just left A and M Graphics in Mesa where Andrew just finished applying a full length window decal on his F-150. Keep an eye out for him on the road as he heads up to Goldwater Lake to trap for tomorrow night's private party crawfish boil! If you can track him down lakeside he just may have a few extra pounds of crawfish or bait he can spare...








Thank you for your support. Y'all come back now ya' hear!?

The Arizona Crawfish Company Family
www.ArizonaCrawfishCompany.com

Arizona Crawfish Company

Welcome to the official Arizona Crawfish Company blog! Here you will find updates to upcoming events, boils and real-time trapping reports from lakes all across Arizona.

Whether you enjoy crawfish in the Cajun family traditional setting with family, friends or complete strangers; as a tasteful compliment to a meal; or simply bait for your fishing outings. Crawfish are a resource for as many types of people as there are species of crawfish.

Here in Arizona crawfish have as many uses, both economical and culinary, as they do in Louisiana but most folks don't know it. Countless times we have been lakeside on one of Arizona's many water reservoirs with traps full of crawfish and surrounded by people intrigued with the sacks of crawfish we are carrying back to our trucks where the boiling pot and the day's catch await us. More often than not folks stick around to see the harvest of crawfish, learn the art of peeling and enjoy the taste of the world's greatest kept secret in freshwater...crawfish! Even the greatest skeptics alive who are intimidated by their look, their claws, or "sucking their heads" start coming around to the joys of crawfish after their first bite!

Crawfish are not only great for breaking social barriers as you eat and enjoy, they are a main source of life to the Cajun people. Like all things in the Cajun culture, crawfish were meant to be shared just like the culture's "joie de vivre."

And so with the infestation for crawfish into the Arizona waterways and two mis-placed Cajuns who have called Arizona their home for over 15 years, enter Arizona Crawfish Company whose soul purpose is to promote the enjoyment and fellowship of the Cajun lifestyle that can only be found around supper time in good company with a mess full of hot, spicy crawfish steaming on the table. We leave you with a few simple words as old as the southern hospitality and sincere as the morning dew: "y'all come back now ya' hear!?"

The Arizona Crawfish Company Family
www.ArizonaCrawfishCompany.com