Scuba diving for crayfish is a hilarious underwater adventure

A stream of bubbles hissed from my face mask and gurgled to the surface of the lake 30 feet above me.

I was bathed in turquoise light as I descended in my scuba gear to the bottom of McGregor Lake. Then I saw them. Greyish-green, they hulked along the bottom of the sandy lake like wandering soldiers.

I bled a little more air from my scuba vest, allowing me to descend to within about a foot of the crayfish. Then they were mine.

I pinched them behind the shoulders and placed them in my mesh bag dangling behind me. Other crayfish scurried away, betraying their presence. With a slight kick of my swim fin, I closed the distance between them and me, and with gloved hand captured two in one swipe. I can get about 55 minutes of air out of my scuba tank. And in that amount of time I can hunt and collect about seven pounds of crawdads.

Our annual scuba excursions to McGregor Lake always gives us a meal. Crayfish, Montana’s version of lobster, are freshwater dandies that provide excellent fare cooked in boiling water over a campfire.

McGregor Lake is one of northwest Montana’s best scuba diving destinations. It has excellent visibility, good structure to explore, and a vibrant aquatic life in the form of crayfish.

At the surface, our dive buddies and I gather with our bounty and kick back to shore, where a roaring campfire awaits.

We place the craws on ice until our boil is seasoned just right. Corn on the cob is placed in the fire.

Then when it’s time, we place handfuls of the critters into the boil for three minutes.

A meal of crawfish tails and claw meat is complemented with corn, potatoes and hilarious memories of being a freshwater angler on what we call “Montana’s Deadliest Catch.”