Wanna Fish For Crab and Lobster Like the "Deadliest Catch" Guys?

Lobster and crab fishing are one of the several open sea fishing styles glorified by popular television in the mid 2000’s and on. Shows like the “Deadliest Catch” show how hard life can be on a boat like that, but leave many wondering just how to start out on their own adventures where the risks are high, but the money is even better when it works right.

Buy an appropriate boat. It must be big enough to handle round open water as you must travel further out in the deeper ocean water in the colder months. Trawlers are a favored style of boat for lobster and crab fishing in deep water. Boats must also be large enough, and have the storage capability to carry tens of thousands of pounds of lobster at each outing. Search online at boat sales resources such as yachtworld.com, iboats.com and boats.com have large inventories of sale boats listed. Retiring seamen may have vessels for sale if you know someone who is retiring.

Learn how to operate your boat safely by taking a boater safety course. Check with the local government in the area you plan on setting your traps to find out if you will need a commercial fishing license, or a special boating license for commercial fishing if you plan on reselling the catch.

Prepare to work long hours on a seasonal basis. There is no starting and ending time each day. The day starts as soon as the season opens, and traps are taken out and released. When the traps are ready to bring in you have to be prepared to bring them in regardless of what is going on, and drop them back down again in a continuous process until the season ends in order to maximize your total catch.

Get physically ready for a demanding and strenuous job that includes a lot of running around and heavy lifting in all types of weather.

Know the best places to set traps to get the most in each set to be a captain. It is the captain’s job to understand how much each trap should bring in, and how to calculate the minimum and maximum possible catch, what the breakeven point in order to cover all costs including that of any employee wages. The captain also needs to know how to fully operate all navigate and communication equipment for safety purposes.

Work your way up from a deck hand if you have no experience in the fishing industry. Deck hands, also known as boatswains, will learn everything about maintaining a boat from the bottom up, how to catch and process the type of fish the vessel is on, care for equipment including nets, lines, winches, and traps. How to fish for bait when supplies are low, and can work up to first mate, and then if ready, captain. To be a boatswain or first mate, you do not need to own your own boat, so it is much cheaper to get in, but many captains do not like to hire people with no fishing experience, so learn all you can ahead of time to prove your ability and worthiness.