I've got relatives spread all over southern Louisiana, from Rayne, Lafayete. New Iberia, New Orleans, etc. but I was born and raised in Shreveport where my parents had moved so I guess you could call me a Yankee Cajun. I haven't been crawfishing or crabing in years.
The first time my dad took me down south I was about 12 or 13 years old. My dad rented 2 perots, one for us and one for the catch. We left my uncle's weeeell before dawn and were on the bayous before the sun came up. We had about a hundred folding 2' square nets. we'd drop half of em, move down the bayou and drop the other half (all with chicken guts and bologna tied to em), then come back and pick up the first half. My dad got tired of getting out of the perot to untange nets caught on cypress knees so he had me get out start doing it. I'm on my 4th trip out fighting with one badly tangled net when a water moccasin passes right between my arms. I did the first thing that came to mind.....scream like a girl and grab the paddle from the side of the perot (knocking our lunch and drinks into the water) and started beating the crap out of the water. He left the scene. We stayed out for a few more hours and by this time I'm freakin' starving. My dad get's turned around trying to make it back to the perot camp when I smell cooking. A little way up the bayou we ended up in we find another perot camp, this one with a 300lb cajun cooking gumbo by the edge of the dock. We tie off, dad get's directions back to our original bayou and the cajun offers us lunch. My dad and him starts talking in French (which I didn't understand but didn't care because I've now got food). All of a sudden the two of em start laughing.
My dad says, "son, how's the gumbo?"
Where I replied, "excellent!"
My dad then asks me, "What all's in it?"
At this point I dig through what I'm eating and reply, "crawfish, shrimp, crab and I think squirrel".
The two start laughing and the cajun says, "Cher, that ain't no **** squirrel....that's swamp rat!"
My dad had pointed out nutrea going into and out of the water all morning and remembering this I then threw up my socks off the edge of the dock. We had a crab and crawfish boil the next day but for some reason I couln't find my appetite.