As a child at summer camp I enjoyed catching crawdads by hand. You remember don't you Dear Reader? Turn a rock and watch for the crimson flash as the little bugger flipped it's tail, jetting backwards through the icy clear water. As an adult (in the legal sense only mind you) I still enjoy the hunt for crawdads. But no longer is it the whimsically innocent quest it once was. Now it is a military operation. Crayfish traps, home-made crawdad rings, aquarium nets and hunger. You see, what I didn't know then that I do know now, is that crawdads are quite tasty. Indeed. It has been nearly a decade since my last hunt. Susie and I set off on Sunday for Schindler's Landing, about halfway between
Mapleton and Triangle Lake. Had the conditions there changed? Would the sight have been
crayfished out? These were a couple of the unknowns that flashed again and again through my mind among the hazy golden memories of past hunts. Upon arrival we learned that a day pass was required, available back in
Mapleton. My heart sank a bit further when I observed crawdad carcasses at the water's edge. Someone had really raked in a haul. Were there any left for us? We went back to
Mapleton, bought the day pass and returned to the landing. I baited and placed the big trap that would stay in mid-stream for the entire time we were there. Then I started baiting the hanging plant baskets that I had converted to what look like tiny crab rings. There was immediate interest from the crawdads of Lake Creek. I never did get all nine rings out. Five was plenty. Then we took chicken wings tied to strings to lure the little buggers out from their lairs so we could scoop them up with the aquarium nets. Besides all the fun of wallowing in the shallows, we caught 74 crayfish. Back at home, I boiled them and we ate them with grilled chicken breasts and salsa made from Walla Walla onion and watermelon.
Mmmmm. The simplest joys are always the best.
