The Best of Houston’s 2025 Crawfish Season Is Still to Come

After a rough 2024 season and recent cold fronts, Louisiana distributors and Houston restaurants are getting ready for a crawfish season worth waiting for

When it comes to crawfish season in the South, there seem to be two types of people: Those who can patiently wait for peak season and those who know better but can’t. The sentiment is especially true in Houston, a city known to consume massive amounts of crawfish sourced from Louisiana from late fall through early summer. “It would not shock me if the Houston metropolitan area gobbled up more crawfish than the state of Louisiana,” says Jared Politz, the owner of Louisiana crawfish distributor Ju’s Crawfish, which delivers to seven states across the South. “The demand is strong, and there’s growing demand in other cities, including San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas.”

Here in Texas, crawfish is an entire culture, a city-wide pastime in Houston, in particular, where — as early as December — as some mudbugs emerge, so do a group of diners eager to get their fingers on some crawdaddies. But according to most purveyors, the season doesn’t truly get started or yield its best tiny, red freshwater crustaceans until at least February. Still, entire Facebook groups, like Crawfish Community, a public group with nearly 90,000 members, are dedicated to finding the best crawfish in the area at the top of the season. Though sometimes useful — residents often report back about where to find mudbugs and give detailed rundowns on spice level, service, and price by the pound — many early birds harp about their less-than-great crawfish dining experiences. So why not just wait?

Last year, diners were deprived of a typical season after Louisiana, the nation’s leading state in crawfish production, experienced a severe drought in summer 2023 that left many crawfish with little water to settle into the mud. When winter hit, a big freeze resulted in even more dead or malnourished crawfish. The season didn’t begin until March and ran considerably late through early July. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry estimated that the drought, one of the worst in Louisiana’s history, led to $140 million in damages to crops and losses in the crawfish industry. (The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reports that Louisiana supplies 100 to 120 million pounds of crawfish yearly, contributing more than $300 million to the state’s annual economy.)

This year, the tides have turned: In the words of Politz, “It’s going to be a good one.” Many chefs, farmers, and distributors that depend on crawfish season for profit predict a promising peak season that could start in early February. Lucas McKinney, the chef behind Midtown’s southern Gulf Coast restaurant Josephine’s, expects the best-sized crawfish (medium to large) will be in high supply around Mardi Gras, which falls on March 4, and stretch well into Easter.

Some of the biggest producers, however, are already harvesting. According to McKinney, Josephine’s began selling boiled small- to medium-sized crawfish in a classic, spicy Louisiana style and a wet version starting in December.

Crawfish Cafe, known for its Viet-Cajun crawfish drenched in different sauces, began selling a limited amount of crawfish in November from a trusted purveyor looking for someplace to sell its test harvests. Co-owner Julie Duong says she started receiving more consistent deliveries by mid-December and now sells crawfish for around $12 per pound. Prices are expected to drop and be more affordable for restaurants and diners than last year. “It’s really impressive for this time of year,” McKinney says. “I think that everyone kind of took a year to regroup. It gave the crawfish time to regenerate and make it to where we have a successful year.”

Politz notes that crawfish distributors and farms he’s connected with in Louisiana say they already have a solid crop. “Crawfish will be back in the wheelhouse of where it needs to be for the industry to do well,” he says.

But how early Houstonians get to eat spicy boils is once again at the whim of the weather. Last year produced a sufficient amount of rainfall. Still, the cold front across Texas and Louisiana, which began on Sunday, January 5, is likely sending crawfish into a dormant state, meaning they’re not active enough to find their way into farmers’ traps to be caught, says Politz. Cold and rainy weather also signals crawfish to begin molting or shedding their shells, which makes them weaker and more prone to dying. If ponds freeze, most of the crawfish will die. If the temperatures get too warm, crawfish will burrow into the ground for mating season — but if there’s not enough rainfall, there’s not enough moisture for the crawfish to burrow. Fields dry and begin to crack; the crawfish die.

“It’s a fool’s game, trying to predict crawfish season,” says Alex Brennan-Martin, owner of iconic Creole restaurant Brennan’s of Houston. “It’s a bit like predicting when grapes will be harvested in Napa or Sonoma. A lot of conditions have to come together, and a lot of things can change at the last minute, and so nothing is certain until the mudbugs are in the pot.”

Despite this, diners meet crawfish season in Houston each year with the same intensity. Though restaurants like Brennan’s don’t participate in seafood boils, they do depend on the crawfish haul for seasonal dishes, like etouffee, salads, enchiladas, gumbo, and specials, which have developed a following over the years. “I always say it’s just not safe to go in the dining room if we don’t have crawfish to sell,” says Brennan-Martin.

While many crawfish customers have been understanding about delays, Duong says, others are more anxious. “They missed it so much, they want to get their fix in,” she says. Crawfish math goes: Earlier in the season, the crawfish will likely be younger, smaller, and more scarce, and because of the crews farmers need to hire to catch them and the small quantity, they’ll also be more expensive by the pound. Duong says during this time, it’s also common for farmers to catch leftover crawfish that are still alive from the previous year, resulting in “hollow tails,” insides of malnourished crawfish that appear dark and often yield little meat. Though many people believe this is a result of crawfish cooked while it was dead (crawfish should always be boiled alive), Duong says it’s a sign of a crawfish that went dormant and depended too long on their tail meat for calories while burrowed in the ground. In a nutshell, healthy crawfish need more time to hibernate, eat, and grow, which often happens in warmer weather. Because of this, many restaurants are waiting for a more profitable time, which Politz says is ideal for a more bountiful season overall.

“I wish people were a little more patient. I wish the industry would be a little more disciplined. There’s always someone who wants to chase the dollar and buy the loyalty of a retail customer,” Politz says. “If you are the first but have the smallest and worst quality crawfish, does it really matter if you’re first?”

Inevitably, crawfish are trickling back onto restaurant tables around Houston. Most farmers are just now bringing in people to work the traps and farm, and soon, Politz says, he’ll send a small crew out to determine when they can deliver substantial amounts. “It’s going to be telling over the next couple of weeks where the industry is going to launch in terms of pricing,” he says.

Crawfish Shack, a popular seasonal restaurant in Crosby, Texas, announced on Facebook that they have delayed its reopening until January 22 to account for freezing temperatures that will keep its supply low. Politz says his team typically doesn’t start harvesting until January, when the waters are warmer, and the crawfish are more mature. Otherwise, diners are eating the “green crawfish” that would have been at their peak from March through May, the heart of the season.

McKinney says Josephine’s sold out of crawfish during its first week in January, but they’ve been conservative about buying more. “We’re getting back into the groove of what our restaurant looks like during crawfish season,” he says. “It’ll be interesting in about a month — once everybody’s bringing it in and rocking and rolling in the city.”

Still, some operators say it’s worth it in the long run for diners and restaurants to hold back in the earliest phases of the season. “You can absolutely harvest prematurely, but that will affect the remainder of the year,” Brennan-Martin says. “If you take too many of the egg-laying crawfish out early, you’re affecting the rest of your year. So it’s more of an art than a science, really.”

Lexie Brennan