Questioning the New Bait Strategy

Today’s haul of ZERO keepers was sub-par by any standard, and especially so given our haul on 7/20. This could be on account of several factors: a) increased traps in the area; b) weather factors (consistent rain); or c) bait.

For the time being, it appears the problem was our bait. In short order, we’ve come to question our new bait strategy. Previously, we’d bought a 10 gallon bucket of salted herring, and used it and fresh-caught mackerel to top off the old bait.  But the salted herring had been sitting unrefrigerated in the basement for several days, and we hadn’t been very aggressive about catching fresh mackerel.

It seems that lobsters, with all the talk of their being bottom feeders and their nickname (“the cockroaches of the sea”), are pretty picky eaters. Our strategy of simply “freshening up” the existing bait bags with a few new fish doesn’t seem to be working.

This leaves us with two choices: buying bait regularly, or fishing harder for mackerel on each outing. Here, B reflects on the day’s outing, contemplates the solution, and admires a juvenile lobster:

B’s final trap of the day was baited exclusively with fresh mackerel, although neither of us believes this gives us a big enough “sample size” to effectively evaluate this idea.