Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-08-12
LOBSTERS ARE SHEDDING.
Why is 1t That Soft Shelled Ones Never
Come to Market2
Some Secrets Of the Sea Told by an
The Bother Of Stray Cats.
Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
ASBURY PARK, August 10. 1893.
''Never seed a soft-shelled lobster? Well,
that's not surprisin'. You see. they never
always get ate first"
The grizzled old fisherman wrung the salt
water out of his whiskers he talked,
having just landed through the surf in his
boat with a fine cargo of fresh-causht lob
sters.
"A soft-shelled lobster does not turn UP
every day. even at this season." he went
on. when / catch one my wife cooks it
for our own dinner. Good? Well, You can
bet. Fried in boiling lard. just like a newly
shed crab. it's the finest thing earth in
the way Of provender. Something like
crab YOU know, but a great deal more de-
licious. Delmonico would give SO a dozen
for EN-. only that they can't be got for
any price.
You see. when the Holsters are shedding
hide n une S hSeV sen hseir he new Coats
they don't usually walk abroad, but stay
quietly in dark crannies where no enemy
are not apt to be looking for food and they
don't get into the pots on that account
There isn't any animal that is Drawer than
a lobster when ne is In fighting trim, but
without his armor he is habby and heip-
less, and ii can't be expected that he should
take any extra risk. It's only a fooiish one
traps.
one to grow. P'r'aps you'd feel a trlfie
sensitive and retirin'. That's just the way
it Is with a lobster His coat is OF plate
mail. 1t doesn't expand as he develops
So the time comes when he must swell or
bust. He busts, and, when he comes out
of his shell, he is bigger by considerable
strain on his health and sometimes he dies
in getting through with IL. he has 70 90
the same thing a good many times before
he gets his full growth, but after that ne
doesn't shed any more.
This is the season when Holsters shed.
Most of those we catch are busters. That
is what we call those that are on the point
of changing their coats. To do II, they go
way out to sea, SO that just now we nave
to go twenty miles rom land to eaten
them. 1t doesn't take much skill You see,
we find them wherever there is rocky Dot
tom. Out where we go look for them
there are great reef, of r eks outeroppins.
Holsters make their home in summer, shed
ding their coats as people shed their
clothes to go in bathing along this shore
Pots for Trapping LObsters.
Ibid you ever see a lobster potT Here is
an old one that has got rotten and isn't
good for anything any more. You see.
it's simply a cylinder of ordinary netting
made OF Irvine. on a frame. At one end II
has a cone-shaped opening. Inside Of IT
half a dozen fish heads are hung in
bunch. The baited pot lies on the bottom.
and by and by the Holsters gather about
it, attracted by the fish heads. They
scramble around until they ind the open
ing at the end. Then they walk in. To do
that is easy enough, but IT is a mighty
smart lobster that can get out again. In
trying to do SO they crawl through this
second cone-shaped opening, which admits
them to another compartment of the trap.
That being the easy way to go, they choose
It, Consequently. when we haul up the
I-a nd rnctT Of harm, a., hat
ment, from which Ii Is practically irlpos-
sible for them to escape.
Me and my. side partner have forty Of
these pots anchored out on the rocks now.
They are in eighteen fathoms OF water and
about sixty or seventy feet apart. Arrang-
60 s,, m ina. way they cover pretty wide
buoys attached to them with small ropes
Though so far out in the ocean. we never
have the slightest difficulty in finding the
traps. We have certain well-known land
marks on shore, such as church steeples
and tail trees, which we sight for ranges
With two such ranges a considerable dis
within yard.
Every morning we go out haul up the
traps again: The catch is a good deal like
gambling. Sometimes We will get a good
haul. and sometimes very few. On an av-
erage each pot ought to take six or seven
Holsters every twenty-four hours Iut
| they are no longer so plentiful as they
used TO be, and every year they are get
sixty Holsters at once In a single trap. No,
/! don't often get bitten. There's a way to
handle EN- that is part OF the business
You take 'em by the back. SO. and they
can't get their pincers on You. Because
they are fshed for so much Holsters don't
have a chance to grow to any great size
Not very many years ago ten-pounders
were often taken. l have seen a lobster
that weighed eighteen pounds. and there is
record OF 'em up to thirty pounds and
even more.
Coming fn shore.
''You understand. the Holsters don't
spend all of the year so far out in the
ocean. In the fall they come toward shore
so that We get 'em within a mile and a half
of land. There isn't anything SO attractive
as bait for lobster as fish heads. They
would rather have them than the best beef
steak. 1t doesn't natter how rotten they
are Lobsters, you know, are foul feeders
II Is different with crabs. which don't like
decayed flesh.
deal of trouble with cats that get on our
fishing lines. No, / 1ont mean CO fish, but
ordinary land cats. There are about mil
lion of them in and about Asburv Park
Summer cottagers make pets of them. ard
then leave them TO shift for themselves
when they go away. So II happens that
come after the fish and CLAIMS that We bait
our hooks with. Because we must go out
very early in the morning to set our ira WI
lines, we bait the hooks the night before
and leave the lines ready coiied in tubs In
the morning we sometimes find half a dozen
cats hooked fast.
Troublesome Cats.
Another way that the cats have of giving
trouble is by getting tangled up in the nets
which We leave stretched at night to dry
1t is not uncommon to find two or three
pussies gilled in the meshes, and some
times they get so wound up in them by
struggling that they have to be cut out
Occasionally a stray dog will DO the same
thing. I have dog of my own that il a
regular fisherman. He eats nothing but
fish. always goes out in my boat with me-
and to see him fight a lobster is worth
dollar, IL he is only little yaler cur. En-
Whiskers, Don't you bark, nowv'
Five miles south Of Asbury Park Is
Shark river where crabs Just like those Of
the Potomac are abundant. One enter
prising fisherman has set UP a number of
pounds there-enclosu-es in which large
numbers Of crabs are kept and regularly
fed on fish. They are simply water spaces
fenced in. Every day the crustacean oc-
cupants are looked over. and those of them
which have newly shed are taken out and
packed for market in seaweed. They are
sent to New York to regale ep!cures who
appreciate soft crabs in season.
It's Location.