Late
Season Lobster Hunting TipsHey, do have to shout it? IT'S STILL LOBSTER SEASON! (At least until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, March 22, 2000). The way the calendar falls this year, lobster season is especially long, extending well into March. And what a lot of divers don't know is that late season lobster hunting can be excellent. Here are a few tips for getting your limit before the close of the season.
THE BUGS ARE DEEP
Although you'll find them at all depths, late season lobster tend to be more often found in deeper waters. Early in the season the seas are calm and they are just finishing their spawning cycle when they head to high spots in the reef. In March, winter storms will have made living in the shallows uncomfortable for the lobster, so many of them head for deeper water.
LOBSTERS MOVE AROUND
Not only do they move from shallow to deep, but from location to location. It's a rare sight, but lucky divers have witnessed many lobsters moving across vast expanses of sand. The move usually take place after the first hard storm of the winter. You really can't plan on being in the right place at the right time, but knowledge that the movement occurs tells you that a reef that is barren one week, may be crawling the next. Don't give up on a reef. Remember, the most successful lobster hunters are those who dive a lot and cover a lot of bottom.
REVISIT OLD FAVORITE SITES
There are certain dive sites that always seem to have lobster. Excellent habitat and a ready food supply keeps the population high. Breakwaters are a good example.
These sites often have easy access and are hammered hard in the first few weeks of the season. Even so, there always seems to be lobster present - the problem is they're all under legal size. But by late season these dive spots have not been visited in months. Those lobsters that were just under legal size have continued to grow and are now legal. You may not make a killing of a huge lobster at these spots in March, but they always seem to be good for a bug or two.
YOUR COMPETITION HAS PULLED OUT
Although their season ends the same time as ours, commercial lobster fishermen often pull their traps long before March. They make the bulk of their catch early in the season. With winter storms and a diminishing catch, many just pull up stakes and quit mid-season. Dive sites that were once littered with traps are now free. Very late in the season, in the last few days, lobster often have returned to the really good holes that the commercial trappers cleaned out months before.
THEY WANT TO GET WARM
Lobsters tend to be more warm-water creatures. That is why it's rare to find them north of Point Conception. They get cold in chilly winter waters. Although in the natural world there are not many places they can run to for warmth, man's intrusion into the sea has created isolated warm spots to which lobsters sometimes gravitate. Warm-water outfalls from power plants can be very dangerous places to dive and should be avoided by all divers. Other spots, however, raise temperatures by just a degree or two, but it's enough to make the lobster happy. Harbors are just such a location.
It's illegal to dive in most harbors, but on the outside of the breakwaters, it is not. Sewage outfall pipelines dump treated waters far offshore in deep water, not affecting diving near shore. But the pipelines radiate a very low degree of heat. In addition, they are often covered with rocks for protection near shore, creating an artificial reef habitat. Examples of locations such as these can be found off Point Loma (San Diego), Aliso Beach (Laguna Beach), and Goleta Beach (near Santa Barbara).
So don't hang up your lobster gauge just yet. There are still a lot of bugs out there for the grabbin', and March is one of the best times to go hunting.
