What are you doing for MINI SEASON ?

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I usually enjoy mini-season - I don't think that I've ever had a boat closer than a mile away. A couple of times, the Boca Police diving unit was conducting training on the same deep reefs. Catching lobsters is perfect training for underwater evidence recovery, and hauling a bag full of them into the boat is just like body recovery. Eating the lobsters in this scenario does have some zombie-like implications, especially after the human face buffet incident down on MacArthur Causeway.
I always want to go out at midnight, but for one reason or another, that has never happened.
Last mini-season, I got a lousy drop in 18' of boring sand. By the time I got out, I didn't feel like diving again and that was my mini-season. Two more times I went out, I had engine troubles that were easy to fix but required going back home to do them.
Over the last few months, I realized that the system we used of 1 or two up and 1 or two down also didn't work. Waiting for divers seemed too much like what I did for a living for so many years, except now I don't get paid. Plus, ah, the company wasn't always so great.
It's pretty damn near like work anyway with the morning boat prep and gear load plus the refueling the night before. Now I'm just going to hire people to drive me out, drop me once or twice, and then I'll drop the captain off at the dock. All he's gonna do is drive - no washing, maintenance - 3, maybe 3.5 hours total. That's worth $40 to me.
 
I will be avoiding the water while it gets invaded by amateurs, and weeping over impending doom that others refer to as lobster season. No more diving with my buddies to see critters and take photos on occasion. Every dive will become an all out lobster search and recovery mission - I can either choose to follow...stop...wait...follow...stop...wait... while they're trying to bag the bugs, or dive solo. Sigh. I have come to cherish April - July.

Couldn't agree more! Mini Season is amature time for diving. I avoid the water like my ex-wife for the harvest. It's like going out drinking on New Years Eve. That's when all the amatures hit the bars. Us professionals know when to avoid them. :wink:
 
Couldn't agree more! Mini Season is amature time for diving. I avoid the water like my ex-wife for the harvest. It's like going out drinking on New Years Eve. That's when all the amatures hit the bars. Us professionals know when to avoid them. :wink:
Im a amature just a average diver with no illusions of grandeur im just looking for a few fun dives of the beach and a couple of bugs. I thought mini was a chance for you professionals to make extra money which seems like a win win for all of us
 
Im a amature just a average diver with no illusions of grandeur im just looking for a few fun dives of the beach and a couple of bugs. I thought mini was a chance for you professionals to make extra money which seems like a win win for all of us

While I have worked as a DM for a few years (32) I have never depended on it to live. This has kept me a happy diver. I used to be an avid hunter, and lobster diver. One day I picked up a camera, and that was that. Too hard to hunt, and tote a big housed dslr around. I tried it once.

I have nothing against mimi season. Most of teh people I dive with still hunt. Unfortunately, the problems we see for mini season are those divers/boaters that don't dive or boat any other time of teh year. That is just an accident waiting to happen. For the past couple of years we have made a sport of mini season. e get subs and sit on teh beach at LBTS, and watch teh fun.
 
Awsome Ill be on the same beach (when not diving) you bring the subs ill bring the beer
 
In all serious to those that may be reading this and not really sure what it is all about....

Mini-Season can be exceedingly dangerous.
The problem is not necessarily you....but everyone around you.
There are too many yahoos that ONLY dive for these two days all year.
Poorly maintained boats.
Poorly maintained gear.
Drunks who really do not know how to use the borrowed boat, or are running the poorly maintained boat for the owner who is diving their poorly maintained gear below.

It really can be CRAZY.

I can make the following analogy:
There are only two sports that start the season with the "Super Bowl" as it were.
NASCAR at the Daytona 500 and the Florida Sportsman's Lobster Mini-Season.

You will see the following at these events after a long rusty layoff....
Drunks, poor planning, recklessness, fights, emotion, bad judgement, and general stupidity.
There will be PLENTY of bugs left at the beginning of August.
Actually, my best months are typically October through February.

Chug
Let's be careful out there....
 
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