With an underwhelming crawfish season for crawfish farmers, we cannot forget about the struggles crawfish fishermen in the Atchafalaya Basin are going through as well.

LOUISIANA (KLFY) -- With an underwhelming crawfish season for crawfish farmers, we cannot forget about the struggles crawfish fishermen in the Atchafalaya Basin are going through as well.

James Fredieu has been a crawfish fisherman inside the Atchafalaya Basin for nearly his entire life. He said crawfish fishermen in the basin are having the same issues as pond farmers and it all started at the end of last season.

"The drought last year shortened season," Fredieu said. "Most guys finished in May. The guys would airboats, got to fish a little bit later, maybe mid-June."

When the 2023 drought started, a lot of the basin was dried up making it hard for most to get to spots they used to catch crawfish at. Fredieu said a lot of the crawfish are either dead or just now coming out of their burrows.

"They maybe would have survived if we would have had some rain to cool down the water, but because of the extreme heat, I think they just boiled in the water," Fredieu said.

Water levels in the basin recently started rising, so now crawfish fishermen can set their traps, but it will take a while for them to officially be harvest ready.

"It is going to take a month or two for them to come out and have their babies and get out of that shell and start doing their little thing," Fredieu said.

Whether it be basin crawfishing or pond crawfishing, Fredieu said both have seen a negative impact on this year's harvest because of the drought, but hopes are still high as we get further into the season with the crawfish maturing and getting ready for the boil.

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