Last Day in Maine!

     Yesterday, I forgot to blog, but I had a good Dinner yesterday. Aunt Pennie made some steaks and they were really good! She also made rolls and those were really yummy with butter on them also. It was my last night in Maine this year Yesterday. Today, I got up, and I made a sandwich, packed a banana, and some potato chips I bought about 4 days ago. It was my last day, so we were going to try to catch a lot. I was suppose to be in by 2 PM, so I had a sandwich for lunch.


      I got my clothes on, and we went down to the wharf, and we went out straight from the mooring. There was barely any clouds in the sky today. I had to put on sunscreen once the sun came out. We were doing good for only single traps, we were getting consistent good lobsters. That was until a beeping started to go off. Uncle Art said it was the alarm if the Bilge was to full of water. The Bilge pumps were not working. We had to go in to the Wharf to try to fix them. Terri found out that it was because they were both connected to one battery in the front of the boat, and it was out of juice, so we connected it to the other one and charged the one that was empty.


     That took about 1 hour to do, so we had an hour cut out of our day, then we went out to haul some more. We finished out the bait, then we had about 20 more traps, so we had to go in to the Wharf to get 1 more tray of Herring. We finished those traps, and we were done at about 1:30 PM. My Mom, Levi, Oma and Aunt Pennie were waiting at the Wharf for me when I was done. They wanted to go out and get icecream for me for my last day, I said I just wanted to go home to shower. They dropped me of at Aunt Pennies house, and they went to go get Ice Cream.

     When they got home, I was showered, Packed, and ready to go. I put my Luggage and my backpack in the car, and we left soon after. We went to Portland, and we were staying in a Quality Inn. Tomorrow we are getting up to catch our flight at 7:30 AM.

     -8/16/2016

Short Day!

     Today, we were going to have a short day. Uncle Art said we would probably be done before 11 AM. I did not make a sandwich, I just took 2 mandarin oranges, and a banana and 2 waters. I also brought 3 dollars so we could go to the store after we were done Hauling Traps. We had enough bait so we went straight out. We were not doing good today, we Hauled our first trap, that had 6 lobsters in it, and we never again that day got a trap with more than 6 lobsters in it.


     I ate my Banana and an Orange during one of my snack breaks. We were not getting a lot of Lobster. By the time it was 10:50 AM, we were finished. We didn't catch a lot. We went in and we ended up with about 260 Lbs. After Uncle Art put the boat away, we went to a store and he got something, then we went to another store so that I could buy some Cheese and Onion potato chips. Uncle Art had them on the boat one time and I tried them, and I liked them so I got a bag of those and some Ranch flavored sunflower seeds.


     Then, we went home to Aunt Pennies house. My mom was coming to pick me up and she got here at 12:48. We are going to go to Rockland and have dinner at 6:30 at a Restaurant on Main street.

Brought Levi on the Boat!

     Today, I got up at 4:30 AM like usual. Today, Uncle Art was going to bring Levi on the boat with us. We would go out with our normal day until about 9:30 AM, where we would go back to the wharf and grab Levi for the last 2 hours of the day. I did not make a sandwich today, because we were going to be done by Noon, so I could just eat a sandwich when I got home.

     We went down to the wharf and went out straight from the mooring. I filled each bag with mostly herring and 2 red fish. We had no Double Traps today. We were going through the traps. We saved the best traps for last when Levi was on board. At about 9:30 AM, we went back into the Wharf to grab Levi. He had a bag with a sweater and some snacks. We then went to get the last of our traps. We got a lot of lobsters in the Traps that were close to the Rock Island. When I had time, I held the lobsters, and let Levi band some. Then at one point, He could hold it in his left hand and band them with his right hand. I also let him through some Lobster down the Shoot that went to the Lobster holding box.

     He loved it on the boat, and he would always chase away the seagulls if they got too close to the Boat. They love to eat the bait that I through off of the bait bag into the water. His job was to get the seagulls away. We got done by Noon, then we went in to the Wharf to put the Lobsters into the Trays. We ended up with 450 LBs. It was pretty good because we got done by Noon. Then we got 3 Trays of Herring and 4 Trays of Red fish.

     Then, Uncle Art drove us home to Aunt Pennies House.


              '8-12-2016

Ran out of Bait!

      Today, Uncle Art woke me up a little bit earlier than normal. At 4:09 AM. He went to bring in the boat, and then he came back to pick me up. I made a sandwich and packed some waters. Uncle Art picked me up and we drove down to the Wharf. He had the boat ready for us to go. We went out with 6 trays of red fish, and 4 trays of Herring. The Sunrise was very beautiful when I looked across the water.

The Sunrise!

        We were going to haul the double traps today. We had about 20-25 Pairs I think. We went through the day, hauling some pairs, then singles, then more pairs. We had some singles with a lot of lobster in them. Near the end of the day, we ran out of bait when we had only 15 more traps to haul.
We drove back to the Wharf and grabbed 1 tray of Herring and 1 tray of Red Fish. That was enough for us to finish up the 15 traps. We went in to the Wharf with a full lobster crate we filled. We put all the lobsters into their trays, and we ended up with over 650 LBs! It was my 2nd best day this year!




     I did not eat my sandwich on the boat when we had a Lunch break. I was not that hungry because I had some crackers before. I decided to save that sandwich until later. When I got home, I took a shower, and then I ate that sandwich and watched YouTube. At around 5:30 PM, Me, Levi, My Mom, and Uncle Art all went to The Happy Clam to eat dinner. I split an Angus Cheeseburger with Levi! We sat inside so we would not get bitten by the mosquitoes.

Inside The Happy Clam!

     After we were finished eating there, we went to Harjulas Ice Cream. It was an old truck that was turned into an Ice Cream store. It was really yummy! (I went there last year) It had an amazing view from the top of the hill it was sitting on. There was a little house but I was to tall to walk in it.

      After that, we finally went home where I could hangout for the rest of the night. Tomorrow, It was going to be a short day. Uncle Art said we would probably be done before 11 AM. That is good because I have to read 40 pages of The Alchemist. I might do some of that tonight even though it is really late.

                                -8-10-2016

Very Sunny and Windy!

     Yesterday, it was Sunday, so I had a day off. The Day off was fun! I got to play Call of Duty and I got to sleep in a bit. For lunch yesterday, Me and Uncle Art went to a place called The Zach Shack. It is a little shack that has Burgers, Hot-Dogs and really good Onion Rings. It was in a magazine for the best Burgers. Here is a Picture of The Zach Shack.

The Zack Shack!

     The Onion Rings there are the best Onion Rings I have ever eaten in my life! After I ate my Burger and Onion Rings, Me and Uncle Art went back to the house, and we got ready to go Kayaking. We were going to go Kayaking to the nearest Public Beach. It was about as far as the Keag store when Me and Aunt Pennie Kayaked there. We got water, Uncle Art got his Fishing Pole, and we got our life jackets, and we went down to the water. We each got our Kayak, and we started to go to the beach. It was up to the right, then straight then left around the end of the island. I got a Selfie with Coda.

     We Kayaked all the way to the Beach, going around each turn and it was helpful that the current and the wind to our back was helping us get to the Beach, and it would be way harder going back, because the current would be against us, and the wind would be in our face. We got to the beach, took a little break, then we started to go back. It was way harder, because the wind wanted to push us backward to the beach, but we were trying to get home. We tried to Kayak as close to the land as possible so that the wind would be a little less. I got a lot of really good Pictures while we were Kayaking. 

     On the way back, I saw an Anchor that was spray-painted to the side of one of the rocks.

Anchor.

     On the way Kayaking back to the house, Me and Uncle Art stopped at this Mini beach for a break. It was like a tiny, isolated, private beach.

     We got back to the house, and I played COD with Tony for the rest of the night until 11 PM, then I went to bed, and got up the next day (Today) at 4:48 AM. 

     I did the usual, made a sandwich, packed my lunch, got my clothes and we went down to the Wharf. The sunrise was beautiful. We had to get bait this morning. We got 6 bags of Rock fish, and 4 trays of Herring. Then we went out to haul. We were hauling singles all around. Some close to the shore, others out in the middle of nowhere, and some by the little island with seals. We were not doing that well. There was one place that we were getting a good amount, but we were done by 1:20 PM, and we got 390 LBS. Its not that bad. We almost used up all of our bait that we got earlier this morning, but we had some left over. We got the lobsters out, then I went to wait in Uncle Arts car while he put the Boat on the Mooring. 

     We went back to the house. Uncle Art had somewhere to go at 4 PM, so he left, and I am here alone now, and Aunt Pennie, My Mom, and Levi are in Portland right now, but they are going to be arriving at Aunt Pennies house in a couple hours. I am going to start to read The Alchemist because its my book that I have to read for August. I think im going to have another day off tomorrow, because Uncle Art wants to give another night to the double traps, so that they can get some more lobsters in them before we haul them. They only have 4 nights on them right now, but he likes for them to have 5 nights on them.   

               -8/8/2016

Wavy Day!! (Island of Seals)

     Yesterday, Aunt Pennie and I drove up to Bangor to go see a Concert at the Waterfront Pavilion. The people performing were The Fifth Harmony, and they are really awesome. The concert started at 7 PM, and ended at about 11 PM. It was really fun, but we did not get home until about 12:40 PM at night, and I had to work today, so I went straight to bed. Uncle Art got me up a little bit later than usual, at 5:15, so I got about Four and a Half hours of sleep. Thats pretty good.

     So... Today, I got up and packed a lunch, and Sandwich as usual. We went out to the Wharf and out to the boat. It was sunny out because we got up a bit late.

Its sunny

     It was really windy, and sunny out today. There were a lot of waves today, and they were like really big waves, and since they were so big, they were shaking the boat a lot, and it was hard to stand up so I always had to hold on to something. We hauled close to this island where we had some traps up right next to it, and there were a ton of Seals, sitting on the island.

Island

Island of Seals!

     The water was still rough for the rest of the day, and we got done at about Noon, and we had about 500 Lbs of lobster at the end of the day. I have a day off tomorrow, because its Sunday, and im going to stay home, and my Mom and Brother will be coming to Maine soon, and I will see them Monday

             -8/6/2016

Thursday, Big Lobsters! (Day before Concert!)

     Today, I got up, made myself a HALF of a sandwich, and packed some other snacks. I packed 2 waters and got my baiting clothes on. I brushed my teeth, and we headed down to the Wharf. It was dark out, and the Sun was rising. On the boat, I took some pictures of the Sunrise!

Sunrise!!

     There were no clouds in the sky, and it was a sign that it was going to be a very sunny and nice day! I got my gloves on, and we started to haul only singles. We were using bait bags filled with Herring, and 2-3 Rock fish again. There was a HUGE Rockfish!

Huge Rock fish!!

     We were getting some nice lobsters today, some 3 pounders. There was a huge lobster that was differently colored than the other lobsters, kind of a blue, and white. I got a picture of me holding 2 giant lobsters, one of them differently colored.

The one on the right is the cool colored one!

       I took a picture of the stairs going down to the floating platforms at different times, to show how much the tides can change in a day. Here are the results.

     Tomorrow, I am going to have a day off, and I am going to Bangor to see The Fifth Harmony in Concert! It is going to be really fun!

           -8/4/2016 

  

Slept in until 5:20 AM!

     Today, I got to sleep in a little bit. I usually wake up at 4:30 AM, but today, I got to sleep in until 5:20 AM! It didn't seem to really make a big difference that I could notice. I got to sleep in because Uncle Art said we couldn't get bait until 6 AM. I did not make a Sandwich today, because Uncle Art said we would be done by 12 or 12:30. I just packed pretzels, a Banana, and some tiny Oranges.

    We drove down to the Wharf. It was more bright out because we got up about an hour later. Uncle Art went to get the boat and he put some Rock Fish and 2 trays of Herring on the boat. He also had a lot of his new traps that he was going to set put on the boat. In the end, we had about 25-30 traps on the back of the boat. They were all going to be set as Double traps, so he would take 2, connect them a certain way, then we would drop them. We set all of those traps first, then we started to haul.

     First, we hauled singles, with bait bags filled with mostly Herring, and 2-3 Rock fish to make the bait stay better. It was pretty sunny out today, so I had to put on a lot of sunscreen. We were going to haul the 15 Double traps last. We were running out of bait before we got to the Double traps. Once we got to the Doubles, we made it through 11 out of the 15, then we were out of bait.


     A Lobster boat came by to talk to Uncle Art, and luckily he was nice, and gave us some bait, enough for us to make it through the other 4 Double traps, so 8 traps total. We got done finally, then it was 12:30, and we went in to unload the lobster. We ended up with, I think around 400 LBs I don't know exactly. We drove home, and I hung out. For dinner, Aunt Pennie had put some baked beans with hot-dogs in the oven for me and Uncle Art to eat at 6 PM. We had that along with some bread and butter. It was really yummy!
 

                             -8/3/2016

Super Short Day!

     The day when I got done before 11 AM, I thought that would be my earliest day, but today, I ended up getting done at 10 AM! This morning, I got up, packed my lunch, and made a sandwich. I got my Hauling clothes, and we went down to the Wharf. It was really dark this morning. We went out on the row-boat, and went straight from the mooring.

Rowing out to the Lobster Boat!

     We started Hauling, and we only did singles today. We had 2 snack breaks today, and I ate most of my pretzels. We got done so early, that we didn't have time to eat our lunch. We ended up with about 250 LBs, but we were done at 10 AM, so the time is totally worth it. I took my Sandwich home to eat for lunch. 

Boat docked to unload Lobsters!

The tide is high!

     Tomorrow, Uncle Art said we would have another short day, probably done before 11 AM.

          8/2/2016

   

Cloudy Day (Found a Tiny Lobster)

     Today, Uncle Art said that it would be rainy, and that we were going to have to work in the rain. It looked like it was going to rain today, but it didn't rain at all while we were out to haul. I made a sandwich and packed my lunch, then we headed out for the Wharf. Uncle art got 15 of his traps loaded onto his boat, and we were off. We set those 15 traps first, in about 40 ft deep water, which is not that deep. We haul traps that are in usually water 80-110 Ft deep. After we set those 15 traps we started to actually haul traps.

The Wharf

The Boat!

      The first 10 traps we hauled were in a spot that Uncle Art said other Lobster-men did not know about, more shallow then 80 Ft, and has been a good lobster fishing place forever. He said he liked to go there when there were no other boats around so he could keep his secret spot. The first trap we hauled, it had a TON of lobsters in it. So did the other 9. We probably had about 13 pounds in the first trap. Those 10 traps were the biggest we would have all day. They were each packed with lobsters. After that, the rest that we hauled didn't have that many, some even had none. The bait was not staying, so I had to pack each bait bag with herring, and 2 rock fish so that it would stay better.

     I found a really small lobster during the day, near the end of the day. It was really small. I took a picture, and I also took a picture of a nice big lobster also.

Tiny Lobster!!

Big Lobster!!

     The Radio said it was going to rain, but it never did while I was out there, It was just cloudy, which was nice because it meant that I did not have to put on a ton of sunscreen. And, the sun wasn't always in my face. We ended up with, I think about 500 LBs, which is better than Saturday. Uncle Art said tomorrow, we will probably be done before 11 AM, then another short day, then the long day where we haul the 15 doubles. Heres more pics. 

The slide the Lobsters go down to get into the tank on the boat.

Cloudy Day!

                        -8/1/2016 (August now)

P.S. I got my Cheetos in the mail!