MORGANZA - Crawfish season in Louisiana is off to a racing start, but opening the Morganza Spillway could change that.

Much of the crawfish that Louisianians have devoured over the past few weeks have come from ponds. When the Army Corps of Engineers decides to open the spillway, many of those ponds will be flooded out.

"It'll ruin the whole season for those fishermen," Tim LeBlanc, owner of LeBlanc's Processing, said. "All of the people that farm raise them will be devastated because they wont be able to fish this year."

Normally, wild river crawfish aren't caught until March, but the flooding could give commercial fishermen an early start.

"What's happening now is, we are getting a very early rise in January, which will be very prosperous for crawfishermen because they will get to fish a lot earlier."

LeBlanc says he expected this to be a bountiful year for commercial fishermen, but the season will be over for those who raise crawfish in the ponds.

Either way, Louisiana's delicacy will still be available this year.

********************************

Follow the author of this story on Twitter @MVinsanau