The First Drop

We put our traps in on Saturday.

8 beautiful traps (would have been 10 if we could have fit that many on the boat,  our non-commercial license allows us 5 each).  we stuffed the bait bags full of the heads of norwegian salmon and dropped the pots into the waters of casco bay right outside portland maine (we would have taken them farther afield if we could have gotten out farther before the 4 pm cerfew on lobstering).

We may have squabbled about our buoy colors, buoy design; about how much line to put to put on the traps; about how to tie a figure eight; how much lobster lingo we really needed to put to memory; and some other things too.

BUT in the end, it was a successful day.  A very successful day. A triumph, a new beginning.

Equipment

Traps: One of the first stages in getting our game in order was to track down the needed equipment without breaking the bank. Enter craigslist.org. I was able to find 5 traps from a “retiring” non commercial lobsterman in Freeport, Maine back in the late fall. They were a little rough, but the price was right, and so I scooped them up. Earlier this spring, I was able to pick up an additional 5 traps for R, also via craigslist.org, from a commercial lobsterman out of Boothbay Harbor looking to upgrade all of his 3 foot traps to 4 footers (Sidenote: because we’re hand-hauling, we needed to buy the shorter, less productive? but lighter weight 3 foot traps). Most all of them needed a little work, and with a good amount of cursing and sweating, they were made legal over the course of two afternoons.

Other stuff we tracked down:

• Neutrally buoyant line: picked up remnant “hanks” from our friendly local commercial fishing store. Needs to be sinking or neutrally buoy and to protect marine mammals against entanglement.
• Weak Links: buoys attached to the line, or warp, via a weak link with a 600 lb breaking strength, again to protect marine mammals against entanglement.
• Hog Rings: See the Terms of Art page for more on this subject.
• Trap Runners: In several instances,  needed to replace the runners that run the length of the traps. This was actually a big pain in the a$$. The runners protect the lobster’s claws somehow, although I don’t understand exactly how. Is it so when you pick up the trap and set it down on the deck of the boat, if the lobsters claws are poking through the wire cage, the runner creates some space so the weight of the trap doesn’t crush them? If anyone knows, please post in the comments section below.

Painting the Buoys

I spent Saturday morning and afternoon painting my buoys.  We need to do 6 each, one for each of 5 traps and a 6th to adorn the bow of the boat when hauling.

Originally, we had thought to do some complex design pattern, handpainting them to look like seals, or maybe spray some cool stencils on them.

Ultimately, we opted against it.  Because A) the paint costs a ton of money, like $15 a can; and B) we thought real commercial lobstermen might be annoyed and cut our lines.

In the end, A.’s buoys and my buoys use the same colors, but the designs are slightly different. The idea is that by having them slightly varied, this will allow us to compete by determining whose traps are whose and recording who hauls what catch.

I think A.’s buoys look better than mine, which sort of bothers me, I’ll be honest.  But so it goes.  I got bored of my pattern half way through the job, and started painting variations on the theme.

They’re all slightly reminiscent of clown shoes, I think.