BELTON, Texas — Crawfish season may be starting late for Central Texas restaurants — the catch is down big time this year.
For Rusty Shells Seafood in Belton owner Chris Perez, crawfish season is the best time of the year.
Perez said he typically starts purchasing catches starting as early as November through early December. This year, he says it won't be until after Christmas.
"I was hoping we'd have Christmas dinner with crawfish," Perez said.
Driving long hours, Perez brings in catches from Louisiana to Central Texas.
"I know last year, we were moving about 3,000 pounds a week," Perez said.
Striving to bring Cajun cooking to his customers, Perez says this upcoming crawfish season will likely look different.
"Due to this last drought over summertime, some of the farms weren't able to get water to the farms," Perez said.
With the recent drought, little to no rainfall and cold weather in the south, crawfish are having trouble growing and surviving.
Perez has been in contact with multiple farmers who found they are pulling in low numbers of crawfish with their traps.
That means prices for crawfish are likely going to be high until Easter.
Perez says a live sack is usually between $3.50 to $4 a pound, but now they can reach up to $7 a pound.
"The prices are definitely going to be high coming out of the gate," Perez said.
The crawfish sizes won't look as big either.
Perez says he understands Texans care about the size of the crawfish, but small to medium-sized ones are what they are going to be getting the first couple of months of the year.
"People don't realize the more small-medium mix, you get more for your money," Perez added. "It's going to be probably three and a half-four ounces per pound of tail meat out of that pound of crawfish versus the big crawfish, it's hard to get flavor in and then you only get three ounces of meat. You know it's more of the softer the shell, the better the flavor."
Customers can expect higher prices and different sizes across the state, but Perez wants people to know one thing.
"Once we bring it in here, I'm going to try to make it as reasonable as possible," Perez said.
Rusty Shells Seafood is located at 1414 A E. 6th Ave in Belton and used to be a food trailer.
They are open every day except Monday.
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