www.kellys-stuff.com

Launch day in Jonesboro. Taken at the Jonesboro Custom Finish Shop right after competition.

Catching the Lobsters

Basically catching lobsters consists of putting bait in the traps and putting the traps in the water. It is pretty much that simple as long as you put them in the right places. It seems that the bays and rivers are covered with buoys in the early summer but in reality the majority of the buoys are gathered at certain depths and on certain types of bottom.

I usually set way up in the shallow grassy areas at first or in the rock piles where the kelp grows at first although I usually put some traps in the small holes or deep spots in the inner bay and mouth of the river. This is a short “spurt” and after a very few hauls I move to deeper water and eventually outside most islands.

The preferred bait is redfish. Seals don’t like it and it the bait of choice for many fishermen. Pogies come in second although some prefer herring. Pogies have the advantage that they don’t need to be put in a bait bag but most will agree that they do not fish as well as the

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E-mail: kelly@kellys-stuff.com

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other baits. They do cost more than herring and less than redfish. If I am going out alone I often use a combination of redfish and pogies so I don’t have to mess with filling bait bags. Using bait bags does use up a good amount of time.

I don’t think any fisherman minds banding lobsters but if your catching a lot of lobsters it takes long enough to band them so that you will not get a large amount of traps hauled. Every minute you aren’t running the hauler is one minute you aren’t getting a trap to the boat. Even the time running from trap to trap uses up a good amount of time not to mention putting bait on the bait needles or bait irons use to put the bait in the traps.

 

The green trays in the foreground show a bait iron with pogies and redfish. On the stern are the last 3 traps s from a 7 trap stringer that is being set back after hauling and baiting. Note that there are 3 lines going to the stern, as this line feeds out each preceding trap drags the next one out. This continues all day.