Anyone ever bought live crawfish from HEB or Fiesta? I have a boil this weekend and ordered through a wholesaler. Long story short, had some people get added to the list and now think I may be a bit short on bugs. Thinking about buying the rest from Fiesta/HEB since I don't need a reservation. Any guidance is appreciated, just curious on quality and size of what you have seen recently.

I usually always go through a wholesaler because the quality seems better and haven't bought from a grocery store in a while.

[This message has been edited by The Catfish (edited 3/15/2013 1:23p).]

Gotten them from HEB before and have never had a problem, but last weekend we could not even walk through the seafood department at the one in Vintage Park because it smelled like dead crawfish so bad.

I picked up some from the HEB on Bunker Hill last Sunday. They seemed small, but the nice thing was that instead of buying a whole bag, I could just pick out the ones I wanted and buy those (no dead ones). So, instead of a 30 lbs bag, I bought 2 8 lbs bags which was perfect for just a few people.

And this was my first time not buying from a wholesaler as well. They were $2.50/lb.

We've bought them from HEB in the past. Decent size, around $2.50/lb last year. Haven't tried them this year.

You people are nasty for eating that crap.

We boiled 74lbs from HEB last weekend. Very small. There were a few Booners in there, but overall very small. $2.49/LB.

Will be going back to a wholesaler again in the future.

Bump.

What's the seafood wholesaler in Kemah I see recommended a lot (for crawfish)? Searched but couldn't find it. TIA

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You people are nasty for eating that crap.

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Troll... off the thread.

We did a boil last weekend with HEB "50lb sack for $1.99/lb" special. Field run. I picked out about 5lbs of dead ones - maybe a tad more. They were truly field run - very muddy with lots of grass and even a small water snake. Like someone above said, mostly med/small with a few huge ones mixed in.

Next time, I'll pay the extra 70 cents a pound and go to a seafood/crawfish guy to get them.

Bought from Fiesta this past weekend and HEB in the past and never really disappointed. Could they be bigger, absolutely, but for convenience and price I won't complain.

What are your favorite and cheapest places to buy live crawfish in or around Houston?

Trying to price them out right now, but figured I would just ask the experts!

I happened to talk to a major regional crawfish supplier for a while last week, and from the time the live ones are trapped, pulled, bagged, shipped, and in the stores, it's less than 24 hours, generally. FDA has some limits on live crustaceans.

I boiled 95 lbs this weekend. Picked them up from Cajun Gourmet. $2.75/lb. I found maybe 5 dead ones in 3 full sacks. Very easy people to deal with pick up was easy and they took my reservation on Monday for a Saturday boil. They claim they drive them in from LA every single day.

Delayed follow up on this one: I did about 105 pounds the weekend I started this thread. 70 came from my wholesaler (Dups Cajun Warehouse in Humble) and 35 from Fiesta.

Dups were great as always...all alive and good size.

Fiesta's were OK. I had about 5% dead and they were pretty small. Worked out ok mixed in with the Dups though. They were cheaper (2.40/pound verse 2.75 at dups.)