all right folks I just arrived at really a really cool place that uh I'm I'm happy to finally show yall I've been excited to come down and see it for a little while now and I'm finally here look how beautiful this place is it's a ranch down here in plaman Parish Louisiana we're on the East Bank of the Mississippi River in plaman Parish and this is a working cattle ranch and Crawfish Farm that's right and these folks they have two 9 acre crawf fish ponds and unfortunately like most folks they've been set back a little bit by the drought that occurred in 2023 so that drought uh killed a lot of crawfish right the ground dried up got so hot the Crawfish couldn't stay moist while they were burrowed down and unfortunately a lot of them died so they're set back a little bit but we're here today to go ahead and still run one of his crawfish ponds and catch some crawfish but also want us to tell y'all they have lodging here so if you want to come fishing down here in East Blackman's Parish they've got lodging they also sell farm raised cattle beef that's right you could order a whole cow half cow Parts whatever it is that you want so I'm going have all the info and I I really would love y'all just to come see this place honestly take a drive down come see him here at Fanny Ranch that's the name of it and meet Mr Steve meet Michelle it's just a really cool place to visit and maybe he'll even take you out on his crawfish boat let's go check it [Music] out okay all right folks so y'all normally see us in a god devil having fun doing activities but this is something very very new look at that now these are popular uh really most big working crawfish ponds use some version of this it's basically driven by Hydraulics and a wheel and uh he can even drive it over the levies he's got it set up so that he can do it all by himself driven with his feet and then you're able to work with your hands sort your crawfish pick up your traps so I'm kind of this is cool I've never been in one let's go check it out what do you plant in here for the Crawfish just is all natural grass I just during the off seon at the end of May when we drain the ponds I'll come in and Bush Hog it this used to be a cow c so we Bush it's Fenty hard two weeks after I drained it so we come in um bush hog it and then I'll probably cut it two more times during the summer and then around the middle to end of July I just let it grow up got it'll get to a good height so that in October when we flooded I usually have a good stand of grass in me so this is all just a natural Branch got we got Matthew helping us out today he's hanging out look at that folks beautiful place to be all right first trp y'all we don't stop there they are that's that red gold see he's got enough time to get to the next one to go ahead and bait get it ready stick it Pi the next one up now are any of these last year's cish Bill not really this one might be the bigger one that one is see that's a big a big male I got you look at these they're young and green small claws that's all still young right they running behind behind this sh right right don't don't really have many profet with big flaws on still young yeah see like that one's probably last year yeah that's an older Prof that's an older maale right [Applause] [Applause] I mean look at this place y'all got 100y old oak trees hanging out next to a crawfish pond you really need to come check it out down here they got a lot of cool stuff to [Music] see so the smaller ones will go through just like that one did and then they just kind of naturally work their way on out ones that don't fall through make the sack wow there we go all right so he said the next two rows are the best for whatever reason and he ain't lying so far that's going to make us sa real quick there we go nice message there go look at a little alligator y'all hey buddy hey buddy this yeah right got he already got it all right folks we're on our last two rows now I'm going to try my hand at driving the Crawfish boat I've never done this before I picked up traps of course but never driven and picked up so y'all wish me luck let's try it out all right so this is what forward neutral and reverse okay so forward neutral reverse Yeah the more you move it forward the faster go you just want to move it forward and get at a good Pace where you're comfortable right then you put your feet on that and that controls your steering okay your bait right here that's kind of like a airboat type steering okay I see left and right yeah oh okay whichever way you push that's which way your bow is going to go all right it's probably going to be like walking and chewing gum for a little while here yeah all right this one needs to be picked up okay all right nice tra all right then always turn the other way turn them the other way like that okay easier for me how many beat two okay if there's a big piece in here like that I throw it back okay all right right okay there we [Music] [Music] go this is It's Tricky there we go all right there we go all right we try to get straight I can't get that speed right either there we go there we go set push them down they got to be hard on all [Music] right getting way off my track here way off my track all right take get back in the row that's it out going back down the W turn back got you all right the lock going on here folks but we're going to get it we motivated by tasty crawfish oh I got a bait I got a [Music] bait oh goodness all right all [Music] right all right way come on baby all right this one's ready all right wo that's the speed right there huh all right let's see come on baby see if I can get one successful exchange then I'll turn it back over to the captain all right stuck hard pulled up I'm already looking at my next trap before a steering goes empty it got to get closer to that trap think I can get it think I can get it folks all right and we want a sick hard start steering back all right that should we should be able to clear it there all right all right there might be a little bit left to be desired on my crawfish boat driving skills but hey look I'm a first timer I was able to get a few but really the trick is to to kind of remember everything all at once like all right I'm going to hold my line now I got to pull now I got to bait so it's just quite a few things to remember that just comes with muscle memory right that's why Mr Steve so efficient at it so I'm going to turn it back over to him we're going to get these rows finished out and see how many cfish we actually got all right folks we got really that sack is almost full so we'll have probably about a sack and a half when it's all said and done that's really not bad for 45 minutes all right so what we doing here all right we're just going to wash them off um and get these guys ready to go the market not bad really that's a great size not too big not too smallish real meaty Tails right they're loaded with fat right now real healthy [Music] all right well you saw how we catch them now we got to go see a special place my buddy stale cracker the man himself is putting on a big old Crawfish cook off I've been invited to be a judge so let's get our butts over there and get to eating I'm starving myself so I got plenty of room so let's get over there [Music] it is man all right y'all wow it is early on the Saturday here in the spring I'm down here at the Cajun twostep Fest there's a Crawfish cook off there's man they got stuff to drink they got stuff to eat supposed to be like 7,000 people here and this is all put on by none other than himself the stale cracker the money dude man in the kitchen hitting stuff with a paddle you know he's a great great representative of Louisiana culture kind of brings us to the world you know he's on Tik Tok he's on YouTube you name it you you can find that guy pretty easily and so what he decided to do was have this big Crawfish cook off and I believe there's about 30 teams here today 7,000 people I think he said 10 they got 10,000 lbs of Craw fish for the teams to cook so everyone's going to do their little unique Twist on it and I've been asked because my love of food and cooking to be a judge so that's why I'm here today I can't wait to see what all these folks are doing uh I got to kind of keep quiet as I'm interacting with the teams about being a judge so I'm just going to kind of approach it as a guy making a video but uh I'm looking forward to it such a special place I can't wait to see a lot of the folks who watch our videos out here kids are here everybody's having a good time so let's just get right into it and see what they got going on how y'all feeling y'all feeling good think you got this today abely ready I love the confidence I love the confidence what's the name of y'all team Royal boilers look you can shoot me there you go let me do something they rather look at y'all anyway no offense I know I'm cute that's right got got that pineapple looking up wow look at that right there you think that's going to be the winner right there the pineapple that's money that's money money here comes trouble what's your secret ingredient bro uh a old boot all right all right like with the sweat of the salt right the salt of the sweat that's what makes it yeah old boot stick it in there or or you you put it in in like the little baggie first the little baggie okay yeah that way you don't get all that cool flavor it gives it a kick that's right there you go y'all they the great he puts a old boot in his crawfish ball wish him today I think he's got this I think he's got this all right what's the name of y'all team uh the boot leers the boot leers Che them out there it is I love that my wife made that for me all right what am I smelling in there I feel like I smell something a little different n can't say I can't say man it smells good though oh look at the hot dog boy hell yeah you want one yeah I'll try [Music] one that's good all right what's the name of your uh Team the Bluff Creek boy and what with Bluff Creek where is that that's about 30 mi from here it's just north of Clinton y all catch crawfish in Bluff Creek oh no we don't catch them in crawfish we don't catch them in Bluff Creek but we C them in Bluff Creek there you go well let's see them let's see them babye all right hold on let me get on this side all right oh my goodness go there they go around love Greek boys good luck to y'all all right go ahead all right what you doing here purging purging cleaning a crawfish and what's the secret to that how do you how do you do that just using water just using water used to are they are they ready are they finished no they're ready to go in the pot they're ready to go in the pot now uh-oh what you got there I got me that Cracker and you got the Sater you got to have your sat got a mushroom wow got a had a real lemon beautiful what's the name of your team the name of our team is spider web spider spider is my husband and when I met cracker he said oh you the web that got spider so we're spider web I love that thank you we from right here in Kentwood all right dropping them in y'all what's the name of this team KB's cish Barn KB Do you have a crawfish Barn we do not no we have a little Shack though they even better where's it at Lake Arthur Louisiana all right go see them at the Crawfish Barn Shack y KBS look forward to trying it man beautiful looking craw woo look at that pineapple what's the name of the team back backyard bullshitters back of the sh oh my [Music] goodness I love it I love it we got uh-oh yeah oh I knew that I knew she was going to be the ball who else we got the hell Riser come on mama get in here your we'll get you I'll come I'll come to you keep y'all on bu huh bro I love it man wow all right let's see what you got oh that's a beautiful pot is that stainless it is man y'all got the nice one what's the name of the team Southern Creek Southern Creek concrete concrete company yep there you go concrete well the plan right there should be concretely good I I would imagine good luck to y'all boys man appreciate it have a good one the name of y'all's team G-spot yeah y y'all feeling good oh yeah heck yeah good luck to y'all looks good nice touch all right what we got here jaman Skidmore man with flavor saers all the flavor in the pot what's the secret ingredient I can't tell you I cannot tell you that one I cannot tell you that one man it smells good man appreciate it man wow oh yeah look at that and y'all went all crawfish all crawfish none of that extra none of that extra stuff I love that it take away you you and me food you B that on a side in another pot yeah right right cor potato sauce put that on another pot I love that but the Crawfish they get all the seasoning out of one F good luck to y'all man appreciate you man all right show them what you got you got s Dior Cofe what's the secret ingredient no that's a secret ingredient that's always a secret ingredient where y'all from Houston Texas wow beautiful craw fit what's the name of y'all's team gry's cage and ball look at that absolutely we got our little things wow is gry here I got to go meet gry let's go see gry say hello we're going to put you on video gry how you doing all right how are you how are you we doing good man got some crawfish in there put some pring in it getting ready to go wow what's your secret ingredient gry huh the got to represent guys and what is do guys what is that my last name wow Y is that a Cajun last name I love that how do you say it here all right Christian tell us about Seca and why that was kind of necessary and what y'all hope that's going to bring to the table for stuff like this yes sir so it's the southern crawfish Cookoff Association I uh approached uh Mr Stell cracker about it and he loved the idea and uh so essentially what we're doing is just like a Barbecue Cookoff sanction League we're sanctioning cookoffs from Texas all the way to Florida um you know Big Goal for us is just to have standardized judging uh to where you know you have so many cook teams that complain about certain cookoffs because they feel like it wasn't done the right way you could have been rigged things like that we take all that out of the equation and uh we run these uh these competitions blind um you know we do it the right way it's where all the teams can have confidence in it and uh in the cookoffs have somebody say hey no they did it the right way and and so it's good for both parties uh they're going to earn points so like a big event like this has 55 teams you come in first place you're going to get a ton of points and it's season points now yeah and the top 100 teams that uh get the most points every season are going to be invited to compete in the largest crawfish Cookoff in the world hosted right here in Louisiana with the Seca it's going to be the Crawfish the Seca super boil championships and uh we're going to do it every year 100 best teams competing to see who's the world champion and so those teams throughout the season going to earn those points the first one's going to be in 2025 so follow our Facebook page Southern crawfish Cookoff Association uh for all the fun we'll have the website up soon you'll be able to see all the live rankings of all the uh of all the teams where they how many points they've accumulated what competitions are coming up all that fun stuff so put them on your train there get [Music] let me get one more small one there them small ones hold FL thank you yeah that's just for your Tails all right y'all so all the judges are doing three all the judges are doing three this is just one team right here so we have to test this and then we're going to write about it all right y'all first team first crawfish of the day I don't know if I want to do the head first or not honestly let's go head first so we're not supposed to like comment on how much we like it or don't like it while we're trying it as to not influence the other judges so I can't be like oh this is so good so you won't hear me say very much while I'm eating but maybe I'll put some titles or something and let you know what I'm [Music] [Music] thinking now when you guys are finished if you mind just at least putting your pins down [Music] all right so they're collecting sheets so that sheet has two teams on it uh they're collecting all the sheets and we can't go back and change anything once you write it all right go ahead write your names at the top of the uh next page and then we start a new sheet you only have to write your name there your categories [Music] y we cleaning it through behind the house like the old man's got this one I call for y'all this morning I go slipping in there set up start calling here come three hands gobblers behind us and the H bust and they go stop all right y'all I'm going to do a quick check in cuz we're running through this really quickly uh it's hard to explain there's so many factors that go into getting all these categories High and uh I'm sure the teams are trying their best but we're really rushing through this stuff so I can't keep yall too updated I got to grab some crawfish right now actually you know with this many teams we have to be kind of really quick so we eat them real quick we grade them real quick and then we move on so bear with us give them head detail all right we're a little bit more than halfway through here and we're still trying everybody's kind of we're definitely full I don't think anybody's still hungry but you're only taking a couple you know just enough to try them papers are going in that's it I'm sure cracker can make us s daer back there somewhere [Music] bab everybody's everybody's got bellies full we're going to go get something to drink there it is y'all 2024 the judges at the twostep fest's can't wait to see what happens all right so tell us a little bit about the twostep Fest why you started it and and what can we look forward to in the future well last year we started for a grand opening we just said hey let's throw a bucket out there and get it done you know 5,000 people showed up so I said let's do the second annual let's get more crawfish better bands we opened up the land dude I think we had I think at last count with 7500 people were here what a blast 60 teams competing but not just competing the to competing for the 2025 Grand Champion crawfish ball which has never been done before so we're bringing the pain it's about the people everybody getting together over a crawfish dude so it's Louisiana promoting the brand and it's straight money dude wo we had fun the day boy wo did y'all run into any challenges like we've heard about this year with crawfish being hard to find it's now that were y'all able to kind of get what y'all needed or was it it was tough uh it were expensive but you know I was the type of guy that said no matter what what happens we having the festival even if each team only bought half a sack we're going to get together and have a great time and like I said I think we end up balling uh like 1,700 lb of crawfish today so it was a good uh no 177,000 lbs of crawfish my bad started off with 10,000 we ran out of that and we got old hole in the wall Jacob Landry to come with another truck supplied us up we good to go for the rest of the night as a party and everybody's having fun it's a great great thing that I like is experiencing everybody trying fish from the first time we got people from Canada Ohio South Florida South Africa it is awesome and I enjoy it thank y'all so much all right y'all well I had a great time you got to see it 177,000 lbs of crawfish got bald here if you want to come to this next time I know you missed it this time but stay tuned to his social media channels I'll help push it next year so stay tuned we're going to have it again probably what about next April or so trying to keep it the same time next year so so next spring so keep it start looking around in the spring if you want to come to this I highly highly recommend it you're going to have a good time but that on the cracker but look I want to thank you for being a judge dude check out his channel outside the levy dude that's right huh that's right cracker dude that's money thank y'all all right we'll see y'all on the next one
