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Crawfish lovers often make the trek to Lake Conroe in hopes of finding some mudbugs at Crawfish Nick's Lake Conroe restaurant. 

Fortunately Spring resident Nick Saturdaykar was able get his hands on two sacks the night before heavy rains rolled through the region

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"Already gone through 20 pounds in 30 minutes," shouted cook Robert Findley as he started to boil more pounds of crawfish Wednesday evening.

The restaurant would sell out of crawfish in 30 minutes later, something Manager Sheila Hamilton says would not happen if there was an abundance of crawfish this season. 

"It usually isn't this chaotic when we fist open," Hamilton said. "This is a little different. I've seen people that don't normally come here. They just came cause we had crawfish." 

With many restaurants seeing a low supply, Montgomery County residents have turned to the "Crawfish Critic" for updates on where they can find crawfish.

"Usually this time of the year, I'm bringing back 50 to 80 sacks to sell," Saturdaykar said, noting he drives 700 miles to Louisiana to pick up crawfish from farmers. "I'm bringing back six or seven sacks. That's how bad it is."

And with a name like Crawfish Nick, mudbug lovers go to his restaurant only looking for one thing — crawfish. 

"If we don't have crawfish, nobody's coming through the door," Saturdaykar said. "And we have a full menu. We're doing the snow crab special. We're doing the 'all-you-can-eat's, we're doing platters...as a restaurant, I don't know what direction to go. I got labor to pay, I got rent to pay. That doesn't stop because we had a freeze or had a rainy day." 

Crawfish Nick's Lake Conroe has been open since 2022, but Saturdaykar has been selling crawfish since the 1990s. 

Saturdaykar started selling crawfish out of his house in 1995, Hamilton said. People would come to him and ask if he could cater or provide sacks of crawfish for them — earning him the nickname "Crawfish Nick." 

In 2016, Saturdaykar opened Crawfish Nick's Seafood off Louetta Road in Spring, where he would sell sacks of live crawfish. On a typical Saturday or Sunday, there can be an hour line, Hamilton said. 

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"Business really exploded up there, that's for sure," Hamilton said, noting that the wholesale store sells to other restaurants in the area. 

Eventually, Saturdaykar said he wanted to open up a restaurant where people in the community could go and hang out, while also providing jobs for his employees during the "off-season," instead of having them search for other jobs until it's crawfish season again. 

"I got all these people that worked hard all season long, and then at the end of crawfish season, they have to go look for another job," Saturdaykar said. "And some of them come back and some of them don't. And after three years, I can't keep going back and fourth. So I'm like, well if you open a restaurant, maybe we can put the staff to work over there and manage it that way." 

Crawfish Nick's Lake Conroe opened in 2022, at the end of crawfish season, Saturdaykar said. The restaurant serves burgers, boudin, gumbo, tacos and, of course, crawfish. 

The first year since its opening, Saturdaykar was unable to fill staffing positions, he said. And then a drought hit, causing the shortage of crawfish, he said. 

"Anybody that does crawfish is going to be struggling this year," Saturdaykar said. "Everybody's just trying, to the point where we're trying to just survive. What do we need to do in order to get more business through the door, is the question."

Officials say this year's production of crawfish will be delayed because of the dry conditions at the beginning of the fall. When the soil is too dry, crawfish burrows can crack and dry out, or crawfish have trouble coming out of their burrows because of the dry conditions — causing crawfish to die. 

The recent cold snap could also slow the crawfish from eating and growing, officials said.