ABOUT LOBSTERS 81 



played host to algae or shellfish attractive to lobsters. A salt- 

 water angler knows that the most fish are found around 

 wrecks. In any case, LobLure was not able to find any im- 

 proved attraction from the use of coco butter. It is interest- 

 ing to note that coco oil has the unusual property of blend- 

 ing with sea water. 



The high content of phosphorus in lobster meat 1 led to 

 a search to learn if phosphorus added to a bait could be an 

 attractant. A Danish patent (No. 23445 of September 1918) 

 was discovered and translated. It describes the use of phos- 

 phorus mixed with animal intestines in fish oil and claims it 

 is a successful bait. (It does not specify lobsters.) Since 

 there are two kinds of phosphorus, red and white, and since 

 white phosphorus is highly poisonous and has to be kept 

 under water lest it burst into flames, it seemed evident that 

 red phosphorus was the only material to use. 



Phosphorus, in either form, is insoluble in water. Hence 

 its addition to a bait did not promise much. If the Danish 

 patent had said phosphoric acid, it is possible that benefi- 

 cial results might have been obtained, but that is not what 

 the patent says. 



The Danish formula was copied exactly and fished 22 

 times against redfish bait. None of the phosphorus baits 

 caught even a single lobster, while the redfish baits caught 

 36 lobsters. 



The next step was away from the soap cake into a paste 

 bait. Since a soft bait would have to be held in a container, 

 as well as need more protection from fish and sea fleas, it 

 was necessary to develop something better than the old- 

 style wooden bait box. Over fifty models were built and 

 tried. Eventually, LobLure settled on a cylindrical screen 

 container (2" diameter x 8") made of heavy wire with 

 wooden bungs for ends and lined with plastic window 

 screening to exclude sea fleas. With the containers went an 

 ice cream scoop to handle the pasty bait. With the paste 

 baits a new formula was evolved which included some 

 ground fresh fish scrap, and had good fishing qualities. 



1 See page 28. 



