Fishing Notes / Dan Stanton : Innovative Angler Nails Lobster With Wife’s Panty Hose

Methods of catching fish excite curiosity.

Ron McNab of Long Beach likes to experiment with his gear.

With the lobster in season he found a new way to attract them. McNab asked his wife for discarded panty hose. Somewhat shocked, she asked him, “What for?” He went into detail. She gave them to him.

McNab pushed off in his Zodica skiff.

Three miles off Point Fermin, he inserted his bait-cut mackerel and chicken livers into the hose with an 8-ounce sinker, then lashed the top of the hose closed with 80-pound line.

Sending it to the bottom with his small outboard shut off, he pulled in the line as he approached shore, but no lobster had taken the bait.

He returned to the same area where he had started his first drift, this time leaving more line out as there was very little current.

A few yards off shore he achieved what no one could have imagined. Attached to the makeshift lure was a 4-pound spiny lobster.

The experimental trap was ripped up and he said his next try will be with an extra pair of panty hose inserted in another for more strength.

Asked where he got his idea, he replied that a friend was diving last year and grabbed one that had a small cloth clinging to it.

McNab said he has been successful with many different techniques and each is a challenge.