Lobsterin'

Maine is known for a lot of things. Blueberries, fishin’, and huntin’ mostly. However, one of Maine’s largest industries is Lobstering, or “Catchin’ some bugs” if you will. Lobstering is not only an occupation but for many it is a way of life. We catch the lobsters to put on the plates of many people, rich or poor. Lots of people know that Maine is known for it’s lobsters but what many don’t know, is how it’s done.

Firstly, you need a boat. This is the most important aspect because without the boat, you’d have to catch the lobsters by hand, which is illegal. Don’t do this. The boat doesn’t have to be too big, most boats are roughly 15-20 feet in length but this doesn’t matter much. The only thing it really counts for is how many traps you can carry at one time. Which brings me to the list items you will need. Lobster traps. Can’t really catch much without these. You will also need a lot of rope, some buoys with your own personal color (so you know which one’s are yours), a box to store your bait, as well as a box or bucket that can be filled with water to store the lobsters,  a GPS, a depth finder (To figure out the depth of the water), and a gaft. A gaft is a long pole with a hook at the end to snag the buoy so you can pull the traps aboard.

Now, to begin your journey of becoming a lobsterman or lobsterwoman, you need to get your gear ready. Which means measuring out your lengths of rope, tying the said rope to the traps and to the buoys. Pretty simple right? Wrong. You’re going to want to plot out your points of interest to set out your traps or “gear”. Go to these locations and find out how deep the water is in to find out how much rope you really need. This is where the depth finder comes in handy. You look to it and record the depth in fathoms (1 fathom = ~6ft.) Once you find the pristine spots, plot them on your GPS so you can find them later. Then when you have finished all of that, you get the gear ready. The next step is very simple, put all of your gear in the back of your truck and drive it to your boat and load it all up.

Once you got your gear all loaded up, you gotta buy your bait. Most people use herring. Herring are a small little bait fish that lobsters love to eat. The bait is sold by the bushel, which is about 34 pints. Buy just enough to fill the bait box. If you don’t use all of the bait that day, you’ll need to buy salt as well to help preserve the fish so they don’t rot. Next, head out to the locations you plotted on the GPS. Once you get to them, you fill the traps with bait. To do this you must fill the little bags (usually made of a plastic type twine) with your bait and then hang the bait bags in the traps. After that is done, you push the trap into the water. Congratulations, you have set your gear. Now time to wait, just sit back and relax for about a week to let the lobsters find their meal.

Once that week has past, you gotta get up and go make some money. At this point you will need more items, some crates, a bucket of lobster bands, a lobster measurer, and a lobster bander. Once you have those get on the boat and go buy some more bait to refill the bait bags, and maybe refuel a little bit then head to your GPS locations. Once you get to one you’ll need to slow down your boat, pull up next to the buoy, stop the boat, ready your gaft, pull the buoy and rope aboard and put the rope into the “Pot hauler.” The pot hauler is a hydraulic powered pulley system that will pull the heavy trap out of the water with ease.

Once you get the trap on the boat, you set it on the side railing closest to you and open it. Grab as many lobsters as you can and throw them in one of the crates. Get rid of any other creature that decided to live in the trap, then remove the bait bag. Empty the remaining bones and decaying fish and refill it and put it back into the trap. Once this has been completed, close up the trap and set it back overboard close to where it was before.

Now you have to measure the lobsters to make sure they or of legal length. To do this you use the lobster measurer. This small little metal tool has little points on it to tell you whether the lobster is of legal, select (bigger more expensive lobster), or oversized which are illegal to sell. Which ever ones are legal, you must then check the sex. Males are legal and females are illegal if they have a notch in their tail. To check the sex of them you must flip the lobster over and look at the base of the tail. There will be two little spider-leg looking things. You have to feel them to determine the sex. If they are hard, it is a male, if soft it’s a female. The notches, if any, are located on the end of the tail, they will be triangularly shaped. Once the lobsters are sexed and banded, throw em in the tank and head to the next buoy. You’ve got a long day ahead of you.