I went crawfishing for the first time with Crayster and here’s what I learned

IDAHO FALLS — The EastIdahoNews.com team is highlighting different jobs in our area and every Monday for the next several weeks, we’ll be workin’ it in a variety of professions.

A few months ago I met Jerry Struhs at a farmers market in Ammon. He, along with Mike Burrell, Chad Wheeler and Jake Burrell, own Crayster, a local business based in Idaho Falls.

Crayster builds and sells professional-grade crawfishing gear. Most of the business is online, but they sell equipment inside Guns N’ Gear.

Crawfish, also known as crayfish or crawdads, are found throughout Idaho. They look like small lobsters and live in the water. Crawfishing season is typically July, August and September.

“It is a creature in the river, and I never really knew that they even existed,” Struhs said. “Crawfishing just became a passion and love.”

I decided to give crawfishing a try so Struhs and I met at South Tourist Park by the Snake River one morning in September. He told me that MILLIONS of crawfish are in the river so we hopped in his boat to see what we could find. Then Struhs and Wheeler told me how to prepare the crawfish for eating by using delicious creole spices, corn, potatoes and sausage.

Watch my experience crawfishing in the video player above and you can see different hacks and tricks on Crayster’s YouTube channel. Some of their videos have millions of views.