Recreational lobstering in Maine

June 2024

By Randy Randall

“Could you use a couple of lobsters?” Dan asked. “Oh, sure, I know what to do with them,” I said. Dan is one of a dozen or so of our marina customers who have recreational lobster licenses. When his wife is away, or they’ve had their fill, he knows we will always take his extra bugs. I must say – receiving the gift of just-caught lobsters is one of the perks of owning a small marina.

The commercial Maine lobster catcher is a legend in his and her own time. Sometimes called the “cowboys of the east,” these guys and gals earn every cent working in a fishery that is often a boom or bust proposition and a symbol of the state. A young lobsterman lives one street over. I saw him one evening and asked, “Nick, how many traps you got out?” He thought for a second. “About 600,” he said. “I got another 200 to sink.” All I could say was, “good grief.” He earns every penny.

The guys at my marina are recreational, so they are limited in what they can put out. In Maine you can get a non-commercial lobster license that allows you to submerge five traps per person. The limit is 10 traps per boat, so two guys can fish out of one boat. My buddy, Gary, and I did that for years. Most of the recreational guys pull by hand. They stand on the swim platform or lean over the gunwale and hoist their traps up out of, at times, as much as 30 feet of water.

Two years into our fishing, Gary and I bought a gasoline-powered pot-hauler and life got better for our aching backs. A “five-trapper” has to follow the same rules and regulations as the commercial guys, plus one rule that applies just to them: They can’t sell their catch. The lobsters are for personal use only. That was fine with Gary and me.

For most guys, pulling traps is more of a sport and the lobsters they catch are just icing on the cake. Gary and I had a great time out on the bay, where we’d usually appear just after sunrise. Nothing finer. We were very aware of the commercial guys and intentionally stayed out of their way. We dropped our traps in places where they wouldn’t go, usually among the rocks. Full-timers haven’t got the time to wrestle with a trap caught under a ledge, so we fished spots they avoided.

Pulling up a lobster trap is like opening presents Christmas morning. There’s anticipation and excitement every time. We had our lobster gauge and rubber bands and knew how to grab the claws and check for a V-notch in the end of the tail or look for a berried female [ones carrying eggs]. Most of the time we could tell just by looking whether a lobster was a keeper. Close calls we had to measure.

I’ve never really understood how the commercial guys can find 600 traps out on the open ocean. We had enough trouble finding 10. We placed our traps within sight of each other, kind of like following a bread crumb trail. As we finished tending the first trap, the next trap was just in sight and we could motor over to it. From that trap the next one was also just in sight, and so we moved from one to the other, always keeping the next one just in sight. I threw the empty bait bags into the corner and after we’d hauled the string I’d count the bags to see if we’d missed any.

We pulled traps for years and it never got old. Bringing home the freshest lobster you could possibly ever get was a just reward for shoving off at 5 a.m. We bought our traps from a lobsterman who was selling out. We had to buy rope, bait bags and buoys at Hamilton and we bought bait from Vessel Services. Every lobsterman has to register his buoy colors with the state and has to label his traps and buoys with his license number and name. We did all of that. To get the licenses you apply to DMR and receive an application and study book. Answer the questions and send them a check and soon it’s time to catch some bugs. You need the license whether you are fishing five traps or one.

This is a great activity to do with kids. Let them choose the buoy colors and help paint the buoys and go with you to pull the traps. You won’t just be catching lobsters, but catching and storing memories, as well. And the kids will never forget pulling traps out on the bay.

Frequent contributor, correspondent and friend, Randy Randall is co-owner of Marston’s Marina in Saco, Maine and a dreamer and waterman of the first order.

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