Many places the waterways contain the highly edible crustacean know as the crawdad, crayfish, or mudbug. As a survival food these tasty critters would be pretty welcome.

Usually in the tidal waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the presence of crawdads is given away by their burrow holes. Usually these holes are not too deep and a limber forked stick worked down in the hole flushes an angry critter out - grab quick!

Sometimes, like today for reasons I do not understand, you also see "crwadad castles" of mud piled up over a shallow burrow. Quickly moving the castle to one side often reveals a critter raising its claws on the defense ripe for the plucking.

With time and materials to create them, various baited crawdad traps can work well if placed if slower water near riprap, jumbled rocks, or weed beds.

What crawdad lore can you share?