Sorry folks....It was just an uneventful week, and I dont want to bore you all with fish stories every week..but..Ive been fishing almost everyday, and when you have pd..and you fish..you fish..and you rest..It steals alot of time and mental energy away from other aspects of my life..It has been a game of getting all my ducks in a row lately..The price of conch, the species that I fish for, went from $1.15 per pound in the early summer, to .70 cents per pound in the late summer, and presently the price Ive been working on now..So its been a game of economic roullette

Conch = .70 cents per pound

Gasoline = $2.65 per gal

Bait..Frozen horseshoe crab..Male crab = $1.50 a piece..Female crab = $2.50 a piece

So heres what Ive been doing for the past 3 weeks..The only other bait that works is the green crab..which I can catch myself..but..it cost me my time and gas, and It costs me one tank of gas ($15.00) to catch enough crabs to bait 25 traps..I have to haul about 15 crab traps to catch that amount..I am only capable of hauling 50 conch traps per day because of pd..So if I haul 15 crab traps, it takes away from how many conch traps that I can haul per day..Plus, the crab traps are a hike across the upper bay and the weather prevents me from going there when I need to..and the green crabs arent catching me enough conch to justify fishing for them..So its back to buying frozen horseshoe crabs, which is the best bait, for big $$$..When conch is $1.15 per pound you can afford to buy bait, but when they are .70 cents per pound the bait becomes expensive..So the riddle that has to be solved is this:..What is the minimal amount of bait in each trap can that you get away with, and still produce enough conch to turn a profit?..Female crabs are much larger than male crabs..I can cut a male crab in 2 pieces, at .75 cents per half per trap..I can cut the female crabs in 4 pieces at .61 cents per quarter per trap..A trap catches anywhere from 3-10 lbs of conch per trap..If you can average 5 lbs per trap, you can turn a reasonable profit if you haul 50 traps..that is, if you dont have to travel far to work your traps..because of the $2.65 per gal of gas price

So the deal is to set the traps in productive areas as close to home port as possible, with the minimal amount of bait possible in each trap, and using whatever else crawls in the trap as supplimental bait

So thats the numbers game Ive been playing for the past few weeks, and it has consisted of moving my traps all over creation, and losing money, up untill this week..Tending traps is a numbers game, and I think Ive finally got it together..Just like "Deadliest Catch"...But on a less lethal, and smaller scale..

Vicky..I decided to not post the pictures because, although I may think they are funny, someone else may get offended..and I felt that this thread isnt a good place for that, especially when controversy is brought on by the thread's host..Ive posted the same stuff, and worse, on a political message board and it gets some laughing, and others foaming at the mouth..All depends of your partisanship loyalties, and the thread topic of discussion, if you know what I mean..As Ive said..it either draws laughter, or getting cussed out..Ive been called anything from brilliant to childish, and some things that I dont think Dr John would appreciate if it were repeated here..