The Art of Observation

Today we hauled a pair of traps that dripped black, smelly mud from the runners as they sat on the rail. I noticed it and commented: "Oh, there's the black mud again." Cap replied with a shade of surprise in his voice: "Yep! You know where we are!" There is just one location in all of our 75 pair of traps where this black mud occurs. It is smelly because the anaerobic (living in the absence of oxygen) bacteria that thrive there produce hydrogen sulfide, which is also responsible for sewers and mudflats smelling the way they do. I notice it every time we come to that location, even though I couldn't begin pinpoint where on the chart we are between Haddock Island and Pemaquid Point (a five mile stretch). It is simply by observing the smell, texture and color of that mud that I know it is the same spot.

After that simple exchange today, I got to thinking about how prevalent observation is in fishing. Observation is essentially being aware of one's environment, which is crucial to being a successful fisherman. A captain has to continually be on his toes. (S)He must be aware of where buoys are in relation to the propellor, notice which areas are fishing better, observe what kind of bait is more effective at drawing shrimp, etc.

Anyone who thinks that fishermen are knuckleheads is mistaken. Well, I guess some of them are. Some of them can make a day's pay simply from brute force: tearing through traps and profiting solely on quantity. But the individuals who are good at fishing, good at the game I mean, are keen strategists.

Observation is the first step in the scientific method (observe a phenomenon, design an experiment that isolates it, form a hypothesis, and test the hypothesis). In my opinion a good fisherman is a scientist. (S)He is repeatedly observing a variable and conjecturing that it might influence the catch, devising a way to distinguish this variable, and testing it.

This manner of experimenting has led us to use pogies in addition to ground herring. We started out only using herring and observed that all the other fishermen were swearing by pogies. We tested pogies out by baiting only the northernmost pair on each string of traps with a pogie included. Sure enough, once those girl shrimp started getting hungry, they were really digging the pogies. This is just one example of the many observations of varying factors and experiments that has occured on Cap's boat this season.

Even though fishermen may not be formally testing their hypotheses, they are continually performing some loose version of the scientific method in order to improve the quality of fishing. They do not claim to be scientists, but the art of observation is a powerful tool in fishing and shouldn't be underestimated.