It’s July and divers all over Florida are gearing up for Spiny Lobster Sport Season – always the last consecutive Wednesday & Thursday of the month, (July 26 – 27, 2017), and nowhere is it better than right here in SE FL!
Only the Keys, (Monroe County), rivals SE FL for quantity of lobsters, but during the 2-day sport season, the Keys limit is only 6 bugs per/diver – per/day, and you can’t night dive. In SE FL your limit is 12 per/diver – per/day, and night diving is not only legal, it’s fantastic for bugging!! Lobster are nocturnal and crawl by night and hide during the day. I’ve caught spiny lobster in waist deep water just off our beaches, on our close to shore 1st reef line, and beyond the 3rd reef line out past 200 foot depths.
You can catch lobster the hard way – by hand, the inefficient way – with tickle sticks and nets, and the best way – with lobster snares. Note the tip of my green snare looper around the bug in my right hand. Somebody lost this lobster after breaking off the antennae! Unlike t-sticks & nets, snares are one-piece, steam-lined, easy to swim with, and catch & secure lobsters of all sizes, without busting off all their appendages, which stunts growth. You can snag bug after bug from one hole without them kicking up a silt screen. Wear tough gloves and run your hand immediately down the snare and grab the lobster by the carapace. It’s super easy to measure a snared lobster, and release it “intact” if it’s short. BTW, bust just the tip off the left antenna of a short lobster, so you’ll know it’s not the right one to catch again in a crowd! (Thanks to Chiefy for that last one!)
Big spiny lobsters, up to about 14-pounds, are slow but they make up for lack of speed with power. Use both hands to secure them, and give them something to wrap their legs around, like a gauge console or stringer, so they’ll stop kicking their tail and driving their horns into your hand. Small spiny lobsters are real fast, but no other lobster is as fast as a spotted lobster. Spotted Lobster & Slipper Lobster, (aka Spanish or Shovelnose Lobster), are unregulated species with no season or limit, other than being prohibited to harvest egg-bearing females.
Lobsters are so numerous in SE FL that many spearfishermen carry snares too. It’s a lot to handle but often lobstering attracts fish to spear, especially mutton snappers and sometimes large groupers.
Regular Spiny Lobster Season opens Aug. 6 and runs all the way through Mar. 31st, 2018.
You’ll find all the Florida regulations for lobsters right here: www.myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/lobster/
Happy lobstering and dive carefully!
Capt. Chad Carney
(727) 423-7775
www.floridaskindiver.com
email: chad.carney@yahoo.com