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We have now had lobster pie and lobster rolls but have waited to find the real thing.
After checking with park rangers and some friendly locals, this seems to be the number one place for lobster.
This is a real Maine lobster pound. Filled with sea water, the pots are fired up from 8am to 10pm every day.
A quick check with these experienced seafood eaters confirmed that this is indeed the place for the best tasting lobster.
It didn’t take long for us to find them inside either!
After a little advice from the owner’s son--
--we picked out our own and had them weighed.
Almost three pounds. Our diets will have to start tomorrow.
First placed into a mesh bag, they are then dropped into the boiling sea water.
Our bag is numbered 32.
And in no time at all we have our steaming bag of fresh Maine lobsters!
They tasted as good as they look.
Judy getting ready for a real feast.
She decided to take her jacket off and give this her best shot.
It was so good that we finished it off with a batch of steamed clams.
Dip those clams in salt water and then into hot melted butter and you’re in sea-food heaven.
The end of another good day in Maine.
A pleasant ride today took us along Somes Sound, a five mile long narrow bay sometimes incorrectly referred to as a fjord.
There are many lobster bouys here and we noticed this fisherman checking his traps. Each trap is attached to a bouy by a long rope.
All his bouys are green with one black vertical stripe, just like the one he’s displaying from his antennae. All lobstermen have their own color scheme to identify themselves and their bouys from all others.
There is a definite method to this. As the boat pulls along side one of its bouys--
--the rope on the bouy is hooked by a pole and the bouy is brought aboard and placed in a bucket.
The rope is attached to a winch and the boat is idled and turned in a tight circle around the rope as the trap is raised from the bottom.
The trap is placed on the side of the boat.
That green and orange bouy belongs to another lobsterman and has a trap below.
The hole in the net on the left is where the lobster enters the trap.
The red and green rectangle slots in the traps are escape hatches to allow undersize lobsters to escape, but legal size ones cannot fit and get back out.
The top is opened and anything that is not legal is returned to the water.
Old bait is removed and thrown overboard. Gulls know exactly when to fly by.
New bait is prepared and tied into the trap.
The trap is closed and placed on the side.
The captain then goes to the wheel and lets the trap slip back into the water.
The bouy follows it over the side to mark its position--
--and the fisherman steers the boat away through the colored bouys--
--until he gets to his next one. He checks these traps every one or two days in any weather.
Lobster is king on Desert Island and it’s presence is everywhere.
There are a number of seaside fishing villages with all the related businesses.
These are commercial areas and not tourist centered, so we really enjoyed visiting them.
The nearby roads lead to telltale signs of fisherman’s homes. Most were very neat with rows of traps and equipment in the yard.
A lobsterman’s day is long and busy.
A fisherman typically owns 500-700 of these traps and checks them every other day in any weather.
He also has to keep his boat, truck,equipment and home in good repair.
Many of these families have been fishing for generations and love the sea.
