Florida Lobster Mini-Season Questions & Advise

[uncfnp]

I've googled but can't find an answer.... can someone explain why/how there came to be a mini season? Regular season starts in a week, right?

Confused...

There are two Florida Lobster Seasons, the 2 day mini season and the 8 month regular lobster season. The mini lobster season is always the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday in July.


The regular 8 month lobster season is always August 6 through March 31. If you plan on coming for the regular season you will need a Florida saltwater fishing license plus a lobster permit. You can get both easily online and I believe the fishing license can be 3 or 7 day, or 1 year. The lobster permit is for one year.

 

[MrChen]

When it comes to regular season, how easy is it to find a charter that's going out with lobster hunting as the main goal? During mini season, it was easy since it was being advertised as a lobster dive, but I'm not seeing the same for regular season.

 

[uncfnp]

When it comes to regular season, how easy is it to find a charter that's going out with lobster hunting as the main goal? During mini season, it was easy since it was being advertised as a lobster dive, but I'm not seeing the same for regular season.

MrChen,

Some of the boats out of WPB take a variety of divers out everyday. You don't need a charter specific for lobster. For example, Narcosis often has reef divers, spear fishermen and during lobster season, lobster hunters on the same trip. Many of the reef divers will also watch for lobsters while enjoying the reef dive.Capt Van will do his best to accommodate everyone's needs and will make several drops if needed.

 

[mselenaous]

When it comes to regular season, how easy is it to find a charter that's going out with lobster hunting as the main goal? During mini season, it was easy since it was being advertised as a lobster dive, but I'm not seeing the same for regular season.

In your neighborhood,
Emerald Charters in Jupiter trips always has hunters aboard as does Hypnotical Dive Charters in WPB. Then there are others that much of the time have hunters but occasionally might have a non-hunting group aboard:
Underwater Explorers - Boynton Beach
Ocean Quest (Sandy's Sunday) - WPB
Abernathy's - WPB
Little Deeper - WPB

Simple, Just call them and ask them if there will be other hunters aboard that day.
Walkers - WPB


It's alot different in the Keys as most of the dive trips go to dive sites in the SPAs - special preservation areas where there is absolutely no hunting/no take of any kind allowed.
Many boats here are zero hunting, some allow hunting only on certain trips going to non-SPA areas. You just need to ask at the time you are booking your trip.

 

[uncfnp]

Anytime I've flown with frozen fish. I freeze them in water, and just before I leave, I stick wrap the package up in extra plastic bags, then something that insulates, like Tshirts or neoprene, and stuff in the center of the suitcase. I've done a 6-8 hr jouney that way and they arrive frozen. Course the last time I did that was going up north at Christmas time.

*****
Oh, one year, I froze the tails in a Quarterdeck (or Big Daddy's) sized plastic water cup. I'd rather the water melt than the tails thaw..

Thanks for that tip. I froze them in pastic Solo cups, put them in the cooler with more ice and they made the 12 hour trip home flawlessly.

We thawed and ate the first one last night and it was delicious.