ABOUT LOBSTERS 79 



kept, as had probably never been done before. Tests were 

 made with a string of pots, each alternate pot carrying the 

 test bait, the other pots baited with redfish as a standard for 

 comparison. 



The importance of such recorded tests cannot be over- 

 emphasized. An example was the hauling of a test pot hav- 

 ing five large lobsters in it. The lobsterman was delighted, 

 waved his hands around and yelled, " You've got it, boys, 

 you've got it!" If LobLure had had only his opinion to go 

 on, they would have been delighted too. But the record of 

 that string of pots showed this haul was a fluke, and it had 

 not averaged as well as redfish. 



In going out with lobstermen, the LobLure experi- 

 menters learned about lobsters as few people, except profes- 

 sional lobstermen, could. In addition, they learned which 

 beliefs about lobsters were probably true, and which ones 

 were doubtful. (For example, they tested the widely held 

 belief that a brick soaked in kerosene " will fish like a fool." J^- 

 It won't. It will fish, but only about 60 per cent as well as 

 redfish.) They learned fishing habits from Cutler, Maine, 

 down through Connecticut; some were very intelligent and 

 a few were just " notions." 



Fundamentally, die problem was to learn what lobster- 

 attractive substances there are in dead fish. It did not sound 

 too difficult. But what is chemically in a dead fish now is 

 not what is in that same fish an hour from now, since de- 

 composition is constantly changing the structure of the fish. 



Two chemicals were found in quantity, acetic acid and 

 ammonium compounds. The problem then was to soak these 

 materials up in a carrier, and there would be your bait. For 

 a carrier, many things were tried, from sawdust to fishmeal. 

 It was found that fishmeal was the best carrier, but fishmeal 

 alone would not catch lobsters, particularly if it was oily. If 

 the oil was pressed out it was much better ( it is hard to un- 

 derstand this contradiction), and if only a little freshly 

 ground fish were added it was very much better. 



The next problem was how to dispense this bait in a 



