The fog is thick on this September morning as Ken Weed pulls up to Lincolnville’s fish pier in Little Rocker, his 32-year-old lobster boat. Most lobstermen work with a stern man and Ken’s no exception. Dressed head to foot in fisherman’s gear – rubber boots and heavy rubber overalls, thick gloves and topped off with a ball cap, his stern man is all business. She’s also his wife.

Doris Weed, known to most of us in Lincolnville as the face of the Town Office, has already started up the motor on one of the two tall winches which are fastened to ends of the dock, and hefted plastic crates filled with bait into position under it.

She attaches the ropes, which she has carefully arranged around the crates to the hook dangling from the winch that pulls them up in the air. Ken, on the idling boat, grabs and pulls them into position to be lowered onto the deck. Four crates of herring and a couple more of red fish complete the load.

The bait comes from O’Hara’s in Rockland, delivered weekly in large insulated boxes to the pier, per the order of the eight lobstermen who fish from Lincolnville’s dock. Harbor Master Mike Hutchings gets each fisherman’s order, then notifies O’Hara’s. Ken orders red fish racks separately (the carcass of a fish that’s had its fillets removed before being frozen for bait); some of the other fishermen prefer pogies.

Once the bait’s aboard Ken pulls away from the dock and the real work of lobstering begins. Doris has opened up two of the crates, one filled with orange net bags which, the day before she’d filled to the brim with herring, 10 to 12 per bag, and the other with foot-long red fish racks.

“They come from Canada,” Ken explains, “and they actually make more on the bait than the fillets.”

A couple of minutes later and the boat’s stopped at a solid orange buoy marking the first traps of the day. They’ll be pulling a string of 70 traps today, the line of traps reaching from right off the ferry dock at the Beach northeast along the shore to Northport.

Ken leans out with a long hook – a gaff – to grab the rope attached to the buoy and pulls it up and over the power winch on the side of the boat. He makes a few deft movements, the winch turns and a wire lobster trap emerges, dripping from the depths. Sliding it along the rail to Doris, he turns to the second trap attached by rope to the first. Each tends to one trap, opening the top, lifting out the empty bait bag, and re-baiting.

Doris has the bait ready. She’s prepared two redfish with what look like giant sewing machine needles with a wood handle piercing their eye sockets. Ken grabs one and a filled bait bag for his trap, while she tends hers. They quickly thread a heavy nylon cord fastened inside the trap through the eye of the spike and then through the sockets of the fish. Each trap gets both a bag of herring and a redfish.

Now they quickly pull out the catch, measuring the carapace of each lobster, and checking to see if they have an egg-bearing female or one with a notched tail. These are thrown back, insuring a healthy population of baby lobsters to come. The notched females may not be carrying eggs at the time, but the notch indicates that this one has been identified as a breeder.

Doris methodically bands each keeper, both the crusher and the pincer claws, then drops it into the tank that fills the middle of the deck. The stern man, working along the trap rail, must always be aware of the rope on the floor below the rail, the rope that swiftly follows each trap as its pushed down off the stern of the boat and into the depths. This is the rope that can turn deadly on a lobster boat if a foot becomes entangled in it as it rushes by on its way to the bottom, attached to a heavy trap.

The two don’t talk much; there’s the sound of the motor, and the sense that conversation might slow things down. Ken is intent on the screen in front of him, the GPS leading him through the fog, which after an hour or so has begun to lift. Each pair of traps is marked with an X on the screen’s map of the shore. Once the traps are tended to and dumped back overboard he deletes the X, and marks their new location which, since the boat drifts as it idles, could be several boat lengths from their original location.

Doris, meanwhile, is busy keeping the deck clear, scrubbing the oily bait tubs as they’re emptied with soapy water from a tub of hot seawater and stacking them neatly in the stern.

By late morning the last of the traps is pulled, emptied and re-baited. The Little Rocker heads back to the dock, but the day’s work isn’t done. The lobsters have to be loaded into crates, the deck washed down, aprons and overalls scrubbed, bait tubs off-loaded, the boat tied to its mooring, and the lobsters delivered to Young’s in Belfast.

At some point before the next day’s hauling the bait bags must be filled, and diesel fuel for the boat hauled down to the dock.

Each fisherman is allowed 800 traps; Ken has 375 in the water this year.

“We’re old,” he explains, “and we don’t want to push so hard.”

“Old” means 74 for the Captain and 70 for his stern man.

Ken, a Camden native, has been fishing for some 46 years. He began as a young husband and father, fishing alone as a part-timer with just 50 traps. He had a steady paycheck from his job at Wayfayer in Camden, hauling, launching and maintaining yachts, but would get out at 4 a.m. to haul his traps before 7, then leave after work to haul until sunset.

Over the years he continued the pattern, combining regular work – driving trucks, working at boatyards, caretaking – with lobstering. Sometimes he worked alone, but often had a stern man, including, one summer, his granddaughter.

Lobstering is hard on the fisherman’s body. Pulling traps that can weigh 100 pounds or more is tough on the shoulders and back, even with a motor-driven hauler. A few years ago Ken installed an “easy block” to his winch, the invention of a Maine lobsterman from somewhere Downeast who faced giving up fishing or wrecking his shoulder. With finger-like extensions that grab the bridle as it comes out of the water the device eases the strain on the fisherman’s vulnerable shoulder.

“Some guys don’t like it,” Ken says. “It takes some getting used to.”

But it’s one of the accommodations that make it possible for him to keep fishing.

The other must be having a stern man who is also his wife.

Doris Weed, who grew up on a farm a few hundred feet from the shore where her husband now fishes, was the backbone of the Lincolnville Town Office for 27 years, serving as treasurer, deputy tax collector, and in nearly every other capacity.

The Town Office was a single, small room in the school when she began, until the move to the new Town Office building on Hope Road in the 1980s. During her years there the town moved from a selectmen form of government to a town administrator – Doris served under all three administrators.

But sitting behind a desk for eight hours a day was beginning to get to her. It was time for a change, and she chose February 2, 2013 as the day she’d retire.

That spring she started in her new job as her husband’s stern man.

“The first year was hard,” she says now, struggling with the physical demands, the unrelenting noise, and the smell of the bait – she had to put Vicks VapoRub under her nose to stand it. A big hurdle, she says, was learning to pierce those fish eyes!

Today it’s like she has a different body, one that’s stronger, more fit. Some of the aches and pains of a chair-bound job have been exchanged for different ones. Hefting around heavy crates, filling dozens of bait bags, impaling dead fish through the eyeballs didn’t come easy. A regular visit to a masseuse helps.

Just as challenging was learning her husband’s routine on board the Little Rocker. There’s a rhythm to their movements as Ken maneuvers the boat and pulls up the traps and she handles the bait. Barely a word passes between them, hardly an extra motion as the first, then the second trap, is slid down the rail and into the water.

With the potentially deadly rope rushing after the sinking traps at her feet, Doris has already got the next round of bait in place, swabbed down the rail and perhaps scrubbed and stacked the empty bait crates. And Ken has the boat pointed towards the next X on the screen, plowing slowly and methodically along the string of traps, invisible on the rocky bottom of Penobscot Bay.

They’ll be home by noon and only haul four days a week until the storms of late fall. But the actual fishing is just a piece of this endeavor. There’re traps to repair, a boat to haul and store for winter, buoys to paint, rope – endless rope – to keep track of, wooden rails to saw, crates to steam clean. The gear alone seems like a full-time job.

It’s certainly not the retirement most people aspire to; sounds much more like living life to its fullest.

School

From the eighth grade: “Time once again to get your car in pristine condition for the upcoming winter. The Lincolnville Eighth grade can help by getting your car spotlessly clean! Drop by Key Bank, Hannaford's Plaza in Camden on Saturday, September 29 (rain date, October 6) and let us pamper your car. Washing will start promptly at 9 a.m. and conclude at 1 p.m..Get your car spotlessly clean and help the Lincolnville Eighth grade with fundraising for their trip to Quebec!”

Library

Knitting & Needlework meets Tuesday, September 25, 4-6 p.m. Escape to the library - enjoy the charming atmosphere for a friendly gathering of talented fiber-loving enthusiasts.  Bring your projects – knitting, crochet, felting, embroidery – all needle crafts are welcomed.

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Flu Shots

This Saturday, September 29, 9-11 a.m. the Camden District Nurses will be at Tranquility Grange with flu shots; these are free to those with Medicare.

Roadside Clean-up

Come join the Lincolnville Roadside Clean-up on Friday, October 12, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday, October 13, 9-noon to pick up Lincolnville's roadsides. All supplies will be provided. Meet at the Library at the beginning of each day, but you can come anytime during the cleanup to be assigned a road and pick up supplies. Sponsors are the Lincolnville Community Library and Midcoast Waste Watch.

Have Net Will Travel

Greta Gulezian is a big pickleball fan. She’s always looking for a chance to play and even has her own net and extra paddles. Come join her at the Lincolnville Lynx courts next to the school this coming Thursday evening, 5:45 p.m. whether you’re an experienced pickleball player or a rank beginner. Play until sunset. And if you’re hooked, come back Saturday morning at 9 to play until 10:30.

The game is easy to learn, and within an hour you’ll be playing. Great exercise and tons of fun! With sunset coming earlier, this will be the last Thursday of the season, but Greta plans to continue Saturday mornings, weather permitting, throughout October at least. Come by and give it a try. For more information contact Greta: 763-4863 or by email.

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