A How To on Lobster Fishing

There are many different ways to lobster from region to region, district to district. The one I’m going to tell you about is in LFA 34 Sou’ West Nova. It starts from the last Monday in November to the last day of May, but the work to get ready starts much earlier in the fall or late summer.

In September we usually start by fixing the 375 traps or pots to make sure they are ready to put in the water by checking over every inch of the trap to make sure it will last the season. Next we overhaul the ropes buoy lines and trawls by looking for bad spots from chafing on the ocean floor over the last season and adding more or less rope to make them the desired length for the depth of water you fish in. There are also buoys to paint and balloons to mark with your name and trawl numbers. When that is done we have to get bait, which is usually herring or mackerel that we salt in barrels or tanks by mixing salt and water with it to make a brine or some people like to use frozen bait. Then we have repairs and maintenance on the boat to make sure everything is in top shape so you have HOPEFULLY no breakdowns when you start, because a breakdown at the first of the season can mean a big financial loss considering the first couple weeks are the biggest hauls of the season. There are also bait bags to fill, traps and other gear to take to the wharf to load on the boat the weekend before the season starts.

The opening of the season (dumping day) is ALWAYS hectic. You have all the boats trying to get to the fishing grounds at the same time because whoever gets to dump their traps first generally will have the bigger haul. It is also the most dangerous because you have 375 traps to dump with rope running by your feet that makes it easy to get caught and hauled overboard. Traps these days are usually set on trawls with 10 to 20 traps on a rope spaced 10-12 fathoms apart with an anchor and bouyline on both ends that are marked with balloons (ex: 1A-1B on separate ends) to let other people know what end is what so they don’t set their gear on you.Then the position is marked on a plotter or GPS so you can find your gear. Once the traps are in the water you have to go load the bait, crates to hold lobsters in and your banding stations to band your lobsters at. Once you get your traps in the water the hard work begins.

The next day, Tuesday, you get to go haul your gear. Some boats leave as early as 12 am but a lot wait until 4 o’clock or so. That way daylight isn’t far away by the time they start hauling the gear. There is usually 4 or 5 crew aboard the boat.The Captain and the 1st and 2nd mate plus a couple banders for the first few weeks because the catches are so big the regular crew can’t keep up with the banding. You haul a trawl by gaffing the balloons and hauling the buoy line in with an hydraulic heist. Then you bring your anchor aboard and set it on the anchor rack then the traps follow as they come aboard. You change bait bags and empty the lobsters out so they can be measured to see if they go the legal mark and the small lobsters thrown back. After you get all the traps aboard you have to set the trawl back out and move on to the next trawl. You do that until you get all of your gear hauled. Some people even haul their gear over again.

The next day you do the same thing again and you do that until the weather holds you in. You do that for the first month and by then the catches start dropping every haul so you don’t fish as often. By the end of January you are only fishing a couple times a week, weather permitting. You hold that pattern until April, then you start fishing every day or two and by then the catches usually start picking up as the water warms up. You do that until the last few days of May when you start bringing your gear back ashore to get ready for the next season. Even during the summer there are odds and ends to do like fixing up the shops and so on. Sometimes it seems like the work never stops and on rough and cold days you curse lobstering up and down. But in the end, in my opinion, there's no better job out there.

Yellow Lobster With Black Claws. MV Grampy Roger. Freeport, N.S., Canada.

Photo Courtesy East Coast Lobster.Com

Lobster Glossary