Thought you would like a different perspective of a day on the water with Coalman. This is written by my good friend, Richard who we all honorably refer to as Dad on Whitetail Zone.

"LOBSTAH's"
earlier last week I received an email from Cap'n Coalman saying.."First mate needed on Saturday"...
I responded saying I was looking for a ship and captain for the weeknd cuz Coast guard had just cut the season short on the boat I was on.
we negotiated the "share" price and then I said I'd see him then..
(don't get lost gang..we are both into "Deadliest Catch" lol.)

I met him at the dock on Sat am..06:30,,
we proceeded to bag bait for the 28 traps we had to check and rebait..
we used bacon and sausage to fill the bait bags with..pork provided by our MMSKUNK (Bruce)...who somehow received it when it was found that a boar pig doesnt make for good eating..and graciously gave it to Coalman..and..delivered it from Lebanon, Nh as well..

I learned you wear rubber gloves as soon as you touch anything to do with lobstah bait..or you suffer infections from mere scratches..don't tell me twice..I wore gloves..we unwrapped frozen sausage and bacon and filled the 28 bait bags..why 28? cuz we had 28 traps to check and rebait..and if we ended up with more bait bags than traps..we knew we had to have a trap with a float under water in the running tide or that someone had moved or stolen a trap..
while unwrapping..we got the freezer paper off first..[now I HAD ALREADY DONE A COUPLE..LEAST A 1/2 DOZEN]..when he asked me if I was gonna take the clear plastic wrapping under the freezer paper off too...I said I just thought it would last longer in the traps with the plastic wrap still on it..lol..needless to say..the Capt. found my inexperieince right off and the share price for me dropped considerably before we left the dock..


1/2 dozen times that day he mentioned how grateful he was for Bruce getting him the pigbait and bringing it down..
and for XP600's love of one liners..is Coalman's wifes one liner.."those lobsters are gonna do some squealing when they smell that pig bait."

once we had everything stowed..we headed out..7:30 am on th eBay is like a piece of heaven..

as we crossed under the low bridge you all saw in the pics..from last years striper trip w/ him..we entered his "PLayLand"...now fondly thought of as his Dutch Harbor and Bering Sea..
the water was flat..mirror flat..no boat traffic..no wakes..we saw 1 other skiff w/ 2 guys heading out to fish and that was it..sea birds..and blue skies..the only hint of a breeze was what we were making motoring over the flats to the trapline....

How he keeps track of 28 traps is beyond me..like the guys on dealiest catch..he has them spread out all over the bay in favorite "holes'..he knows from the weather where they should be.mostly dependent on the rain which affects the salinity of the Bay and the locations where he sets up...whether they should be on flat floor or rocky..whether they are hard or soft shelled which tells him where to set them..we moved a few but not many..he was "dialed in" on this trip.. [from a series on deadliest catch..his favorite..we were fishing 'family ground' on this day..in preference to his dad's b/day I think..whatever..it was working]..

ok..on to the pics..
.finding traps

these are the nylon bait bags we filled w/ pig bait..the idea was let them lay a chum line to draw the lobstahs; (bugs) to the traps and then let his real bait....SEALURE..(chunks of cow and beefhide w/ hair on)..lure them into the traps..IT WORKED flawlessly..
bait

This was the first trap of the day... my first viewing of a working trap..[sure is smaller than the traps we fished with in the bay at Dutch Harbor] but works as well for sure..
first trap

[img][img][/img][/img]

Here he is..reaching into the trap to retireve a 'bug'...
each trap has 2 nylon bags of bait..one filed with his regular "sea-lure' bait..the other w/ his piglure..

as you view the traps..notice the plastic rings of different colors attached to the top of the trap..these are some kind of seals or markers..indicating how many seasons he has fished this trap..I didn't ask but I'm sure its some kind of licensing requirement..
reaching for "BUGS"..(LOBSTAHS")



how to measure a lobstah

he has a small rectangular metal 'scale' he measures each lobster with..measurement from front corner of mouth to a horizontal growth line across the back of the shell (you can see it in a couple pics on here)..plus..you have to flip them over and inspect the bellies..the top 2 flippers on the belly are a hen if they're soft..male if they're firm..
also check for eggs..and also check for a 'notch' cut in one of the flippers indicating a no no keeper cuz it's a breeding hen..



in the background behind Coalman is a motorized (12volt) electric winch..
motorized lobstah trap puller..he motors up beside the float connected to the trap via a rope..(75' his longest on his sets..)..pulls the float and any slack line into the boat..(stay out of his way when he's got the rythm going or that rope will grab your foot as he slides the trap back into the water and guns the engine heading for the next set..)..then wraps the rope over the
big stainless pulley...and left side of rope over small lower left pulley..and right side of rope (heavy side) over lower right pulley..he steps on a foot control butoon on floor to activate electric winch and it pulls the heavy metal traps to the surface where he then slides them onto a work platform attached to the starboard side gunnel..to empty and rebait..then slide back into the water..slowly guiding the trap by his hand and feel..to sit rightside up and flat when it hits bottom..and dumps the float into the water...and on to the next one to do it all over again..




it was HOT out there..wasn't long before he rid the sweatshirt and hat..then glasses as the sweat beaded his brow..true mark of a working BayMan.. I performed flawlessly as a first mate..keeping him from becoming dehydrated with constant and continuous trips to the cooler..
as the sun hetaed up..off came the sweatshirt and hat..and the bugs kept coming..

about 1/2 way thru the trapline..I knew something was happening.. I wasn't sure what..he was getting pretty excited..the traps were producing well..I think we only had 3 "duds"..and he moved them to better producing spots as we moved along..

and coming..



I think we had 1 trap w/ 5 in it...unbelieveable!..He mentioned the pigbait and Bruce a dozen more times..as he smiled..we laughed and high 5'd at every bug we kept..
and coming..






when the last trap was emptied and rebaited..he let me know of this successful harvest..best day he has this year 22 'keepahs'...
we motored to his "keepah" trap..where he keeps his harvest of a week or two til he needs them to eat etc..and we put our catch of th eday in the keepah trap to stay fresh..we were gonna continue our run of luck and see how we could do fishing for an hour so..

during our trapping..we had seen signs of pogies surfacing..huge ripples and occasional backs and fins flying across the surface as they raced to escape stripers or blues beneath them..
as we followed a shoreline we saw them rippling and splashing..

following his instincts...we raced ahead of them and Coalman dug thru his cuddycabin and found a denim laundry bag with a gill net in it..in moments he had it set out and fishing..
but in the moments it took to get it set and drifting just right to get it deep enuf and open enuf to "'fish",,we must have seen a school w / a couple thousand pogies swim by..literally all around and under the boat..when he had it set..you could feel the tension in his tending end of the rope as they hit the net and tangled..then even see th eflaot ball out on the working end of the net bounce like a bobber as they got caught up by the gills in the nylon mesh..

our first catch was 7....
now I've fished w/ pogies before..but these were MONSTER pogies to me anyway..I said I'd be happy catching these on rod and reel all day..they were 14-17" long..at least 2 lb's..!!

backing up a minute..as we saw the pogies skimming the surface..a yuppie boat came by with 3 fishermen who were in a tournament..where they said the winning striper was only 24" so far

they asked Coalman if he had seen any pogies..(they were right there as we spotted the school skimming ..and never saw a thing..!) and he answered.."Hang on..there's some right here I'll get some for ya!"..they watched in stunned silence as he pulled out the net, caught the 7..and motored over and handed them two..

our job now was to keep them alive..til we got to the fishing grounds Coalman "felt good" about to fish w/ pogies..w/ out a livewell our chances were slim keeping them alive long..we were changing water in 5 gallon buckets about every 2 minutes..

once we got to his "hidey hole"...the two on our lines..were fine back in the water..the others were suffering from the lack of aerated water and the heat shining down on them..
annyhooo..I trusted him explicitly altho I was a little nervous about the huge size of the bait we were using..
thinking back to last years trip..the schoolie I caught was about the size of this bait..

I asked him a couple times.."how big are these stripers gonna have to be to suck in one of these huge pogies? he kept saying nonchalantly..'20 to 30 lbs'..[Ya ok I thought..noon on the hottest day of the year..blue sky w no clouds in sight..and flat water at low tide..]

we drifted over a flat twice..w/ BayMan carefully adjusting our side-drift (paying attention Danny? lol) to stay in line with our free-lining and drifting monster pogies..On our first drift we had barely got our lines out and he got hit w/ a "slurpee"..His pogie flew 3' out of the water..surrounded by a 4' swirl and splash beneath it..the second time the striper threw it up out of the water..I saw the side of the fish just underwaterand it made the huge bait look small.. 5,6, 7 "slurpees" before she took the pogie and ran with it..The BayMan has the patience of Jobe waiting for the perfect moment..and then..SLAM..he set the hook and "FISH ON!" His rod bent in 1/2 and she started taking line like crazy..drag screaming in a continuous 40-50 yard run before the sound let up..as he started his first cranks..she spit the pogie and we lost her..

now instead of being disappointed..he was as excited as a kid on Xmas Day.."get your bait in..we're gonna go back and do that again..there's some big ones right there..YOU'RE GONNA CATCH ONE!"..we motored back and started a redrift..
we watched our lines and watched the pogies (on our lines) surface and run a couple times and we knew something was under them making them nervous and head outa Dodge!

the third drift was the key..he kept telling me I'd get hit either just before or just after the top of the flat hump..
with my bail open I suddenly watched my line take off about 4 times faster than a scared pogie can swim and I knew something was up!.."David.....DAVID!!! Somethings happening here!" all I heard was "set the hook" from behind me..
Set it I did...and watched my tip throbbing and bouncing as it slowly bent fwd and down nearly touching the water before the drag allowed line to go out..then she took off on a reel screaming run and he yelled.."set it again"..wanting me to be sure she was on and wouldn't get away..a sharp upward tug and I knew she was on good..

'How big is it?', he asked..

"Big enuf to eat that pogie" I answered laughing..

10 minutes later..I guided it boatside and David slid her into the net..

35 " and 20 pounds on the nose..

as he started the boat..and we returned to set up another drift..we checked the pogies in the buckets..lifeless....

"take mine off my rod and put it on yours" he said..go ahead and catch another one!"..

"Ya right".."now it's your turn" I answered...a heated argument ensued but my age and 70 pounds I had on him won out so he started drifting his pogie in the same place and on th e
same line we just caught one on..

we had to have been within yards of where mine was caught when his bait surfaces and took off like a linebacker in the superbowl getting out of there fast..
previous indications insured us we should go back and try it again..one more time..so we did..

this time..when the bait surfaced it was immediately grabbed by a hungry striper and then..
"Fish ON" again..this time she didnt get away...after some super powerful runs that made us both think she was way bigger than she ended up...we landed Capt. Coalmans' striper.. a sister to mine..fittingly..an older and bigger sister however..
37" and 21 pounds!
successful harvest



and another pic of the bountuiful harvest of the Bay by the BayMan



pogies


keepin pogies alive........

[img][img][/img][/img]

fish on



success..35" "Pig" 20 pound club..IN the Bay..high noon..(actually 12:30 PM) live lining..



w/ 1 pogie left alive..the one on his pole..bayman insisted I take it..and keep fishing..

Ya right! I outweigh him by at least 70 pounds so he didn't stand a chance..lol so the Master..gave "grasshopper " a show..

fish on again..

[img][img][/img][/img]

and success...I don't mind being beat by the best..
37" and 21 pound "pig"...the sister to mine..

[img][img][/img][/img]

and 1 more of her..cuz she was worth the effort..and we were glad the day was over and we could find some shade and beat the heat..(alto if we had more pogies and no lobster orders to deliver..we may have stayed 2 or 3 more tides..lol

very nice...i did not see any rubber bands on the claws. i though they had rubber bands on their claws.