It may be gumbo weather, but some people are already thinking crawfish. After back-to-back lousy crawfish seasons, next year's crawfish season looks promising.
"You know, we're looking at more of a normal year right now," LSU AgCenter crawfish specialist Todd Fontenot said. "We are seeing crawfish emerging from their burrows with young--with hatchlings recuits--that they are going to be releasing into the pond."
That's because more hatchlings survived beyond this summer as compared to last year, when extreme heat and drought conditions killed off baby crawfish. Fontenot says this summer's heavy rains and more moderate temperatures helped the crawfish survive, boosting hopes for a fruitful crawfish season.
"A lot of our producers are flooding up their crawfish ponds at this time. They are seeing some signs of crawfish emerging as they're putting water on these fields," Fontenot said. "Between the temperature and the signs that we're seeing and the rainfall that we did receive compared to last year, it's all positive signs."