Bait Bag Day - August 2, Sunday

Today, i got to sleep in again, and after i got up, i had some breakfast. Then at 10 A.M, we went down to the lobster boat so that we could finish putting all of the remaining herring that we had, into the bait bags, so that we wouldn't have to do it tomorrow. Tomorrow, we are going out to haul traps. We are going to have short days from now on, probably days from 5 A.M. till Noon!

This is a picture of a lobster hauler. It has one big wheel that hauls the trap. You wrap the rope around it and it electrically pulls the trap up. There is a metal poll that helps by pulling up the rope so that the rope doesn't scratch your boat when you are hauling it.

-August 2, Sunday

Chill Day - August 1, Saturday

Today, i slept in until 9:30 A.M. This is my chill day until we go back out to work and haul on Monday. I got up, and i just went down and started to watch some shows, and play the Xbox because that's really fun. I got to make some mac-&-cheese for lunch! That was very delicious! Uncle Arthur made me dinner, it was like a chicken patty and curly fries! Then i went back to play Xbox. 

To-marrow, we are going to go and fill bait bags so that we don't have to do that tomorrow when we are hauling traps!

Yesterday at 6 P.M, Me and Uncle Art went to Applebee's for dinner. I got a corn dog, and a caezer sallad, and he got steak and mashed potatoes. We both got lemonade. After that, we went to see Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation! IT WAS AMAZING! It was so awesome! I recommend go seeing it!

- 8:54 P.M. - August 1, Saturday

2nd Day - Thursday, August 30

Today, i had my 2nd day as a lobster man. Yesterday, i spent my time filling bait bags with bait so that we would not have to do that while we were hauling lobster traps. Today on the boat, we would haul traps.

Every time that we hauled a trap, we needed to do 3 things to it before we could send it back down to the bottom.

1. We had to take the old bait bag out of the trap, and empty the dead fish from it off of the side of the boat, so that we could reuse the bait bags. (we reuse the bait bags)
2. We had to take the lobsters out of the trap, and see how many that we could keep. (Some lobsters are to small to legally keep, so we measure them)
3. We needed to put a new bait bag in the trap by running a string through the middle of it, and fastening the string to either sides of the trap so that it would stay.

For one lobster trap, sometimes we get 3 lobsters, and sometimes we get like 7-8. The most lobsters that we got in one trap today, was 11 lobsters! Every-time that we haul a trap, we put a new bait bag inside of it, and since we already had made the bait bags yesterday, we didn't have to fill them as we were going today. Each lobster trap that we haul, i usually take out the old bait bag, and put a new bait bag in. My Uncle Arthur, is the one, who takes out the lobster and sets them into boxes for me to band.

After each trap that we haul, i usually have lobsters to band. There is this cool tool, that you put it around a rubber band, and it stretches out the rubber band, so that i can band the lobster with only my right hand, and hold the lobster with my left hand. (we don't use regular rubber-bands, we use special black ones that are smaller). I have to cross the lobsters claws and hold it a certain way so that the lobster cant clamp my fingers off! Lobsters have 1 claw that is used for grabbing things (usually its right claw) and another claw used for crushing things (usually left claw).

Here is a picture of a bait bag. It has a sealed bottom, and a top which can be opened and then closed again by tightening the string. We put the fish inside of the bait bag, and then we tie the top of the bag shut. 

The lobster trap, is designed so that when the lobsters enter it, they cant get out. The lobsters enter the 2 holes on the left side of the picture, where the bait bag is, then, they can eat the bait, and then they go to the right where they stay until we haul the trap up. Sometimes, there are crabs in the cages, so we just toss them back in the water. 

Older lobster traps, were curved, and looked like this.

We would band the lobsters with this tool. It would be pulled shut by a rubber band, and i would put a rubber band around the ends of it, and open it and it would open the rubber band so that i could put the rubber band on the lobsters claws. The rubber bands were easy to put on, because they were so small, but they were really strong.

At the end of the day, i had banded 840 LBS. of lobster, and i was working from 5 A.M. to 3 P.M. I was so happy to go home and rest.

-7/30/15 - Tuesday

1st Day! - 7/29/2015 - 8:45 P.M.

Today, i woke up at 7:30 A.M. I went down to the wharf and they were loading lobsters from the box's into a big truck. When you catch lobsters, you put them in a crate, and then put it in the water attached to a rope to hold it there and it looks something like this.

I saw as they used like a mini crane thing to pick up 2 crates of lobster at a time and then load them in the truck. We also had to fill the boat with bate for the bate bags for the lobster traps, so there was a ton of dead fish poured into crates and we took the crates of the bate and filled up the huge bucket in the lobster boat with it!

As you see in the picture above, there are 2 huge rectangular buckets on the lobster boat, one, the one without a cover, is the one that we put all of the bate into, and the second one, with a cover, is where we put the lobsters after they are banded, and it is filled with water so that they don't die. Today, i didn't have a lot of work to do. All i did was fill the bate bags for tomarrow when would get all of the traps. You are suppost to put 12-13 fish in each bate bag. The fish are not that big and the bate bag is about 9 inches by 4 inches. We worked for probably 1-1 1/2 hours and we probably filled 150 bate bags! After that, we left the lobster boat out and came back in to the wharf on the little row boat,because we have to leave the lobster boat out on the water, we cant park it next to the wharf.

-7/29/2015 - 9:06 - P.M.

DAY BEFORE - 7/28/2015: 10:19 P.M.

Today, i flew into Portland, Maine, by myself, and on the way, i got some McDonalds because i wanted some McNuggets. I got to Portland, Maine at about 3:30, and when i got there, my Aunt Pennie was there, waiting for me. We drove to where she lived, in Rockland, Maine. On the way, we stopped at Taco Bell, for dinner, so i got some pretty good food today! When i got to her house, my luggage that was sent 3 weeks earlier, was set out and my food was already set out. I brought my Xbox, and i set it up to her TV.

After i set up my Xbox, I checked out my room and got some cool pictures of it!

My room is on the second floor, and it is in its own private area because it has curtains. It also has like a separated desk area that is slightly raised above the rest of the floor in my room, and that is really cool! I set up all my clothes in the dresser and unpacked my suitcase and then set up all my electronic stuff and looked at my 2 YouTube channels and updated them. I downloaded some software onto my computer so i could record game play from my Xbox when i had free-time!

I got a pair of rubber boots and gloves for the lobster boat because it gets really wet and dirty on the boat. Aunt Pennie already had a pair of sise 9 boots for me, but they were a little to big for me, so she went and traded them out for sise 8. Tomarrow, i had to wake up at like 8 and then i would bait bags untill 10:30, and then, i would band lobsters for the rest of the day untill like 3:30 or 4. I am so excited for the new movie Mission Impossibe 5: Rogue Nation to come out, i cant wait to go see it! It comes out in 3 days and i want to go see it right when it comes out. My Aunt Pennie has a movie theater near her house, so i want to go see it there! 

-7/28/2015: 10:19 P.M.