Lake Pontchartrain is crawling with crabs again, and it has the January opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway to thank, according to a crab distributor whose factory is located on the lake's north shore.
Gary Bauer, owner of Pontchartrain Blue Crab in Slidell, said crab production was abysmal in Lake Pontchartrain for three straight years, but it's rebounded in 2016.
"When I fished for a living, when the spillway was open, you knew you were going to have crabs for the next year or two," he said. "The old-timers consider that fresh layer of silt to be like fertilizer."
A New Orleans East native, Bauer crabbed from 1979 through 1994, and opened his factory in 1999.
He said both the quality and quantity of crabs have been better this year.
