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!

     

Sunday Day Off! (Went Kayaking)

     Today, I had a day off, because it is Sunday. Sunday, is my day off every week, because people are not aloud to go Lobster Fishing on Sunday. I got up at about 6:30 AM. I was about to go back to sleep, but I thought that would just waste time sleeping, and we were going to Kayak up to the Keag store on our Kayaks. I watched some YouTube, and we left at about 8:00 AM to go to the Keag Store. We each got our life-jackets, and we started down. It took about 45 minutes to get there from Aunt Pennies house to the Keag store. 

Kayaking down to the Kaeg store!

Mini Rock island

     Once we got to the Keag store, we pulled our Kayaks out of the water, onto the grass, and walked across the street to the Keag store. I got some drinks, a Blueberry Muffin, and a really delicious ham and cheese sandwich with white bread, pickles, and mustard and mayo. I planned to eat that after I got home. We then walked across another street to stop at the library for a bathroom break, and that library has the fastest WiFi (Internet) in the town. 

     George Kittredge was the youngest naval submarine commander ever, and he invented the one person submarine. He used it to go up and down the Keag river. I got a picture in front of the Kittredge submarine. It looks pretty small and cramped for one person to fit inside.

George Kittredge Submarine!! (18,000$$)

     I looked up how much it would cost, and it was about 18,000 Dollars. I also looked up very expensive ones, and they were about 1 million, to 3 million, which is insane. I was also thinking about getting a Gyro-Copter for me. Its basically a little helicopter that fits one person, and you can fly it around, and it only requires 20 hours of training! I want to start saving up for it. There are a ton of prices between like 10,000 - 80,000 but I can save up for one.

     We got back in our Kayaks, and started to head back. The tide helped us back, and we got back a bit faster. I hauled my Kayak onto the shore when we got there, and walked back to the house. For the rest of the day, I just chilled, and had my snacks, and sandwich, and watched YouTube. It was a fun day! I will see what other cool things I could buy to fly around!

                                                 -7/31/2016                                          

                              (Also, I ordered some Hot Cheetos on Amazon to come to Aunt Pennies house, because I couldn't find any anywhere in Maine)

 

Very Short Day!

     Yesterday, I had a day off because Uncle Art was having his boat fixed. It had a place where it was leaking, but now it is all fixed so we went out today. I got up at 4 AM, and Uncle Art and Aunt Pennie went to say goodbye to Aunt Ruth Ann and Uncle Rich. I got ready to go. We left at 5 AM to go to the wharf. It was not foggy at all, which was good. We went out, and we were only hauling singles today.

     We had 8 bags of new Rock fish. We got 4 of them and put them in the bin so I could bait the irons. They were frozen so I had to pull them apart from eachother. We did not use any Herring today, only Rockfish. We got a lot of good lobsters today, some really big ones, 3 pounders. We ended up with 400 pounds. It was not bad but it wasn't that good, but the good thing is that we got done before 11 AM. Thats probably the earliest day I have ever had. Usually we are done at 12:30 or 1 PM. We flew through the single traps though.

     When I got home, Aunt Pennie was telling me how I could kayak down to the Kaeg store. It is on the river, so I could kayak from the house, in the water to the Kaeg store, instead of biking all the way down there. Tomorrow, me and Aunt Pennie are going to kayak down to the Kaeg store at 7 AM, because that's when the tide will be in. It was really sunny today, so I had to put a ton of sunscreen on so that I would not get sunburned.


      -7/30/2016

Long Day (Hauled Doubles)

     Today, it was going to be another long day. I got up at 4:30 AM. Uncle Art came into my room and said "Its time to get up." Then, I got up, and I grabbed a blanket to go downstairs to put on my Hauling clothes. When I was about to go down the stairs, I saw the lights were not on anywhere. Usually when I get up, Uncle Art is down in the kitchen and the lights are on, so I thought mabye I had imagined that he had woke me up. I didn't remember really, I just woke up at 4:30 AM. I was about to go back to bed, but he came in and said it was time to get up (again aparently)

     We were suppose to be back by 3 PM today. I made a sandwich like normal, and packed pretzels and 2 waters. I had gotten a new head-scarf from Aunt Pennie the day before, so I was going to try that out. It worked really well. We drove down to the Wharf. We fueled up the boat, then we were off. It was really foggy, we could hardly see the road in front of us. Today was the first day with a ton of fog.

     We thought that throughout the day, the fog would go away because of the wind and the sun, but it stayed around all day. It was kind of hard for us to find some of our buoys. We hauled 15 Double traps today, all of the other traps were singles. We had a lot of Rock fish, and 4 trays of Herring. We alternated every other trap for either Rock fish or Herring. It worked pretty well. There were a lot of small lobsters today, in the traps.

     It was a long day, we hauled a ton of singles first, then 15 Double traps, then a lot more single traps. It felt like there was always more, but we got done at about 3 PM. When we went into the Wharf, we found out that we had 560 LBs. Uncle Art was going to haul his boat out tonight, so I will have a day off Friday, and mabye Saturday if the work doesn't get done Friday.

    For dinner, we had Lobster again, and I had hotdogs again. They were yummy!

Uncle Art "painting" his corn with the Lobster

Our lobster dinner!

The really red lobsters

He is friendly!

     It was a pretty good day, I was glad it was over so that I could relax, and sleep in. I will probably wake up at about 5 AM, without an alarm, just out of habit, then go back to bed and get up at like 9 AM. On the boat, I try to keep my mind occupied so that I dont keep my mind on being on the boat for 9 Hours in a row. It helps to get through the day. 

         -7/28/2016