Setting Day 2025
We put the traps in the water today!
This setting day seems to have come around quicker than others. Partly because this year we set on April 25 where traditionally we’ve been on April 30. But I also think a big factor is that I’ve been focused on moving in my gramma’s house so I haven’t had a lot of time to think about lobster fishing and how quickly it was creeping up on us.
There was some uncertainty heading into today. Our channel shifted a lot over the winter which made it very difficult for boats to get from the harbour to the ocean. Down to the 11th hour we were able to get a permit for some dredging to be done which helped line things up and get us the green light to set our traps today.
We got the word late Wednesday afternoon that we were moving forward with setting day today, Friday. Luckily we had things ready to go because, let’s be honest, Joey has been counting down this day for a while. On Thursday we prepped our bait and put the first 150 traps on the boat so that we’d be ready to go first thing this morning. And then we set our alarms and went to bed early!
4am came quickly but I felt well rest and excited for the day.
I arrived at the wharf around 4:45am. We had family and friends stop by to wish us luck and then we were on our way a little after 5am. The season doesn’t officially open until 6am so once we sailed out we waited along with all the other boats until it was offiicaly and then we hit the throttle and went off to our fishing grounds.
It took us 3 trips to get all 300 traps out:
Trip 1: 150 round traps
Trip 2: 96 square traps
Trip 3: 54 sqaure traps
The square ones are heavier (and bigger) so we split them up. We did this for two reasons: 1) space limitations and 2) so that we could make it through the channel with low water levels. We did drag a little along the bottom a few times with trip #2 but we made it out safely.
All of this took approximately 6 hours and a lot of team work!
We had a great crew on board to set the traps off. And we had some helpers who met us on land to assist with getting the traps from the wharf to the boat. Many hands make light work and it sure makes a difference when you’re moving a lot of traps all in one day.
We lucked out with a beautiful morning that gave us an incredible sunrise and a rainbow! We got rained on a bit for the 2nd and 3rd load but a little rain will never stop us!
After getting all the traps into the water we were ready to get things set up for our first day of hauling tomorrow. We put our trap setter and tanks on board and made sure we put some bait out to thaw for us to cut in the morning. The water is very cold right now (36 degrees F) so we’re unsure what the catch will look like tomorrow but I’m excited to get out there to see!
It’s my 3rd year lobster fishing full time and I keep learning more and more! I love to share my knowledge with others so if you have any questions please drop them below and I will continue to blog about my experiences so you can learn along with me!
