It’s that time of the year again when people go crazy for some Cajun mudbugs.
Depending on the weather, crawfish season can be plentiful or scanty.
“We need a lot of rain down in Louisiana, and we need a little bit of warm weather,“ said Jesse “The Wild Cajun” Gibson, owner of Cocodrie’s Bayou Kitchen in North Richland Hills. “They kind of exist in this little Goldilocks zone, a temperature too hot or too cold, they go far into the ground. So that’s why we see them pop up during nice weather in the spring.”
Luckily, Gibson said the 2026 season is starting to see some nice quantities of big crawfish coming in. Peak crawfish season is March to May.
The late January winter storm hit Louisiana affected crawfish at a vulnerable time, as they do not move or feed in the cold but still continue to grow. Once the snow melted and temperatures warmed, the mudbugs were fully grown and shedding their shells, resulting in soft crawfish that are no good for consumption.
But now that the weather is warming up, it is prime-time to harvest the livestock.
“Right around Mardi Gras until Easter weekend is when crawfish season really ramps up,” said Gibson.
The only way to eat crawfish is to get your hands dirty. Bob Booth Special to the Star-Telegram
About 90 percent of crawfish harvests are from a 300-mile radius in south-central Louisiana, according to Gibson.
“The industry is getting the same type of product every,” he said. “So, if we have a good crop week, everybody is gonna have good crawfish.”
How each restaurant prepares the crustacean is “to each their own.”
Some cook the crawfish, then season. Others boil in a bag and melt some butter on top. How Gibson likes to cook his crawdads is by taking the time to season the inside of the shell, because that’s where the meat is.
Where to get ready-to-eat crawfish in Fort Worth
5209 Rufe Snow Drive, North Richland Hills. $9.99 per pound. Corn, potatoes and sausage. Order live crawfish online 48 hours before for takeout for $5.50 a pound.Serving crawfish Tuesday through Thursday starting at 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday starting at noon.
5728 Boat Club Road, Fort Worth. (Locations in Crowley and Hudson Oaks, too.) $12.99 per pound; $23.99 for two pounds. Corn and potatoes. Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Waterside Shopping Center, 5917 Convair Drive, Fort Worth. Another location in Richardson. Prices to be determined. Other seafood boils range from $20 to $50. Corn, potatoes, sausage served with hush puppies.Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Cultural District, 612 University Drive, Fort Worth. $12.95 per pound. Cajun seasoning on top. No corn or potato. Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
2505 E. Arkansas Lane #131, Arlington. $8.49 per pound. No corn or potatoes. Spicy Cajun. Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Fort Worth locations at 318 Main St., 4700 Bryant Irvin Road and 2950 Texas Sage Trail$9.99 per pound. Corn and potatoes. Hours vary by location. Where to buy live crawfish to cook at home
H-E-B sells live and boiled crawfish on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. While it may be a convenient option, Gibson says, it may not be the freshest.
“With crawfish, they’re just like any other big retailer, they’re buying a lot of it, they’re putting it on a truck, and they’re sending it wherever, and if they got too much of it, they’re just going to sell it dirt cheap.”
Since the product is live, Gibson believes that supporting local is better as small businesses have the time and labor to properly wash the crop and pick out the dead bugs.
One way to support local is to check out Asian grocery stores or seafood markets, as China is also one of the largest crawfish producers. Note that these stores may get crawfish from Louisiana instead of China, for the sake of the live animal’s ability to travel and stay fresh.
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Ella Gonzales is a service journalism reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She is part of a team of local journalists who answer reader questions and write about life in North Texas. Ella mainly writes about local restaurants and where to find good deals around town.