It's all about the Lobster

[Joe Sull]

I'll be fishing lobster all summer and I thought I'd start a picture thread for some that my be vaguely interested.
I started working on gear this week and clamming at low water. Love diving but I hate being on the road so I just
gonna stay home and go fishing. We'll be setting gear next month and there's a lot of preparation.
I'll be going with a fellow that been fishing all his life. His 40 ft. boat will hold 80 trap as we set loads till all 800 (the max allowed)
are out. We'll be using herring for bait mostly with a splash of red fish. We'll haul 200 a day so the trap will have a 4 day set.

My son fishes year around. Right now, there going out 35 miles and fishing in 900 ft. of water. Lobsters migrate up into the
shoal water when the water temp. starts to come up. They move up into shallow areas and borrow in to the bottom and shed
there shell. When they emerge, they are jelly like, then the shell starts to harden. Heres some of his pics to start off.


Once the lobsters start to come in, the boats that fish outside will pick up all there gear and bring it in shoal for the summer.

Here Stonington and the public pier from the water


These boats either fished all winter or they just got put in and getting started.

What you see here is a fraction of the boats that will be there by july.





I'll post more thru the summer and hope you like them. I'll get a lot of seal, water fowl and eagle pics.

Cheers Joe 

[FJscott]

I hear there is huge money in Glass Eels up your way.
Scott

[Joe Sull]

They just started there season last week. $2000/lb. They call them Elvers too.

[FJscott]

That's pretty country, a lot nicer than where I fish

[movenon]

Use to stock up on lobster when returning from the NAS Brunswick to Pt Mugu... yum...
George

[Joe Sull]

I've been working on gear for a couple of months now. Painting buoys and going thru rope almost every other day. Still clamming in the mean time.
Getting closer to set out time. Not much left to do. A lot of boats have set gear already but mostly, just for something to do. Water temp. has everything to do with lobster fishing. Last report from NOAA says the water temp is 48-49*. 50* is what were looking for. Within the next 2 week the temp will hit 50* and the lobster season will be on. The boats going now barely make profit. By the time they pay for fuel and bait then pay the sternman. The average boat uses $400 a day in fuel and bait.
I had a sleepless morning yesterday. I grabbed my camera and headed down the public pier at 3:00 am on my bike. The guys that go offshore had already left. The lobster buyers had just arrived at 3 to sell bait and fuel.

There's a line of floats about 75 yards long (in a "J" shape) with skiffs beam to beam the whole length. I had to brighten this pic. because it was dark. There's at least 100 skiffs there.
This is the end of the floats. The skiffs are used to get out to the moorings.


A couple of boats came in to take traps on. Here's one. Most boats can take on 80-90 traps. You really can't see but there's a guy
hysting them down and another on the boat stacking.


Just a little report for now.

[cclase]

Joe,
Some great shots! It's a beautiful place...thanks for taking time to share!
Chris

[The General]

Thanks Joe. Really enjoying your pics and industry commentary. I use to own a busy retail seafood outlet on the waterfront that I rented from "The Fishermans Cooperative". (not sure if you have them over there.). The boats came in with their catch at the back of my shop. A semi trailer loaded them for the fish market beside the premises, ready for delivery to the Fish Markets in a capital city only 1.5 hours drive away.....But I got first pick/bid of the catch 

Caught, bought & sold a fair bit of lobster in my life. One thing for sure was those deck hands and skippers were tough basteds to deal with.....Which is why I wouldn`t be game ta tell ya what I think of the colour of your FJ, if my neck lived in your vicinity.

....ummm...but I have thought of an appropriate name for her!   

[Joe Sull]

Thanks Chris, and thanks General.....I think? 

I use to own a busy retail seafood outlet on the waterfront that I rented from "The Fishermans Cooperative". (not sure if you have them over there.). The boats came in with their catch at the back of my shop. A semi trailer loaded them for the fish market beside the premises, ready for delivery to the Fish Markets in a capital city only 1.5 hours drive away.....But I got first pick/bid of the catch 

We have 3 coo-op"s here close by. The guys that sell there do a little better in the long run. I guess you know the seafood business. Ground fishing (gill netting) has all but stopped here. The big fish processing ships from other countries are off 12 miles in international waters long line fishing which has pretty much wiped out the fishery. The ground fishing boats have been cut down to 100 days a year and there specific days. They give them a calendar with the day marked open fishing and if it's blowing 30 knots it's unsafe to go.

.....and then there's this....

.....Which is why I wouldn`t be game ta tell ya what I think of the colour of your FJ, if my neck lived in your vicinity.

....ummm...but I have thought of an appropriate name for her!   

What the fuck?......

Joe   

[The General]

(Heheehe), No worries Mate, I luv that colour! (gulp!). ....and, and tha name I was thinkin of wouldn`t be appropriate unless you ride like me. (a slow crawl).

Those basteds are only 12 miles away!...that really really makes it tuff. We have similar issues brought about by over fishing and environmental politics.

About half way down our East Coast the deeper waters bring up a swell that also makes it dangerous when blowing over 30 knots. So I regularly purchased from Trucks travelling from up North to supplement my stocks, even though I only needed them when the winds were constantly up, which was rare..... consistency of fresh supplies was integral to the success of the my little enterprise at the time. (I aimed for a minimum of 150 stockturns a year.)

The politics combined with the various cultures within the industry, also added to the danger from a business point of view. So one day I organised a "blessing of the fleet"....A homeland tradition in some European Cultures, but particularly in Yugoslavia...oops!, you weren`t allowed ta say that name...sorry, Croatia was what I meant. (These mad basteds would fish in any weather!). Interestingly, there weren`t any Vietnamese trawlers that moored in our harbour even though they were plentiful an hour south....I didn`t ask too many questions as to why, but I know it involved guns and lobster traps!...and it was the glue that cemented a tolerance for the existing cultures as they had worked together as a team.

Anyhow, I asked (read "paid") a catholic priest, and two other denominations (even more expensive!) to participate.
(Even tha Aussie trawlers got involved.) ...Everyone decorated their boats with flags, balloons, bunting etc and they filed passed an inland harbour rock formation as my new subcontractors did their stuff. (I`m sure the Holy Water on the end of the little dippers didn`t come anywhere near the boats as they motored passed in deep reverence, .....but hey, I wasn`t about ta criticise tha details of my unwritten contract with tha guys in robes, cause I knew they answered to a powerful bloke way up in Queensland, that apparently controlled the weather!)

The whole event was a complete success that was followed by the best party you could ever imagine....talk about throwing another shrimp on the barbie, mate there was tons of the stuff, along with every conceivable crustacean, Calamari and even sashimi! (...that was 25 years ago and it`s  been held annually ever since!)

By sheer coincidence the business managed to triple it`s turnover in less than seven months. That`s when I could see politics raising it`s little head again with my Landlord as they reckoned I was making more money than the guys that did the hard yakka. So I sold the enterprise well before the lease was due to be renewed. (My buyer suffered badly unfortunately!)

....sorry I digress (again!). Seafood farming has become the big thing since then and a recent Aussie invention is set to revolutionise it globally.....but I`ve waffled on enough for now. 

[Joe Sull]

Hey thats a cool story. We dont have much in jubilee around here. They have a fishermen's day. The public pier fills up with people and it's a carnival atmosphere. Fireworks every friday night thru the summer. Then theres the lobster boat races. They hold them all the way up the coast of Maine at different times so a boat has the chance to race in as many races at they want. It's usually July 11 th here in our town. Many entries and some very fast boats. They have to be working boats and they race with the sternman. The top winners are approaching 80 miles an hour.

I worked on gear yesterday. The captain said he wants the boat in the water June 18 th. We'll be setting gear that day.