A line and a pole – Festival celebrates basin crawfish tradition

One of Louisiana’s best known and classic food festivals takes place this weekend less than a hour away—the annual Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, a event that pulses with Cajun and Zydeco music and features piles of steaming mudbugs and dozens of crawfish dishes. Crawfish are more available today than ever today thanks to the state’s healthy pond-raised industry, but Louisiana’s tradition of netting and boiling the freshwater crustaceans began not far from Breaux Bridge in the Atchafalaya River Basin. The festival honors this centuries-old tradition, which sadly, is in peril. Over the course of the twentieth century, the basin has seen changes in hydrology because of manmade flood control measures and canals dug by the oil and gas and timber industries. It has caused formerly swampy areas to silt in, making areas where crawfishermen once worked impassable. Still, hardscrabble types like Henderson native Jody Meche are still at it, setting traps throughout the basin because they can’t imagine a more satisfying way to make a living. “It’s in my blood,” Meche says, as he prepared to take some travel writers through the basin. “I love to fish. But we basin crawfisherman, it’s different for us. We crawfish in the wild, and it’s full of challenges and it’s not easy to make a living.” The Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival marks the mid-point of the basin crawfish season, which usually spans April to June. For more information about the festival, visit bbcrawfest.com.