Crawfish Season Has Arrived in Texarkana

You can now get boiled crawfish in Texarkana. Find out where below and watch a video of me in a crawfish-eating battle with someone who just walked up and challenged me.

Mimi Campbell, Townsquare Media

The Catch now has crawfish. They are located next to PetSmart (where Smashburger was located) in Richmond Ranch Shopping Center. They cook them to order so if you order four pounds of crawfish, that is what they drop in the pot for you. The cooking part of crawfish doesn't take long and the orders come out in about the same amount of time as any other meal on the menu. They are using a double burner set up in the kitchen, which means they cannot cook a large amount at once.

As for the huts around Texarkana, here is what I know so far:

Hot Tails Crawfish hut will open on Thursday, December 29. "We are planning to start selling our hot and spicy crawfish by the end of this month," says Danny Womack, owner and operator of Hot Tails Crawfish. "Last year, we opened on New Year's Eve, which was the earliest we have ever opened but this year looks like it may even be a little earlier."
Johnny B's is a new restaurant in downtown Texarkana and co-owner Wendell Crossland told me they will start selling boiled crawfish once the 2017 season gets going good.
GG's Craw Tails plans to open earlier than previous seasons. "Last year we opened in February but this year we will open as soon as we can get our hands on crawfish," said Janet Green, owner. "As soon as they come out of the mud," she said.
Shamsie's Crawfish won't be at the old Jefferson Avenue and Arkansas Boulevard location because that building burned at the end of the 2016 season. "I'm still working on a new location," said Mohamed Shamsie. "I should have the building set up soon and will be ready to open by the middle of January."
Twisted Tails co-owner Jason Weaver said, "We will open the first weekend in February."

Mimi Campbell, Townsquare Media

I took my annual trip to Crawfish Palace in Haughton, Louisiana. last weekend. It is like my kick off to the season. I'm usually their first customer, hounding them with text messages and calls as I patiently wait for the word that the crawfish are on the way.

The size of crawfish usually varies at the beginning of the year from really small to big but bigger doesn't always mean better. I find that the smaller ones hold the seasoning flavor better than the large ones.

As a crawfish connoisseur, I have eaten thousands of pounds of boiled crawfish and I have written many stories about them. It is one of my favorite subjects. So far I have eaten approximately 30 pounds this month. I am the current champ of the Women's Crawfish Eating Contest at Mudbug Madness in Shreveport. My last recorded time is four minutes and 10 seconds to eat five pounds.

Mimi Campbell, Townsquare Media

Check out this video of me beating someone who challenged me to a crawfish-eating duel. It was a close race to the finish of three pounds.

Here are some of my stories from previous years: