Andy Rubin and Chuck van Buskirk show off their lobster haul during a mini-season. Divers are scouting possible lobster hangouts ahead of the July 29-30 mini-season this year. Photo provided
By Steve Waters
Lobster mini-season will be here before you know it, so now is the time to get ready for South Florida’s unofficial summer holiday.
The two-day lobster sport season, as it is officially known, is the last Wednesday and Thursday in July, which this year is July 29-30.
The mini-season is popular because it is the first chance to catch lobsters since the recreational and commercial lobster seasons closed on April 1, and the crustaceans are not as wary as they typically are when being constantly harassed by divers.
The other main attraction is that divers outside of the Florida Keys are allowed to catch 12 lobsters a day, which is twice the bag limit during the regular season, which starts Aug. 6.
As inviting as that is, too many scuba divers wait until the last minute to check out their equipment, which may not have been used since last year’s mini-season. The sooner you make sure your dive gear is ready for mini-season, the better.
If your equipment has issues — whether it’s a rotted gasket in a regulator or an air tank that needs to be visually inspected to make sure it’s safe — it can be next to impossible to find a dive shop a few days before mini-season that can do the work in time for you to hunt lobsters.
Those who plan to go out for mini-season on a charter dive boat can make their reservations now. The advantages of going with a charter boat include being dropped in the water where lobsters are known to hang out and knowing that the charter operators will check that their gear is ready.
“Usually we’re pretty on them before they get on the boat. Most of your charter boats are,” said Jeff Torode, of South Florida Diving Headquarters in Pompano Beach, which offers dive trips off Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach. “We make sure they have all their dive equipment, all their lobster equipment and all their licenses. We’re going to make sure that they have what they’re supposed to have.”
In addition to readying your dive gear, it’s a good idea to make sure that you are in shape for mini-season. If you haven’t been diving for several months, get back in the water before mini-season. If you haven’t dived since last mini-season, or longer, you might want to take a refresher class.
“We’ll put you in the pool and take you out for a dive trip and get your skills back up to where they should be,” Torode said.
Spending time in the water before mini-season also gives you an idea of where lobsters are located.
Since the regular lobster season closed, some divers have been spearfishing for grouper and hogfish and keeping an eye out not only for lobsters, but places where lobsters might be next month.
If they see several lobsters hanging out in a coral reef or clustered under a ledge, the divers will pull down on their dive flags so their boat driver knows to mark the spot by hitting the man overboard button on the chart plotter.
Sometimes divers will see a hole with no lobsters, but lots of marine life, which could be a place that lobsters will move into when the mini-season begins at 12:01 a.m. on July 29.
If you see lionfish by a reef, mark that spot because lionfish love the same habitat as lobsters. And if you see a lobster before the mini-season, be prepared to shoot a lionfish with your speargun or pole spear.
Be advised that some spots that have lots of lobsters now might have only a few when mini-season begins. But sometimes lobsters will hang out in the same place for weeks.
A dive buddy once found a spot loaded with lobsters two months before mini-season. He checked it on a regular basis, and it remained loaded. On the first day of mini-season, he and his crew all got their 12-lobster limits from that one spot.
Outdoors writer Steve Waters can be reached at steve33324@aol.com.
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