Texas 2nd Largest Crawfish Producer, Still Way Behind Louisiana
Shelby Webb
Beaumont Enterprise
Karen Reneau winced when the black water lapped over the top of her boots, chilling her legs from the shin down.
Her husband, Charlie, had waded into the waters weeks before in early December, plopping chopped up fish bits into a handful of traps spread across the family’s 4,000 acres.
Now, Karen followed his footprints, faintly etched in wilted rice stubble, to see if the annual ascension of the crawfish had begun.
In the coming weeks, millions of the crunchy crustaceans will dig their way out of muck and into flooded fields across the Gulf Coast.
For some, the pilgrimage from mud to local restaurants already has begun.