HANCOCK – Herb Hodgkins’ lobster bait don’t stink – no kiddin’.

That’s because some of his lobster traps are baited with soybean meal mixed with secret ingredients – not the smelly, oily herring that most Maine fishermen use.

On Sullivan Bay, Hodgkins and a marine scientist are comparing soy-based bait to herring in the perpetual search for a better lobster bait.

For more than a year, they have tested about 30 formulas containing a dozen or so different ingredients, including fish extracts, vegetable oils, soy sauce, cod liver oil and even avocados.

“Maybe we’ll try Tabasco sauce tomorrow,” Hodgkins said.

Maine lobstermen last year caught nearly 50 million pounds of lobsters worth more than $150 million. With the possible exception of the trap, nothing is more important than bait in catching all those animals.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez Souza, a marine biologist, is heading the study of soy-based bait. His work is being done through The Lobster Institute, a research program at the University of Maine, and is funded this summer by a grant from Kikkoman food products company.

Souza and Hodgkins, a retired lobster dealer and lobster-pound operator, go out every three or four days and pull 24 traps – 12 baited with herring, 12 with the soy mixture – and compare the catches.

The study last season ended on a promising note: The catch rate with one formula was significantly better than with herring.

The ingredient in that bait, however, was supplied by a company that no longer participates in the study. So Souza and Hodgkins are trying to replicate that ingredient.

Tests resumed this past spring, but on a foggy day late in May the results were disappointing.

On this day, Souza and Hodgkins found 428 crabs and four lobsters in the 12 traps with herring. The dozen soy-baited traps caught only 129 crabs and no lobsters.

The lobsters are molting – and therefore not crawling into the traps – but the crabs showed that the soy mixture simply wasn’t working well.

Souza and Hodgkins were clearly disappointed with the results, but they’ll be back in a few days with a different formula.

Finding an alternative lobster bait is important because herring supplies sometimes run short, and prices can fluctuate dramatically. Herring’s shelf life is also short, and traps must be rebaited every two or three days.

A soy bait, in contrast, could have a shelf life of months, with no supply problems. Souza also hopes soy-based baits will last 10 days or more in traps.

Souza says lobstermen globally are always searching for a better bait.

Fishermen in Australia import herring from Europe for their bait, he said, while Japanese lobstermen use costly squid. And it isn’t just lobster – Souza plans to test the soy bait in snow-crab traps off Newfoundland later this summer.

“All over the world they need new kinds of baits,” Souza said.

Lobstermen have searched for better baits for as long as they’ve caught lobsters. But it’s not easy figuring out what appeals to the lobster – a prehistoric-like crustacean that smells food through the hairs on its legs and body, and whose teeth are located in its belly.

Lobstermen have been known to put glowing lights, chicken parts, used automobile oil filters and even loud-ticking watches in their traps. Hodgkins a few years ago experimented with ground-up crab, lobster and shrimp shells processed into pellet form.

In lab tests, scientists have experimented with chocolate, cheese and anise flavorings to see what flavors lobsters like.

A New York company markets a lobster bait called SeaLure that is made of cowhide treated in fish oil.

Souza and Hodgkins are confident the soy-based bait might be effective enough to be turned into a commercial product.

Last summer’s results were encouraging, as are some reports from a handful of lobstermen who have been testing the bait. Souza will continue tweaking the formula in search of the perfect mixture.

“It’s a challenge,” he said. “It’s kind of like detective work.”