In Texas it’s a crawdad....freshwater lobsterish crustacean. Salt water notsomuch...
Crawdads weren't exactly known in Los Angeles, my home town.
(My age is showing with this one:)
In a BEVERLY HILLBILLES episode, Granny was facing arrest with some hippies for hunting crawdads.
She explained to the police officers how she enjoyed smoking crawdads.
"But first I need a little pot," she added.
To her shock, the officers picked her up and threw her into the paddy wagon.