You can't haul your own lobster from the Maine coast—it's illegal without a license. Plus the locals might boil you. A better way to get your dinner? Ride shotgun with a spinning rod in hand, catching mackerel and helping your ship captain pull in the traps. Your port: Rockland, a postcardy fishing town at the mouth of Penobscot Bay. Book passage aboard the Captain Jack, a 30-foot boat sailing out of Rockland Harbor. Veteran seaman Steve Hale, sporting the requisite lobster biceps tattoo, hauls in crustaceans ($25; captainjacklobstertours.com). Dinner, of course, is the day's harvest, boiled yourself (rent a lobster cooker from Coastal Fuel, a stone's throw from the pier; 140 Park Street). To add more action to the trip, opt for a Maine sleigh ride: Seaspray Kayaking, based out of West Bath, an hour south, offers sea-kayak fishing trips in the midcoast region, where striped bass run in the summer (from $115; seaspraykayaking.com).