First lobster attempt tomorrow.

[AfterDark]

I've never caught a lobster here in RI any way but by hand. I use chicken thighs 3 days in the sun to lure them out of their hole. Bug grabs chicken, AD grabs bug, AD puts bug in bag tail 1st. Bug has chicken, AD grabs a claw, bug lets go of chicken to pinch AD's fingers holding his claw. AD grabs attacking clawing causing bug to let go of chicken with the second claw. AD now has the chicken, AD lets go of the claw and bug swims to bottom of bag. Got ya! Repeat 7 more times. This is at night.

 

[DBPacific]

I've caught all my lobsters in ME by hand. My buddy picked up one that was over the maximum legal size (a 15cm carapace female). Best luck I've had was 15 lobsters in a 40 minute dive. Sadly we're doing research and we aren't allowed to dive to catch lobster to eat.

 

[AfterDark]

I've caught all my lobsters in ME by hand. My buddy picked up one that was over the maximum legal size (a 15cm carapace female). Best luck I've had was 15 lobsters in a 40 minute dive. Sadly we're doing research and we aren't allowed to dive to catch lobster to eat.

Isn't taking lobster while diving in ME illegal? Aside from research and such.

 

[DBPacific]

Isn't taking lobster while diving in ME illegal? Aside from research and such.

Yeah, it is. I'm doing research

Edit: Doing research doesn't exempt me from getting pinched

 

[wgw04024]

Out of curiosity how hard do they pinch? I believe florida lobsters don't have claws right? Judging by how many I've seen in Key Largo, it's got to be slim pickings....

 

[Bubblesong]

I picked up the first lobster i ever saw by waving one hand in front of its face and reaching behind it to pick it up. I saw a Maine lobster tonight, within yards of the beach.

 

[AfterDark]

I picked up the first lobster i ever saw by waving one hand in front of its face and reaching behind it to pick it up. I saw a Maine lobster tonight, within yards of the beach.

That sparked a memory. I read back in colonially days people used to walk along the beaches at night with lanterns and pick up lobsters in the shallow water.
They fed them to their livestock.

 

[Bubblesong]

And I read they were so abundant they were too often fed to prisoners and poor, (without butter no doubt) which was considered cruel.

 

[AfterDark]

Out of curiosity how hard do they pinch? I believe florida lobsters don't have claws right? Judging by how many I've seen in Key Largo, it's got to be slim pickings....

A one pound lobster will hurt a little a 5 pounder would crush a finger.

 

[Ana]

Where to begin... I've been hunting my entire life. I can line up on the biggest deer you ever seen and drop it with a single shot from 700 yards. I can pop an elk at 50 yards. Never break a sweat. Coyote at full sprint, quartering away at a 1/4 mile? Dead dog. I have a 10 foot gator on on my wall, took him live with a fishing pole. And scuba is just relaxing to me.

So you can take it to the bank when I say that when I go after a lobster... I'm sucking air like im finishing a 5 mile sprint...

Anyway dive 1, poor viz, mild current, peek under a rock and found a good sized lobster. I tried stick and net. It's having nothing to do with it. Total fail. But I can work it around with the stick and im a borderline ninja so I gave up the net and just grabbed it. It was big, angry, and carrying eggs. So I catch my first lobster, but I'm guessing I can't count it.

A few minutes later the dm catches my eye, pointing under a rock, time for round 2. Back to the stick and the net, fail again. I'm excited, lacking patience, and give up the net sooner than last time. A little stick work and #2 in my hand. It's just as big and just as eggy.

Seriously I thought net was easy and hands hard...

A little while later, we're low on air and up we go. Everyone on the boat was skunked, 0 attempted, female or smalls.

Dive 2, stormy, even worse viz, heavy current. We dive, find our first 2 asap, I don't even bother with net. But both feel too small so released. Im working too hard, breathing way too hard. I think the viz, being in a tight canyon, and exertion is starting to trigger some claustrophobia tbh. I signal up and we ascend to 30 for a couple minutes, I catch my breath and down we go again, but we get blown off the reef. The current is not being nice and it's just work. Before toon long there's not enough air to get where we need to be and actually go after something if we found it. Viz is too poor to sightsee, so I called the dive.

Several people caught that trip, but barely legal, 2 or 3 at best.

So dive 1 was good, caught every lobster I saw by hand. Dive 2 wasnt good. Im not sure how to score since I brought home 0 bugs, but caught some the hard way

Don't be discouraged. You've hunted on land with great success but were you successful from day one?
As others have mentioned it takes some practice. On the next day or so you'll read from people that landed 48-72 and more in their boat, some of them will be lamenting the limit was "only" 12 per person, that's not the norm. I can't wait to read from @Johnoly .
Now excluding the Keys (because that's a world on its own) most people in South Florida that aren't commercial fishermen or the ones that find a way to tip the scales to their favor with different shenanigans, probably got some lobsters but not necessarily a full bag. It doesn't mean they failed, only means they didn't get 12 each day.
I went out both days. First day with my husband and another 2 divers, second day just my husband and I. Ignoring the lobster numbers we had a blast, the seas were flat and pretty blue, the afternoon storms were gorgeous and perfect for cocktails on the deck after the dives, before transiting home, that made it a success, we weren't working or being a couch potato, we were diving during mini-season.

Lobster numbers? nowhere close to the limit, however I had enough to hold me over until the regular season starts. Just counting the lobsters I got both days.. a total of 6. For some of those I was solo, and took my sweet time to secure the flag with a reef hook first and then a minute or so talking to the lobster, when you tell the lobster what's about to happen helps you to fully calm down if you got excited, and confuses the lobster big time, I loved every second of it.

I also learned something that will have to figure how apply on the future, not just for lobstering but for diving or swimming from our boat in general ... material for another post when I figure out how to implement it.

You went out, dove, got some lobster, and came back up hopefully happy.. doesn't matter the rest of the details

By the way you didn't mention location and if you dive that area often.