Getting the Traps Going Again

It is amazing and sad to me how quickly my hands repair themselves now that I am not fishing everyday. On Sunday, before starting school, I noticed I had two real good cases of Striper Thumb. Seemed like my hands were pretty boy hands by Monday afternoon with no signs of the summer's abuse. Striper Thumb, by the way, is what happens to your thumb when you grab many a Striper with your thumb to bring into the boat.

Anyway, last night I mustered a crew to get the lobster traps going again. We have been slack in fishing them for about a month. On board was Tim Harkins an his friend Carl and Ben Polk. Polk you might remember from last post captains the Jabez down in South Carolina, a 56 Core Sound/Jarret Bay. You can see a picture of that baby above. While its a pretty shi shi looking boat don't let that fool you about Ben. His father was a long time commercial fisherman and Ben has spent plenty of time working on the water in less fancy rigs both commercial fishing and charter fishing.

Anyway, before heading out I checked in with a Boothbay captain who has been fishing all week and he gave me the heads up that the Macs were still thick. So, we decided to catch our own bait for all ten traps. The seas were flat as the wind had only recently turned around to the Southwest. We caught near 125 Macs and it took us about 60 minutes. Ben got his gear on and stuffed the bait bags while I cruised us back to the traps. We caught 3 keeper lobsters, a Sculpin, an egged female which we notched and tossed, and a keeper Flounder. You can see Captain Ben cutting up the Flounder below.

I love the Flounder we get around here for eating. I was way more excited about the Flounder then the lobsters. As a kid I used catch Flounder all the time. Now, it is almost impossible to catch them. At least I have not been able to find any reliable holes. I am not sure what happened to the Flounder population here but one thing I know is back when the Flounder were thick people were still dumping their waste over the side. Since dumping your waste has become illegal the Flounder population seems to have dried up. This may be unrelated but maybe not.

Anyway, last night was a fun trip. One of the very best parts of my job is meeting new people like Ben who love to fish. I seriously have met some terrific people doing this job. This October I will be in a wedding for a terrific guy whom I met while taking him fishing. How cool is that?