The Magic Hour

I have a little and I stress little guide guilt when it comes to the crawdad molt. It's probably a catholic guilt thing but in time, I'll get over it and I'm sure my clients will too.
You see, when the temperature is just right(usually between 62 & 65 degrees) crayfish like to shed their exoskeleton in order to grow just a little larger. Their hard shell becomes soft in preparation for losing it and regrowing a new one. The soft shell becomes a grayish color - a tell tale sign that this hunk of caloric goodness can easily be eaten by a fish with a soft mouth. Add some teeth to a fish and we're in business!
The problem if you want to call it lies in the fact that the prime window coincides with lunch time. If you're concerned with eating a shore lunch and sitting your ass on a fold up camp chair, great. If your cocern is rockin' fish and usually big fish till' your arm is tired, this is not a window to miss.
For years, I told my clients about "the window" whenever we were fishing the Missouri or Lower Madison. I suggested we eat an early or late lunch so we would not miss the magic hours. I'm not a very big guy and food is really an after though when there is good fishing to be had.
I remember one exceptional molt when it seemed as though I couldn't tie crawdads on fast enough. I had my dudes fishing 1X leaders with a tandem meal of crawdads - something I rarely did. It was an obvious choice and clearly what the fish wanted and were eating. When we reached the take out at 6:30 I asked my clients if they were hungry for lunch yet?
Funny how things just slip away when you're slaying big angry Brown's and fat Rainbow's. I apologized for missing lunch and the one client turned to me and said "CK shut it, that was hands down the best day of fishing I've ever had and one that might never be repeated".