So where you are from are they crayfish or crawfish? Where I live here in Merryland they are crayfish. In the deep south I know they are crawfish. Technically I am a southerner because I live about 3 miles south of the Mason Dixon line.  Just trying  to figure out where the name changes? Guessing it is in North Carolina south. Not sure about the midwest as I heard both names regularly used in Missouri. So please say your state and which name you use.

 

Allen 

Crayfish - chalk that up to my Aquatic Biology major in college...it's the proper common name.

 

Crawfish is a regional affection.

1 minute ago, MN Fisher said:

Crayfish - chalk that up to my Aquatic Biology major in college...it's the proper common name.

 

Crawfish is a regional affection.

 

Someone from UCLA is going to disagree. 

 

Allen 

4 minutes ago, Munkin said:

 

Someone from UCLA is going to disagree. 

 

Allen 

Well, they ARE from La-La land.

Just now, MN Fisher said:

Well, they ARE from La-La land.

UCLA = Upper Corner of Lower Alabama. 

 

Allen 

What if I told you they are Crawdads

They’re crawdads. Now do they live in a creek or a crick?

In a creek, but I also use to catch them in the ditch out in front of my house on bacon and string. 

Crawdads

You catch crawdads, you dissect crayfish, you eat crawfish, you fish with craws.

 

 

Being from Hawaii, I’ll represent the far West and say that we always called it Crayfish.

In upstate NY most of the time they’re called crayfish, and occasionally I’ll hear “crawdad”, but never “crawfish”. I usually just call them “craws”. 

I was raised in West Virginia, we called the craw dads. 
Does any body remember when Jethro was going to show the  hippies how to smoke craw dads.

As far as the east coast I've noticed I heard it more in south Virginia and definitely through NC. 

 

When I lived in NY it was crayfish predominantly but you did get crawdad and crawfish occasionally. 

When do they change from crayfish to crawfish?

That happens in the etouffee. 

Crawfish for me, but only because I started to fish the crawbug before I cared to learn anything about them. 

I grew up in Wisconsin and only knew crayfish.  Growing up, I always figured crawfish were something completely different...mainly because I couldn't imagine someone eating crayfish. ?

  In VA and NC, I've heard both, but probably more crawfish, especially in NC. 

   Another difference between Northern VA and NC is that there are more crappy fishermen down here.  I never knew anyone in WI that fished for crappys.  

 

In MA and CT as a kid they were crayfish, once I started to fish again in about my 40's they became craws.

Florida is a melting pot, so they are called all kinds of things.   Craw Dad is most common.   Most new comers have never seen one unless it was on a plate.  Bass had a ton of different names over the years too.  Old timers called them Green trout or just Trout for short.  This gets pretty confusing because we have a salt water trout as well.  In Canada, they call walleyes Pickerel.  A Pickerel in Florida is a small species of Pike called a Chain Pickerel. 

Crawfish – We have Cajun crawfish not crawdads or crayfish.

Maine

Crayfish...but we're all a little cray cray up here

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Munkin said:

So where you are from are they crayfish or crawfish? Where I live here in Merryland they are crayfish. In the deep south I know they are crawfish. Technically I am a southerner because I live about 3 miles south of the Mason Dixon line.  Just trying  to figure out where the name changes? Guessing it is in North Carolina south. Not sure about the midwest as I heard both names regularly used in Missouri. So please say your state and which name you use.

 

Allen 

Crayfish in MD. Crawfish in TX. Hard for me to change. 
 

No matter. I know my jimmies from sooks! ?

her pronoun is mud bug...

Craw just sounds better…..Crawdad, Crawfish for me.

 

 

Crayfish become crawfish around 3 months old about the same time a baby starts to crawl.